When Change Doesn't Fix What You Thought It Would
from the founder of careercoaching.ie
There’s a sketch I love by Adam Sandler on Saturday Night Live where he plays a travel agent promising transformation. (It’s called ‘Romano Tours’ if you haven’t seen it)
The punchline lands simply:“You’re still going to be you.”
Different location. Same internal experience.
It never fails to make me laugh and remind me how true it is when I’m working with people on career change.
The Promise of “Elsewhere”
Many career decisions are built on an unspoken belief:
If I just change the job, the company, the title… things will feel better.
Sometimes they do, at least for a while.
But often, after the initial relief or excitement fades, something familiar returns:
the restlessness, the dissatisfaction, the quiet sense of “Is this it?”
The external change happened.
The internal experience didn’t shift in the way we expected.
Extrinsic vs Intrinsic Change
There’s nothing wrong with wanting better conditions, more money, or work that uses your skills more fully.
However external improvements can’t do the work of internal alignment.
If you don’t like how you’re working…
If you’re disconnected from what matters to you…
If your sense of worth is tightly tied to performance or approval…
You can carry all of that into the next role.
Same job, new logo.
Same pressure, different context.
The Part We Often Skip
Career conversations tend to focus on what to change: the role, the organisation, the path.
Less attention is paid to how we relate to work: what we’re chasing, what we’re avoiding, what we’re hoping the next move will finally resolve.
That doesn’t mean change isn’t needed.
It means change works best when it’s paired with awareness.
A More Useful Starting Point
When people feel stuck at work, the instinct is often to move quickly: update the CV, scan job boards, make a change. That momentum can be helpful but without some reflection, it can also lead to very familiar outcomes in a new setting.
A few practical questions I’ve found useful, whether you’re actively planning a move or simply feeling restless:
What am I hoping this change will solve?
What feels hardest about my work right now and is that something a new role would actually change?
What patterns have followed me from role to role?
If nothing external changed, what would I still want to work differently this year?
These aren’t questions to answer all at once.
They’re prompts to help separate what needs to change externally from what needs attention internally.
That distinction matters. It’s often the difference between a change that brings short-term relief and one that genuinely shifts how work feels day to day.
Closing
Career change can be powerful.
But it works best when it’s driven by clarity, not escape.
Without understanding what’s actually asking to change, it’s easy to recreate the same experience in a new role just with different people, pressures, or expectations.
A different job can change your circumstances.
But changing how you approach work is often what changes how it feels.