Finding Your Next Opportunity: Rebuilding with Clarity and Confidence

The VEST Guide to Navigating Career Transitions

Career transitions can be emotionally, financially, and logistically complex. Whether you're returning to the workforce after a break, exploring new industries, or navigating an unexpected layoff, the journey is rarely straightforward. For women in particular, the process often comes with added challenges: caregiving responsibilities, limited access to networks, and cultural expectations.

At VEST, we created this guide specifically for women who are in that in-between space, whether by choice or circumstance. We know traditional career advice often skips over the emotional reality of transitions, focusing instead on surface-level tactics like polishing résumés or gaming AI tools. But without addressing the human side of the process, that approach isn’t just unhelpful, it’s unsustainable.

This guide offers a different approach, one rooted in real data, lived experiences, and the belief that job transitions don’t have to be isolating or shameful. They can be transformative.

Step One: Release the Shame

Whether expected or not, being between roles can feel deeply unsettling. For many women, it also brings a quiet sense of shame. This response isn’t personal, it’s cultural. Women are often conditioned to tie their worth to stability, achievement, and being needed. So when a job ends, by choice or circumstance, it can feel like a personal failure, even when it isn’t.

The truth is, job transitions are common. Layoffs and departures are usually driven by market shifts, restructuring, or cost-cutting, not individual performance. Yet we still internalize them as a sign of inadequacy. Why?

Because we’re taught to see success as a straight line. And for women, already navigating bias and the pressure to constantly prove our value, any pause in that line can feel like a setback. That’s why the first step in any job search isn’t updating your résumé, it’s releasing the shame.

Skipping this step can lead to isolation, making it harder to network, ask for help, or share openly that you're in transition. That silence can stall your momentum. Naming and releasing shame isn’t just helpful, it’s foundational. When we normalize these moments as part of a long, evolving career journey, we unlock the clarity and confidence to move forward.

Step Two: Stop Applying Blindly and Start Connecting Intentionally

Most people start their job search by updating their résumé and sending out hundreds of applications to roles they think they might like, often based on vague or AI-generated job descriptions rather than real conversations.

This approach isn’t just exhausting, it’s inefficient.

According to LinkedIn, up to 85% of roles are filled through networking, not cold applications. Yet we often default to what feels productive in the moment, like mass applying, even when the data tells us it’s not the most effective path.

Instead of focusing your energy on tailoring dozens of résumés, shift toward building relationships. Talk to people. Ask thoughtful questions. Let others know what you're exploring. The goal is not to "sell" yourself but to be seen, understood, and supported.

Step Three: Redefine Networking

Networking isn’t always easy, especially when you're balancing work, caregiving, and everything in between. Traditional networking spaces, after-hours events, pricey conferences, or informal circles, weren’t built with women’s realities in mind. They often overlook the invisible labor women carry and the limited time or flexibility many have.

That’s why being intentional about how and where you network matters.

Start by seeking out spaces where your full self is welcome. Networking doesn't have to be transactional or time-consuming. It can look like a weekly coffee chat, a message to someone you admire, or engaging in peer-led communities like VEST, designed to support women professionals as people, not just as job titles.

At VEST, we’re not just trading job leads. We’re sharing encouragement, offering feedback, and reminding each other of our worth. Peer support isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a strategic advantage. And in uncertain moments, it's exactly what keeps momentum going.

Step Four: Get Clear Before You Apply

One of the most overlooked but essential steps in any career transition is clarity. Before you update your résumé or ask for referrals, pause and ask yourself:

• What kind of work energizes me?

• What type of team or leadership helps me thrive?

• What boundaries will I no longer compromise on?

  
  

That last question is especially important if you're leaving a role that didn’t align with your values. Knowing what you're no longer willing to tolerate is just as valuable as knowing what you want next.

A 2024 Greenhouse report found that candidates who apply to fewer, more targeted roles receive nearly twice the response rate of those who cast a wide, unfocused net. Clarity isn’t just grounding, it’s strategic. Use these reflections to shape your networking conversations, LinkedIn presence, and ultimately, your applications and interviews.

Step Five: Be Visible Where It Counts

Instead of pouring energy into your résumé, focus on showing up in spaces where hiring actually happens, like LinkedIn. In today’s market, LinkedIn functions as a living résumé. A 2023 Jobvite survey found that 77% of recruiters rely on LinkedIn to find candidates, often more than they rely on traditional résumés. Why?

Because in an era of AI-generated content and keyword-stuffed applications, hiring managers are looking for authenticity.

And don’t worry—you don’t have to be a LinkedIn influencer or post every day to make an impact. Start small:

• Update your “About” section to reflect your strengths and goals

• Comment thoughtfully on posts in your industry

• Share an occasional article that aligns with your field or values

  
  

This kind of engagement builds visibility and credibility. For women juggling multiple responsibilities, LinkedIn is a low-lift, high-impact way to stay connected without the extra logistics of travel or childcare.

Step Six: Leverage the Power of Quiet Connections

At VEST, we believe in helping women move forward by working smarter, not harder. That means moving away from the exhausting cycle of cold applications and tapping into what actually drives hiring: trusted relationships and quiet conversations behind the scenes.

Backchanneling happens when someone advocates for you informally, passes your name along, or gives hiring managers confidence to take a closer look. Referrals account for up to 40% of hires, even though they represent a small fraction of applicants.

But backchanneling only works when you're already active in your network. You can’t expect support if you haven’t been present. It’s not that people don’t want to help, it’s that real connection takes time, trust, and reciprocity.

Don't wait until you're in crisis to reach out. The people who get referred and recommended are often those who show up consistently, offering insights, making introductions, or simply staying in touch.

That’s why we designed VEST as a year-round community. We meet multiple times throughout the year so women can stay engaged, offer value to each other, and stay top of mind when opportunities come up.

From Uncertainty to Possibility

Career transitions are rarely easy, but they can be powerful. You’re not starting over, you’re starting from experience. And while this in-between space may feel uncertain, it’s also where clarity, direction, and momentum can take root.

Don’t treat this as just finding your next job. Use it as an opportunity to build the next version of your professional life, with purpose and on your terms. And if you want to be backed by a network that sees your value even when the path isn’t clear, consider joining our community of professional women. Learn more at www.VESTHer.co

About the Author

Erika Lucas is the Founder and CEO of StitchCrew and VEST. She is an investor and nationally recognized advocate for women, small businesses, and economic opportunity for all. Erika also hosts the VEST Her Podcast, where she talks about the hidden challenges holding women back at work, in society, and in building wealth and highlights stories of women working to change that. Follow Erika’s on LinkedIn