Many times in my career, I found myself at a crossroads. Over my 37 years working for the Federal Government, I changed jobs and work roles numerous times, often successfully and sometimes not.

I had the opportunity to work overseas and in major military bases. I pursued opportunities to integrate into partner Government organizations and learn their business processes and workplace culture. At times, I also managed organizations of over 300 civilians, military members, and contractors and was responsible for the execution of a nine-figure annual budget.

But after one too many 10+ hour days of non-stop meetings admiring but not solving problems, I was fed up and burned out. I knew that I needed to make a change and stop working and living totally out of sync with my values. So I resigned as a Mid-Level Manager and joined my Agency’s Directorate Staff as a Hiring Lead for Mission Critical technical jobs.

From that moment on, for the last five years of my career, I made an intentional decision and commitment to become a Career Change Expert, a role and position that did not formally exist at my agency.

In this capacity, I simultaneously led a summer internship program for undergraduate and graduate college students, a mid-career development program for technical experts looking to become technical leaders, and a series of mid-career focus groups while interviewing over 100 people a year for technical job opportunities.

I also mentored several individuals to help them present themselves better during our Agency’s promotion process, and the people I counseled were promoted at a rate three times greater than the average Agency promotion rate.

I saw many commonalities that people at these major transition points in their professional lives experience, the challenges they faced, and the practices and approaches that increase the likelihood of success.