Embracing Your Own Growth in Career Development

In my work as an executive search consultant with the Career Leadership Collective, I spend a great deal of time talking with career center leaders about their work, their teams, and their long-term goals. Across those conversations, a few consistent patterns emerge among leaders who are thriving. Three principles stand out in particular:

• Stay open to exploring new opportunities.

• Remain résumé-ready.

• Regularly reflect on your career journey. 

Taken together, these are not about constant job searching or planning an exit. They reflect an intentional way of staying connected to your purpose, your strengths, and the evolving landscape of career education.

Exploring opportunities is about participating in the process, and applying for a role doesn’t mean a commitment to make a move. There’s no need to pack your bags yet! It simply means you’re open to a conversation and learning more. Career center leaders often remind students that they gain insight and confidence by engaging in opportunities, even when they are unsure of the outcome. The same holds true for experienced professionals.

There’s Value in Exploring

Throwing your hat in the ring carries benefits beyond the possibility of a new role.

Self-Reflection: 

Writing a cover letter and résumé pushes you to articulate your leadership philosophy, identify your priorities, and acknowledge the value of your contributions. Even if you don’t pursue a role, this exercise can clarify what aspects of your current work energize you and where you might be ready for something different. 

Market Awareness: 

Exploratory conversations also serve as windows into the profession. They offer insight into how institutions are prioritizing career centers and career preparedness within their campus ecosystems. They also highlight which skills are most in demand and where leadership expectations are shifting. You walk away from these conversations with greater insight into how the career services profession is evolving and how well your skills currently align with it. That knowledge strengthens you as a leader where you are.

Career Strategy:

Exploration is a form of career preparation. By engaging with opportunities over time, you build confidence, sharpen your narrative, and get comfortable in interview settings. For many career center leaders, it’s been several years since they’ve participated in a job search. In that sense, you’re not unlike your students: the first applications feel uncertain, the first interviews a little rusty. But just as you encourage them, the more you practice, the more natural it becomes. When the “right” role comes along, you’ll be far more prepared to jump in with clarity and confidence.

The Case for Being Résumé-Ready

One of the most valuable practices you teach your students is to keep their résumés current even when they’re not actively job hunting. Career center leaders can benefit from applying that same advice to themselves. Regularly updating your résumé does three critical things:

• It ensures you’re prepared when the right opportunity presents itself.

• It doubles as a reflective exercise, helping you track your impact and understand the arc of your leadership over time.

• It helps you clearly articulate your value during performance reviews, strategic conversations, or future negotiations. 

Being résumé-ready is best understood as a professional habit rather than a signal that you are looking to make a change. It reflects a thoughtful approach to growth and reinforces the same career development mindset you encourage in students every day.

The Power of Reflection

Career development is not only about looking outward. Reflection creates space to notice progress, reassess priorities, and name areas for growth. In my work, I have seen leaders engage in a search process and ultimately decide to stay in their current roles, doing so with renewed focus and greater perspective. Others discovered they were ready to take on greater responsibility in a new institutional context. In both cases, the value came from the process itself, not the outcome.

Closing Thoughts

As career center leaders, you encourage your students to stretch and test themselves and always be prepared to “take a shot” when an opportunity presents itself. The same advice applies to you whether you stay at your current institution or explore other opportunities. 

Being prepared or applying for a role doesn’t commit you to a career move, but it does commit you to your own growth. The next time you come across a role that sparks your curiosity, do not feel compelled to dismiss it too quickly. Whether you apply, refresh your résumé, or simply pause to reflect, engaging in the moment can be a meaningful investment in your own development. When the right opportunity does come along, you can engage with it from a place of perspective rather than pressure. And exploring is never a misuse of a search consultant’s time. This is part of the work we’re meant to do together.

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Are you ready to elevate your leadership for your next role? We invite you to learn more about The Collective’s signature leadership cohorts: MASTERMIND for top-level career center leaders, and ASPIRE for emerging and mid-level career services leaders (assistant directors, associate directors, and directors). For more information, contact Sharon Attaway at sharon@careerleadershipcollective.com. 

Sharon Attaway

Partner Engagement and Executive Search Consultant

Sharon is a higher education professional with experience partnering with colleges and universities to support student success, career readiness, and equitable outcomes. Her work centers on building trusted relationships with institutional leaders and strengthening the systems that help students navigate education and career decisions.

In her current role with the Career Leadership Collective, she focuses on partner engagement across consulting, leadership cohorts, and executive search, and plays a lead role in executing searches for senior career leaders.

Previously, she held leadership roles in employer relations and career services at Miami University, Michigan Technological University, and Colgate University, where she worked closely with employers, alumni, and campus partners to expand experiential learning opportunities and career on-ramps.

Sharon brings a collaborative, coaching-informed approach to her work and is motivated by helping institutions adopt practical, sustainable practices centered on students. She and her husband, Rand, along with their Wheaten Terrier, Fergus, reside near the banks of the Ohio River in Newport, Kentucky. She enjoys cycling, camping, and finding ways to instigate fun with friends, along with spending time with her sons and their families.