3 Key Reasons Mid-Career Transitions Fail

Many mid-career professionals who attempt a career change, fail. Here is why.

Photo by Miikka Luotio

As a career coach specialising in transitions, over the past years I have spoken with hundreds of mid-career professionals — those with 10–20 years of experience — who attempted a career change. While multiple factors are at play in a career transition, more often than not failure comes down to the 3 key reasons.

1. Making too big a leap

Shaking things up is a common craving at mid-career — and often it looks like attempting a function, industry and location change, all at the same time.

• A partner in a consulting firm looking to move to a different continent and secure a C-level role in the industry.
• An operations leader in insurance trying to break into product management in tech.
• A senior engineer wanting to transition into consulting while needing a working visa in a different country.

While you might know people who accomplished a particularly demanding career change with ease, this is not the majority. As a rule of thumb: the more complicated your desired change, the less likely it is to happen.

A more effective transition strategy is to break it…