Reader situation
You are between roles. When people ask what you do, the honest answer feels uncomfortable. It’s easy to hold back from participating until you have a new title to introduce yourself with.
Central idea
Being between roles doesn’t remove the value of your accumulated experience. You can introduce your current situation honestly and participate through useful questions, lessons and support for others.
Worked example
Fictional example
The people and details are invented to illustrate an approach.
Fictional transition
Sarah led customer success at a software company for six years. The company was acquired and her role was eliminated. Three months later, she is looking for her next role and has stopped posting in the Circles she used to join. Without a title, she feels she has less to say.
Relevant experience
Sarah lists what she still knows: how to build a customer success team from five to twenty people, how to design renewal processes and how to manage customer relationships through an acquisition. None of that depends on her current title. She also notices what she has learned in the last three months: how it feels to be on the receiving end of an acquisition, and what she wishes leaders had communicated earlier. That perspective is useful too, as long as she shares it without naming people or revealing internal decisions.
A useful contribution
In a Circle for customer success leaders, a member asks how to keep customers informed during a merger. Sarah has direct experience. She replies with three practical points from what she learned, without sharing anything confidential about her former company:
- Tell customers who their contact will be before they hear rumors.
- Keep renewal conversations with the same person through the transition where possible.
- Say what you don’t know yet, rather than promising nothing will change.
Her reply focuses on the member’s question, not on her own situation.
Honest positioning
When she updates her introduction, she writes
I led customer success at a software company for six years, building the team from five to twenty people. My role ended after an acquisition, and I’m now looking for my next leadership role. In the meantime, I’m glad to share what I learned about renewals and managing customers through change.
She is direct about her situation and focuses on what she can offer. Her first draft said she was “taking some time to explore options,” which felt vaguer and less comfortable to her than the plain statement. She also decides not to explain the acquisition in detail. A sentence is enough, and the rest is hers to share in conversation if she chooses.
Relationship follow-through
The member she helped thanks her and asks a follow-up question. Sarah answers, and a month later checks in to ask how the communication went. She treats the exchange as a relationship, not a job lead, though she is open if an opportunity comes up naturally.
Boundaries
- Being honest about your situation doesn’t mean sharing more than you want to. The reason a role ended is yours to share or not.
- Don’t share confidential information from a former employer, even if you no longer work there.
- Contributing doesn’t require you to give away professional services for free. Share lessons, not unpaid consulting.
Reflection questions
- What experience do you have that doesn’t depend on your current title?
- How could you describe your situation in one honest, comfortable sentence?
- Where could you make one useful contribution this month?
One practical application
Write a two-sentence introduction that describes your situation and what you can offer, and use it in one Circle or conversation this week.
