You Know You Need a Career Move. Now What?

CAREER DEVELOPMENT

By Cristin Sturchio | September 2026

Today’s read: 5 minutes

Sometimes a career move begins with a clear event. A promotion goes to someone else. A reorganization changes the job. A new leader arrives, and the relationship isn’t working.

Other times, it starts as a feeling we can’t quite shake. We’re bored. Frustrated. Overextended. We’ve stopped learning. We get a case of the Sundays and tell ourselves maybe this week will be different, while quietly wondering how long we can last.

Once we admit that we need a change, we usually want to do something. We update the résumé, change a few lines on LinkedIn, and message someone we haven’t spoken with in three years and immediately feel awkward about it.

Activity can feel like relief. It can also send us in the wrong direction faster.

Why We Rush Into Action

Career uncertainty is uncomfortable.

We may know the current situation isn’t right and still have no idea what to replace it with. Taking action gives us a temporary sense of control. Every application, résumé edit, and saved job can make it feel as though we’re moving forward.

The problem is that action and progress aren’t the same thing.

Without enough clarity, we may apply for jobs that repeat the same patterns in a different company. We could chase a title that looks like progress and leads us farther from the work we enjoy. We might reject a good opportunity because we haven’t decided which tradeoffs we’re willing to make.

We don’t need all the answers before we begin; we do need a better starting point.

Start With You, Not Your Résumé

The résumé seems like the obvious place to begin because it’s a tangible output. We can edit it, polish it, and check it off the list. First, we need to understand the direction we’re headed so it can support that.

In Korn Ferry’s May 18, 2026 article, Not Too Hot, Not Too Cold, CEO Gary Burnison describes two common ways people approach a job search. Some go in hot, sending résumés and chasing opportunities before they have a plan. Others go in cold, with little preparation or research. His central point is that a thoughtful search starts with clarity, not activity, and I agree.

Before you go in search of the last version of your resume, spend some time and ask yourself:

• Why am I considering a move now?
• What do I want more of?
• What do I want less of?
• What needs to be different?

“I want a more strategic role” may be too broad to guide a search.

“I want to spend less time fixing preventable problems and more time helping leaders make decisions before those problems happen” gives you much more to focus on.

The answers don’t need to be polished. They need to be honest and specific.

Name the Problem You’re Trying to Solve

When we’re unhappy, everything can start to feel wrong at once. The role feels wrong. The company feels wrong. Maybe the entire industry feels wrong. Before we decide that everything needs to change, it helps to separate the parts, and this is where asking ourselves questions adds value.

A new job can change a great deal. It can also change things that weren’t problems in the first place, without solving the ones we actually have.

Sometimes we’re asking a career move to fix burnout that requires recovery. Or we’re blaming the industry for a poor manager. Maybe the company is fine, and the role has become too small. What if we’ve learned what we came to learn, and it’s just time to go? There isn’t always one clean answer. The point is to understand the problem well enough to focus our search.

Give Yourself the Space to Think

This is an investment in Future You, and it’s worth more than five rushed minutes on the morning commute, between meetings, or right after a frustrating conversation with a colleague.

Give yourself some space to think clearly about the questions above. Go for a walk. Sit in your favorite café. Go to a museum or a park. Bring a notebook and pay attention to what comes up. Take your time. Notice what you keep coming back to, what feels important, and what you may have been trying not to admit.

Then look at what you wrote. What do you want to understand better? Where would another perspective help? What could you research, explore, or talk through with someone you trust?

That’s your next step.