On November 7, 2023, my profession ended. Not with a dramatic firing, not with a bitter exit, however with an acquisition that made my position redundant. Almost three a long time within the trade. 9 years in an government position at a biotech firm. After which: nothing.
I didn’t simply lose a job. I misplaced the scaffolding I’d constructed my skilled id on. I instructed myself it was a blip. I used to be unsuitable.
What adopted was one thing I’ve come to name “professional identity purgatory”—a seemingly infinite holding sample with no title, no construction, and no clear course. It’s the house between who you had been professionally and who you would possibly develop into.
In Catholic theology, purgatory is the in-between—not heaven, not hell, however a passage of purification earlier than one thing higher. That’s the metaphor I maintain returning to as a result of “professional identity purgatory” isn’t failure, it’s transition with no timeline. It’s the disorienting hole between dropping an id you’d spent a long time constructing and never but figuring out what replaces it.
We’re presently in a interval outlined by important skilled transition. Thousands and thousands of individuals are doubtless about to enter “professional identity purgatory” due to AI. I’m not an economist or a technologist, however what I do know—from residing it, and from watching friends navigate it—is that the risk AI doubtlessly poses to professionals goes deeper than misplaced duties or restructured roles. It strikes at one thing extra elementary: the sense that what you spent your profession mastering nonetheless issues. For generations, skilled id was sturdy—you constructed experience, amassed data, climbed. Know-how is disrupting that continuity in methods which are genuinely laborious to sit down with, not as a result of the work disappears in a single day, however as a result of skilled relevance begins to really feel much less sure. For individuals whose self-worth is tied to that relevance, the uncertainty alone will be destabilizing.
For individuals who’ve constructed their self-worth round titles, experience, and relentless ahead momentum, purgatory is especially brutal. We don’t do properly in holding patterns. We fill them with exercise, with conferences, initiatives, and something that mimics the frenzy that comes with progress. We keep away from the discomfort in any respect prices, as a result of the discomfort forces a reckoning we’ve spent our careers outrunning: Who am I with out the work?
What I’ve Realized (and am Nonetheless Studying) Inside Purgatory
I need to be clear: I don’t have a framework, instruments or tips about how one can deal with purgatory as a result of I’m not on the opposite facet but. However I’ve been residing in “professional identity purgatory” lengthy sufficient to supply a number of observations for individuals who could be part of me quickly.
Cease filling voids with noise. My first intuition after leaving was to pack my calendar with issues that felt acquainted—networking coffees, mentoring conversations, advising. All respectable. All additionally avoidance. Purgatory is uncomfortable by design. It’s attempting to let you know one thing. The busier you keep, the tougher it’s to listen to the message.
Let your id be provisional. I nonetheless catch myself introducing myself with my outdated title—solely now with a “former” as a qualifier. There’s no disgrace in that. Shaping your id isn’t a fast iPhone OS replace. The work in purgatory is studying to carry your skilled self loosely—to strive on new variations of your self quite than defend the outdated one.
Redefine what experience means. AI could automate a lot of the world round us. However it might’t contact judgement. Relationships. Context. The capability to ask the proper query quite than simply reply the one in entrance of you. These issues don’t disappear together with your title. They only want a brand new car.
“Professional identity purgatory” shouldn’t be a detour. For many people, it could be an important time in our careers—the place the place the query we’ve been outrunning lastly catches up: not “What do I do now?” however “Who am I when I’m not doing it?”
The professionals dealing with AI-driven disruption within the coming years gained’t all lose their jobs in a single day. However when it does occur, many can be met with the conclusion that their skilled position was straight tied to their sense of self. The construction. The every day objective. The id.
When that occurs, the intuition can be to run—to fill the void, venture confidence, land the subsequent factor as quick as potential. I’ve tried all of it. I perceive the impulse.
However the purgatories we run from are fairly often those we’d like most. I’m nonetheless in mine. I’m bored with operating. And for the primary time in thirty years, I’m studying what it seems like to easily be nonetheless.
Geoff Curtis is the previous government vp, company affairs and chief communications officer at Horizon Therapeutics. Throughout his almost 30-year well being care communications profession, he has labored domestically and internationally in numerous roles on each the shopper and company facet. This column is tailored from his e-book, Embracing Your Personal Purgatory, which is on the market now.
