If you are a mid career professional looking to transition into work in climate and sustainability, the prospect of change can be daunting. Your status quo is called a ”comfort zone” for a reason and stepping out of that, well…. clue is in the name right?

Whilst there is plenty of practical advice around HOW to find and apply for jobs, what I see, working with people going through this, is the poor support they have and the emotional burden they carry in isolation.

Most often current colleagues just don’t understand your motivation for change, after all, they are entrenched in their current work and probably defensive about it.

Your circle of friends are just as likely to be fixed in both their working patterns and point of view.

This can leave you feeling isolated and easily overwhelmed when you should feel excited and enthusiastic to be FINALLY doing something for YOU.

🫶Time to build your Support Team!

By surrounding yourself by people who are positive about your transition, who can help from a place of expertise or fresh perspective not only increases your chances of a successful transition increase, but you’ll be happier on the journey too.

The trick is to make this support team development a conscious activity, to be spreadsheeted / project managed / actively engaged with, just like your job search and application tracking.

A few tips? Sure:

Try to find and fill the following roles amongst NEW people you seek and meet:

🐝Hive Mind - start with an online community (suggestions in comments below) and use this for inspiration but also for asking for help. Don’t just lurk, start with an introductory post.

👑Mentor - Google for “how to approach a mentor” and then find someone who is at least a few years into the sector you are looking to get into. Then. Just. Ask.

👫Social Proof - In person network events are great for finding like minded individuals on the journey. Connect with them and they will keep you motivated to keep on keeping on. (Scared of networking events? You just need one question ready to go, people love talking about themselves so don’t worry about crafting a perfect personal elevator pitch if this isn’t your bag)

🏅Coach - structure accountability and structure. If you are serious about making your transition a reality ask someone to hold you accountable, or consider paying for professional help to borrow proven structures that help.

One of the beautiful things about working in this space is that people genuinely want to help. Unlike ‘some’ corporate environments there is no empire building, no protection of knowledge or insecurity of skills. Bluntly the “trample the weak, hurdle the dead” approach which is rife in the ‘up or out’ corporate world is less prevalent here.

Ultimately this means that when you ask for help, you are far more likely to get it. So get out there, make some new friends, after all its more fun when you get to celebrate as a group.