Career Advice for the In-Between

Most career advice is written for two seasons — the search and the role.

Almost nothing is written for the in-between. The season where you’re still in the role but quietly outgrowing it. The months between resigning and starting somewhere new. The stretch where you took the leap and you’re not yet where you’re going.

In 20+ years of watching senior careers, this in-between is where most of the actual transformation happens. And almost nobody is using it well.

Five things to do in the in-between, whatever yours looks like right now:

1. Stop performing momentum.
If you’re between things, you don’t owe anyone a story about how busy you are. The performance of momentum is what keeps people from doing the harder work of actually being still long enough to figure out what they want.

2. Write the year-from-now letter.
A letter from your future self, one year out, telling you what you did with this in-between. Specific. What you learned. What you chose. Who you became. Then start being that person now.

3. Read outside your industry.
The in-between is the only time you’ll have to read widely without immediate utility. Use it. The compound interest of having read three good books outside your field shows up in interviews two years from now.

4. Have one hard conversation you’ve been avoiding.
With a mentor. With a former colleague. With yourself. The in-between is the only time you have the space for the conversation that doesn’t fit in a normal week. Use it.

5. Don’t decide too quickly.
The pressure to fill the in-between with the next thing is enormous. Resist it for as long as your circumstances reasonably allow. The decisions you make from urgency rarely hold up. The decisions you make from clarity almost always do.

If you’re in an in-between season right now what’s one of these you’ve been avoiding?