Relearning Your Worth: The Unseen Work of Career Transition

When the titles go silent, who speaks for your truth?

There’s a strange violence in how our culture talks about work transitions.

The focus is always forward:

“What’s next?” “Where are you applying?” “Are you interviewing yet?”

Rarely do we ask:

What just ended?

What did that job demand of you emotionally, mentally, spiritually?

And who are you now that you’re no longer who they expected you to be?

When I left my federal role, I didn’t just exit a job.

I left a version of myself that was trained to survive in systems that required my excellence, but not my well-being.

A version that was praised for productivity, but not protected in burnout.

A version that knew how to lead others through crisis but rarely had space to process my own.

This essay isn’t just about career pivots.

It’s about unlearning the belief that your worth must be proven, protected, or performed to be real.