Why Senior Professionals Plan Their Exit Alone
You have spent decades being the person other people come to for answers. So when the restructure rumours start, like most seasoned professionals you keep your cards close to your chest and research it yourself, quietly, in the evenings. You don't tell your team. You don't tell your manager. You may not tell anyone at all.
I spent 35+ years in IT, 25+ of them in corporate IT, and I had assumed the corporate job would carry me through. When I took voluntary redundancy, I did all the sums and thought my finances were in line. What I had not appreciated was the hole that work left in my life. I had no answer to the question, "What on earth do I do now?"
I had also not appreciated the skills I had developed over the years. True to form, after I left, I did my research alone and told no one, and it took me far longer than it should have to work out how to use those skills outside corporate life.
Why asking for help feels harder at a senior level
I recently read a LinkedIn thread about executives and transition coaching. One commenter described an unwritten rule: asking for help is still seen as a weakness in a lot of boardrooms.
The more senior you are, the more your reputation depends on maintaining a quiet, confident demeanour while chaos is all around you. Asking for help feels like admitting uncertainty, or even a lack of planning.
There is often a second pressure on top of that: your reputation. It took decades to build, and a wrong word in public, such as telling anyone you are looking at starting something different, feels risky and expensive. So you research alone, you collect more information, and you wait for a clearer picture before you act.
What waiting costs
The clearer picture rarely arrives. What arrives is more information. After a few months you know a lot about portfolio careers, fractional work and consulting, and you still don't know what to do on Monday morning.
That isn't a failure of intelligence. It is a problem of structure. You are a capable problem-solver, used to delivering under pressure, but nobody has handed you a framework that fits someone at your level, with a day job to protect.
There is also, obviously, a timing cost. Everything is easier while the salary is still there. In a recent Financial Times column, Claer Barrett wrote that accountants are seeing more clients in their forties and fifties leaving senior professional roles, some prompted by restructuring or redundancy. The people who prepared first had more choices than those who waited for the decision to be made for them.
Source: Claer Barrett, Financial Times, Tempted to go freelance? Here’s six financial tips for success. Link to article
A structured way to start, without telling anyone
You do not have to confess in public to get some structure. There are three steps you can take this week, on your own:
Write down what you actually do. Not your job title. The problems you solve, the decisions you make, and the people who come to you for answers. These are the assets that move with you.
Work out your numbers. What is the bare minimum you need to earn, after tax, to cover your commitments? That figure sets how much time you have.
Choose one small test. One conversation, one offer, one page. Something you can try in 30 to 60 minutes a day without touching your day job.
None of this needs an announcement. It needs a sequence designed to give you clarity.
Where to go next
If you want that sequence mapped for your own situation, the Plan B Path Finder is the place to start. It takes a few minutes.
Take the Plan B Path Finder survey →
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