Climate Change Job Search: What to Do When Motivation Dips
You’re showing up, doing the work, and still hearing silence. If you’re feeling stuck in your career pivot, you’re not alone. Many mid-career professionals hit this “messy middle” when shifting into climate change career opportunities or roles in sustainability. The progress is real—even when it’s invisible….
Imagine This
You’re up early again. (Well done, it gets harder the longer this pivot takes…)
Another morning with your laptop open and your calendar filled with “good career things”: a networking call, a job board scroll, a draft of that cover letter you’ve rewritten seventeen times.
And yet when you refresh the inbox / check the DM’s its tumbleweeds.
You’ve left the old path behind, but the new one still hasn’t shown up. You’re suspended between what was and what’s next—with nothing to hold onto except your own second-guessing.
There’s a name for this in career change circles. Its is called The Liminal Phase - aka The Messy Middle
And a reason you want to quit now: well nobody gives up in miles 1 to 5 of a marathon, or miles 23 to 26. They quit in the bit that feels endless.
Which might be where you are right now??
When Showing Up Stops Feeling Worth It
The hard truth of this phase, this long stretch, is that career change doesn’t reward effort evenly. You can be doing everything “right” and still feel like you’re going in circles.
That doesn’t mean you’re off-track, though the self doubt can make you feel you are. It means you’ve hit the emotional dip—where progress might be real, but invisible.
Where it’s easy to forget why you even began. (And this is probably the biggest risk for you right now)
This is the point where most people drift. Not because they’re not capable—because they never expected the middle to be the hard part.
But here’s the thing: the middle is the work.
“Nothing worth doing is ever easy”
And your future self will be quietly grateful you kept going.
🧠 Science Section
Psychologists call this the Goal Gradient Effect: we’re most energised at the start and end of a pursuit, but motivation tanks in the middle—especially when we can’t see tangible progress.
What helps?
Small wins. Emotional reconnection. Visible experiments.
Research also shows that emotion sustains effort more than logic. If you’ve lost the feeling behind the goal, you’ve lost your fuel source.
I’ve said it before but people don’t do things because they think they should, but because the feel they want to.
🧰 Tools, Templates & Prompts
So what to do about this? Well here are a selection of tools and actions that will help you re-connect and re-engage your mojo as well as provide a boost for your resilience in the face of the dip:
Rename your current chapter
Label it
Name it. Own it. “The affect labelling process “
Whether it’s The Dip, The Slog, or The Quiet Before the Pivot—giving the fog a name gives you back a sense of authorship.
This act of labelling can help reduce the intensity of the emotion by activating the prefrontal cortex (the thinking part of the brain) and reducing activity in the amygdala (the emotional center). SCIENCE!
Own it
This step involves accepting the emotion or experience as part of yourself without judgment. It's about acknowledging that you are feeling a certain way without trying to suppress it or deny it.
This is the crucial step in developing emotional resilience and self-awareness.
Reconnect with the emotional ‘why’
Right now it is hard to reconnect to your why.
There are typically two parts of your why. What it means to you (to be spending time on something you actually give a shit about) and what it means to others (those who care about seeing you happy.)
Write a letter from you future self.
And the best way to re-connect to that is with a simple vision-casting exercise (not as mystical as it sounds, no dream catchers required.
Write it from a you in which all things you want out of this pivot have actually happened.
You ARE doing meaningful work. You ARE engaged in your everyday job. Your friends and family ARE seeing a new you, happy and content.
Yes, this is hard right now, in the middle of the dip, but make the time to day dream once more about what it will be like.
You already know pro-athletes lean heavily into visualisation right? Well this is your version of that, and all the benefit of increased belief, confidence and statistical likelihood of success will come with that.
Take 20 minutes and use the exercise below…
Pick one small, meaningful input goal
Something you fully control that moves you forward:
Message one new person about their role
Share a recent insight publicly—even if it’s small
Rewrite your “About” on LinkedIn from the lens of a problem-solver, not a job-seeker
Final Word
If you’re here, slogging through the messy middle, that already tells me something important: you care enough to keep going. Climate and sustainability careers aren’t just jobs—they’re long games that need people with grit, heart, and perspective.
This stage feels endless because you’re building something that lasts. Keep showing up. Keep experimenting. The path you can’t see yet? It’s forming under your feet with every step you take.
Want more help to get started in the climate career you want?
If you want more help, I provide this kind of support (almost) weekly via the “Start In Climate Newsletter” No fluff, no spam, just direct actionable advice from a career specialist to help you get the job you want. Check it out, you can unsubscribe when you get the job or if I’m not helping you don’t help you.
