Beyond “Who Will Hire Me?”: Inviting Narrative Agency into Career Transition

Co-Authored by Dr. Sarah Trocchio and Damon Maassen, CPTD
September 16, 2025

When careers are disrupted, it’s easy to feel like you’re caught in a holding pattern waiting for opportunity, validation, or rescue. That question, “Who will hire me?” often eclipses a more powerful one: “What do I want to create, build, or pursue?” In our shared journey this year, we’ve realized that real transition isn’t found in reactive survival. It’s discovered through active authorship of our own professional narrative.
As values-driven professionals, we’ve felt the limitations of conventional job-search advice: keywords, applications, “personal brands” optimized for algorithmic screens. It works, yes sometimes. But too often these steps can keep us busy while bypassing the deeper work: defining what matters, aligning moves with purpose, speaking through complexity, and stepping into career agency that honors our values and identity.

This article is our invitation to reclaim narrative ownership, not in a toxic-positivity, hustle-culture way, but as an act of self-affirmation and strategic clarity. We want to reflect on what that shift has looked like for us, why traditional job advice often falls short, and how to navigate transitions with greater intentionality. A separate resource will offer tools and coaching prompts to support this journey.

From Being Defined to Defining What’s Next

Periods of career transition often start with the question: What now? But just beneath that question lies another: Who am I if I’m not what I just lost? The urge to immediately jump into application mode can feel both comforting and disorienting. We check job boards like social media feeds, refresh LinkedIn alerts, and anxiously anticipate responses that never come.

It’s a deeply human response to seek external confirmation, especially in systems that often reduce people to their output. Yet what we’ve learned, both through our own transitions and our work with clients, is that this waiting space is not wasted time. It can become a generative pause if we allow ourselves to ask better, more expansive questions.

Narrative identity theory, which explores how we make meaning of our lives through story, reminds us that the stories we tell about our careers are often shaped by dominant cultural scripts: upward mobility, linear success, constant progress. But when these scripts break down through layoffs, burnout, or values misalignment, there’s an opportunity to write a new one. One rooted in clarity, agency, and authenticity (McAdams, 1993).

Career adaptability research supports this reframing. People who approach change with curiosity, future-mindedness, and a proactive mindset are more likely to fi nd alignment between their goals and opportunities, even when external conditions remain unpredictable (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012).

Narrative ownership doesn’t mean having all the answers. It means trusting yourself enough to write the next page anyway.

Why Standard Job Search Advice Falls Short for Values-Driven Professionals

There’s a reason the “spray and pray” application method leaves so many job seekers feeling depleted. Most job-search guidance is structured for efficiency and algorithmic matching, not for emotional or identity-based alignment. Resume templates, LinkedIn optimization tips, and AI-enhanced cover letter tools can help in the short term, but they often treat career change as a transaction rather than an empowering transformation.

For professionals whose work is closely tied to identity, purpose, and impact like educators, nonprofit leaders, public service workers, DEI practitioners, creatives, and caregivers this disconnect can feel especially pronounced. These are the folks who ask, “Is this job going to make a difference?” or “Will I still feel like myself if I take this role?”

And yet, traditional advice rarely addresses these deeper concerns. It often minimizes the emotional complexity of transition, skips over systemic factors like bias and inequity, and pressures folks to show up as “the ideal candidate,” even when that means sidelining parts of their truth.

Values-aligned career decision-making, a concept supported by both psychology and career counseling research, shows that when people make professional choices rooted in their core values, they are more engaged, more motivated, and more likely to fi nd meaning in their work. (Hall et al., 2018).

So if traditional frameworks don’t serve the whole person, maybe it’s time to create new ones.

The Power of Reclaiming Agency (Even in Uncertain Times)

Reclaiming agency doesn’t require a five-year plan or a perfectly branded website. It starts with one choice: to stop outsourcing your worth to systems that didn’t see your full humanity to begin with.

Agency in this moment might look like turning down a “safe” role that doesn’t align with your values. Or naming aloud the things that matter most to you, even if they weren’t part of your last job description. It might mean redefining success from climbing ladders to building bridges.

It can also look like reengaging with curiosity: reaching out to someone you admire for a values-based conversation, exploring a part-time consulting gig to test a new direction, or finally launching that workshop or group offering you’ve been quietly dreaming about.

And most of all, it looks like refusing to collapse your identity into your job title. You are still whole. Still worthy.

Of course, reclaiming your narrative doesn’t mean ignoring real-world constraints. Many professionals, especially those navigating job loss, face immense pressure to make ends meet. Bridge roles, part-time projects, and consulting work may not reflect your ultimate career goal, but they can offer needed stability while you reconnect with what matters most. Agency isn’t about waiting for ideal conditions; it’s about making the best next decision with the resources, energy, and needs you’re managing right now.

As we’ll explore in the companion reflection guide that will be shared later this week, it’s in these small, intentional actions anchored in values and story that career agency is rebuilt.

Closing Reflection

Career transition can feel like drifting in open water, cut off from old anchors but still uncertain of the next shore. It’s tempting to tread water, to wait for someone to toss a line. But the truth is: we are not powerless here. With curiosity, honesty, and care, we can begin steering our own direction, even if the path forward is unclear.
Reclaiming narrative agency isn’t about having the perfect plan. It’s about listening closely to what your lived experience is telling you, honoring the shifts you’re undergoing, and moving from survival toward intention. We reclaim agency not all at once, but through small, consistent choices — quiet moments of alignment that add up to something powerful.

In the accompanying reflection guide, we invite you to pause, reconnect with what matters most, and reframe your career story with compassion and clarity. You’re not starting over. You’re starting from — from everything you’ve learned, endured, and envisioned.

This article was co-authored by Dr. Sarah Trocchio and Damon Maassen, two equity-centered professionals with lived experience navigating career transition. Together, they bring decades of expertise in inclusive leadership, coaching, and human-centered talent development. This series reflects their shared commitment to helping individuals reclaim narrative ownership, challenge systemic norms, and move through transition with clarity, care, and compassion.