19: How to Tell Your Career Pivot Story With Confidence

I met a man who had just left his dental practice after 30 years. He was already working on his next venture, but his identity hadn’t caught up yet. At a party, someone asked him what he did. He panicked and broke into a cold sweat because he had no answer prepared. His identity was still in limbo. So after an awkward pause, he blurted,

“I used to be a dentist!”

Without a corporate title, who are you? That question alone might hit a raw nerve. Your affiliation with a company or role gave you status and a convenient shorthand for the value of your existence.

“I’m a product manager.” “I run a marketing department.” Even if the person you’re talking to has no idea what that job might entail, it sounds fancy and important, and they can move on from there without asking you any questions.

Remove the title, and you have a blank space to fill.

So let’s name the fear and figure out what to say instead. By the end of this episode, you’ll know how to tell your career pivot story with confidence. No over-explaining required.

The Identity Crisis After Leaving Corporate

The “what do you do” question is tough on GenXers. You had a handy answer for several decades, but it now feels incomplete. And if you’re experiencing burnout or soul rot at work, saying what you do and for whom can feel like stabbing yourself in the gut.

You attend a networking event, introduce yourself, and then quickly backpedal and overexplain. “I run product for a pharmaceutical company but I really want to build sailboats, I’m not a bad person!”

You know what your title means to you: the weight it carries, the identity crisis it’s creating. So you assume it means the same thing to the stranger standing in front of you.

It seems urgent and necessary to round out your personality and distance yourself from the mission of the company you no longer love.

Meanwhile, you watch someone much younger shrug off their title with a “meh, it’s a job,” then go on to talk about streetwear or basketball.

The title that made you legible to the world is now in a language you don’t understand. It’s bringing up questions about your worthiness, and that is a dark path. We can interrupt it.

How to Answer “What Do You Do?” Without a Job Title

When someone asks what you do, hear as a bid for connection–a conversation starter.

Like every politician on the planet has learned, you can choose not to answer that exact question, but address its underlying motive: to engage in conversation.

So if someone asks you what you do, interpret that however you want. “I play a lot of video games.” “I spend my weekends at my daughter’s soccer tournaments.”

Now those are conversation starters. You aren’t spitting out some job title that no one understands.

And there’s another strategy: talk about what you’re into right now. Not what you do for money; what you’re actually spending time on.

“I’m way into genealogy research.”
“I’m learning how to make chocolate.”

These aren’t evasions; they’re invitations. If the person has even a shred of curiosity, the conversation continues from there. And if they don’t? You just saved yourself from a boring exchange.

Explaining Your Career Change: The Second Question

Once you get into your new thing, whether that’s making artisan chocolate or running a plant store or writing software to help get garbage out of oceans, you’ll be faced with the next question:

“How did you get from product management to chocolate?”

Avoid the temptation to over-explain. I’ve definitely done this: prefacing my story with, “ok this is going to seem random, but…” and then launching into a 10-minute monologue that makes people regret asking.

Your journey made sense to you. But going into every detail is how you lose people.

Here’s what saved me when I needed to explain my career pivot story: a simple framework called And, But, Therefore.

It’s a storytelling device that will let you off the hook and keep the tale brief so you can get back to your conversation.

You don’t have to convince anyone that your pivot is research-backed and can withstand scrutiny. You don’t need to provide every detail.

The “And, But, Therefore” (ABT) framework connects the dots without spinning a pitch. It creates continuity from your past to your future. And it helps people see the logic in your leap.

My Career Pivot Story Example

Here’s how mine goes.

I was in a consulting job where the work was interesting, AND I was bored, burned out from corporate life. I wanted more meaningful connections with people, so I made plans to leave.

BUT my last day coincided with the COVID-19 lockdown. I couldn’t form new relationships, and the break I planned to take flew out the window. So I took courses on grief.

I started coaching, got more training, and noticed who was asking me for help. THEREFORE, I now coach GenX professionals who want to leave the corporate world and start their own thing.

AND is where you were. BUT is what wasn’t working. THEREFORE is what you did about it.

More Career Change Story Examples

Here’s an example from a former client, Ben:

I worked as a sales manager and spent most of my time in dull meetings. I was creatively starved, AND I spent my free time writing stories to feel human. I thought I could hack it, BUT I suddenly got laid off. THEREFORE, I now do freelance contracting while I work on my second novel.

One more from Chris:

I was second in command at a small firm AND realized the CEO’s handover promise would never materialize. It was time to go. I took a long break to reconnect with friends and explored new careers, BUT my former co-workers and clients kept calling me for help. THEREFORE, I started my own company with colleagues who shared my values and approach.

Why Your Career Pivot Story Matters

The best stories aren’t linear. They have plot twists and take new directions that, in hindsight, make perfect sense.

Your career is the same. You couldn’t have started making chocolate if you didn’t have that false start in retail operations. And you wouldn’t have gotten into retail operations if you hadn’t reconnected with that guy you knew 15 years ago.

Even if your pivot represents years of inner turmoil, the ABT framework can help you craft a career pivot story that makes sense to you and to others. And once you see it, you can tell it with confidence. Not as a justification, but as a story that makes sense.

How to Write Your Career Pivot Story

Try writing your own career pivot story using the And, But, Therefore framework this week. Don’t overthink it or include too much information. Name your current situation, share the internal or external conflict, and state where you are now. It will sound like it would always turn out that way, and that’s music to our ears.

Try a few versions: serious, funny, short, a little longer. You don’t need something that can turn into a screenplay, just a story that you believe.

Closing

The next time someone asks what you do, you won’t panic like that former dentist did. You won’t say “I used to be…” You’ll tell them what you’re building and how you got here, with confidence.

Your job title never represented the full combination of skills, interests, and desires you contain anyway.

Your story is yours to tell, so tell it.

Burn the map. Build what fits.

Want more on leaving corporate and building what fits?

Additional resource: Pixar’s storytelling structure

TOPIC: Follow What Fits