The Invisible Years: When Career Change Takes Longer Than You Expected
We see the promotion.
We don't see the years.
We see the announcement of the new job, the qualification, the career change, the new business. We see the LinkedIn post that begins, “I'm delighted to share…”
What we don't see is everything that happened before it.
The uncertainty. The conversations. The things that didn't work out. The changes of mind. The periods when somebody wasn't quite sure what they wanted. The years when, from the outside at least, it may have looked as though very little was happening.
I think that's one of the difficulties with the way we see other people's careers.
We meet the story at the point where something becomes visible.
And if we're not careful, we can start comparing somebody else's visible moment with the part of our own story that nobody can see.
What happens before the career change?
Imagine someone who has been thinking about leaving their organisation for the last eighteen months. If you looked at their LinkedIn profile, nothing has changed.
Same organisation. Same job title. Same photograph. Perhaps the occasional post or comment. Nothing to see here.
Except an enormous amount may have changed. Eighteen months ago, they were convinced they needed a promotion. They'd worked hard, built their reputation and assumed that the next logical step was upwards. But they didn't get the role they wanted. So they started asking questions. At first, probably the obvious ones.
Why didn't I get it?
What do I need to do differently next time?
But gradually, some different questions appeared.
Did I actually want that job?
Do I want my manager's job?
If I keep progressing here, am I heading towards a working life I actually want?
Then maybe they have a conversation with somebody doing something completely different and find themselves thinking about it for days afterwards.
They explore a role and decide not to apply.
They apply for another and don't get an interview.
They have a week when they're absolutely certain they should leave, followed by another when staying seems perfectly sensible.
They start noticing how tired they are.
Or how bored.
Or that the parts of the work they once enjoyed aren't as enjoyable anymore.
And then maybe they begin to realise the problem isn't their career at all, but the environment they are in.
Or they realise the environment is fine. They've just changed.
From the outside, they are seem to be in exactly the same place.
But they're not.
And then, eighteen months later, something happens. They take a different role. Retrain. Reduce their hours. Start something of their own. Move sideways rather than upwards. Or make a change that would have made absolutely no sense to them eighteen months earlier.
And that's the bit everybody sees.
I'm delighted to share…
Suddenly the story looks obvious.
But it wasn't obvious while they were living it.
When it looks as though nothing is changing
I think many of us have periods like this when we're navigating career change. Times when we appear to be standing still but are actually working something out. Times when we seem to be standing still but are actually working something out. And these can be uncomfortable places to occupy, especially when we look around and everybody else seems to be moving.
It can feel as though we should know by now. That thinking for this long means we're procrastinating. That taking a wrong turn means we've wasted time. That changing our minds means we weren't clear enough in the first place.
And if that wasn't enough, sometimes there are other things going on too.
Not everyone's career journey happens on a level playing field
Not everyone's invisible years are invisible for the same reasons.
One person may be trying to work out what they want. Another may know exactly what they want but keep they keep meeting doors that seem to open much more readily for other people. Others may be navigating bias or discrimination. Some may have caring responsibilities, financial constraints or simply far less room to take risks. So this isn't an argument for waiting patiently and trusting that everything eventually works out.
Sometimes it doesn't.
And sometimes the most important thing we discover while we're trying to make something work is that it's time to stop trying to make it work.
The difference between waiting and staying engaged
That's why I've become interested in the difference between waiting and staying engaged.
Waiting says:
I'll stay here and hope something changes.
I don't know the answer yet, but I'm going to keep paying attention.
To what I'm learning.
To what I'm experiencing.
To what gives me energy and what takes it away.
To what I'm discovering about the environments in which I thrive.
To what I want now, rather than what I thought I was supposed to want.
And to when it might be time to do something differently.
And this I think is another way of thinking about commitment. Not as stubbornly sticking to a plan because we've already invested in it. But as remaining involved in the process of understanding ourselves and shaping what comes next.
Sometimes that will mean keeping going.
Other times it will mean changing direction.
And occasionally it will mean letting go of something we once thought we wanted.
None of those things necessarily look impressive while we're doing them.
There is no announcement.
No obvious milestone.
Nothing new to add to the profile.
Just the work of trying, noticing, learning, questioning and gradually understanding ourselves differently, which is much quieter.
The years nobody sees aren't the years nothing is happening.
Sometimes they're the years where everything that coming next is being shaped.
Listen to the full episode
In Episode 31 of Proactive Empowered Careers® Podcast, I explore Commitment, the eighth dimension of the Proactive Empowered Careers® Method, and what it means to stay engaged with your own development over time, through uncertainty, changing circumstances, setbacks and environments that don't always make growth easy.
🎧 You can listen to the episode below ⬇️
Continue exploring
You can also continue exploring the wider ideas around change, direction and staying engaged with our development here:
When Your Career Feels Out Of Your Control
Exploring how meaningful choice begins with understanding ourselves and recognising where we have agency in shaping what comes next.
When Work Takes Up Too Much Space in Your Head
What becomes possible when we distinguish between what we can control, what we can influence and what we may need to stop carrying.
When Your Life Hasn't Caught Up With Who You've Become
Exploring what happens when we have changed, but our work or wider life has not yet caught up.
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