By Brandy DeOrnellas, PCC, Esq.
I spent years in a job that looked right from the outside. Prestigious, demanding, well-compensated. And almost every Sunday night, I felt a quiet dread about Monday morning. I stayed longer than I should have — and the cost of that was real.
I’ve written about that experience in full here . What I want to do in this article is something more practical: give you a framework for figuring out where you actually are — and what to do from here.
Because “it’s time for a career change” isn’t the right answer for everyone who feels stuck. And “just stay” isn’t right either. The honest answer depends on something more specific: what’s actually happening, and what it’s costing you.
Not Every Hard Job Is the Wrong Job
Before we get to the framework, I want to say something that often gets lost in career transition conversations.
Not every difficult season at work is a sign you need to leave. Some jobs are hard because they’re new. Some go through rough patches that end. Some challenges are genuine growing pains that point toward real career growth. Some friction is productive.
The difference between a hard job that’s right for you and a wrong job is something like this: in a hard-but-right job, you still feel like yourself. You still find moments of real engagement. The difficulty has a point. You’re building toward something. And, on the whole, it’s sustainable and doesn’t make you compromise on what’s essential to you.
In a wrong job, the difficulty doesn’t have a point. The engagement isn’t there even on the good days. You’re enduring — not building. You’re compromising yourself.
That distinction matters. And it’s worth being honest about which one you’re in before you make any moves.
Red, Yellow, Green: Where Are You?
In my work with clients navigating career transitions and life design, I’ve found that most people fall into one of three places. I think of them as red, yellow, and green — not because the situation is simple, but because the framework is a useful first assessment.
Here’s how to read them.
RED — Something’s off — but not everything.
You’re not thriving, but you’re not suffering either. There are parts of your job that genuinely engage you — and parts that drain you. You like some of your colleagues. You can imagine doing well at this company, just not in this exact role or function. You’re not running toward the exit, but you’re aware that something could be better.
Red doesn’t mean leave. It means look more carefully at what’s working and what isn’t — and explore whether there’s a version of your current situation that actually fits.
This is where job crafting comes in. Job crafting is the process of intentionally reshaping your current role — keeping what energizes you, relinquishing what depletes you, and proposing additions that let you make your highest contribution. It’s not a resignation letter. It’s a negotiation with your current employer about how to use you better.
The upside is real: if you can craft a role that works, you avoid the disruption of a full career change. You may also be able to leverage existing relationships and reputation to secure a role you couldn’t get on paper elsewhere. And if you want to prototype a new function, you can do it without the resume risk of a short tenure.
Action Step: I’ve built a Job Crafting Guide to help you think through this step by step — what to keep, what to relinquish, what to add, and how to make the case to your employer. You can get it at bdeornellas.com/job-crafting.
YELLOW — You’re not sure — and that uncertainty is the real problem.
You don’t feel clearly miserable, but you don’t feel right either. You’re asking the question — is it time for a career change? — but you don’t have enough internal clarity to answer it. You might be considering a new role and not know how to evaluate it. You might be watching colleagues make moves and wondering if you should too. You might have a vague sense of wanting more, without being able to name what “more” actually means.
Without a clear sense of what you value, what engages you, what you’re built for, and what you need from a work environment, you’ll evaluate every opportunity — including your current role — against borrowed criteria. What looks prestigious. What pays well. What others think you should want. That’s not career clarity. That’s noise.
Career Compass is built for exactly this moment. It’s a self-paced course that walks you through your inherent design, your values, your motivators, and your non-negotiables — and helps you build the internal criteria you’ll use to assess your current role and every opportunity that comes after it. You finish with a tangible compass. Not borrowed clarity. Yours.
Action Step: Whether you stay or eventually transition, the work you do in Career Compass doesn’t go to waste. It’s the foundation of every good career decision you’ll make from here. Learn more at bdeornellas.com/career-compass.
GREEN — You know it’s time to move. You’re just not sure where to start.
Something has shifted — a role ending, a moment of clarity, a slow accumulation of evidence you can no longer ignore. You’re not asking if it’s time for a career change. You’re asking what now.
You’re ready — and ready is the only thing you need to be to start moving.
But “ready” covers a lot of ground. Some people who are ready have a clear direction and need execution support. Others have energy but no clarity about where to point it. Others have clarity but haven’t crossed what I call the Information Threshold — the point at which a decision becomes grounded in real data rather than hope or pressure.
The Re-Design Method is a three-part protocol for career transition: Career Compass builds your rubric for decision-making, Career Clarity takes you to a decision, and For Hire gets you the role. But not everyone needs all three parts.
Action Step: Want to curate a plan for you? The Re-Design Diagnostic is a ten-minute assessment that tells you exactly where you are in the transition process — and which part of the Re-Design Method will move you forward fastest. Take the diagnostic at bdeornellas.com/re-design-diagnostic.
A Note on Fear
Whatever color you landed on, I want to say something directly: feeling scared is not a sign that you’re wrong to act.
Fear is almost always present when something is worth doing. The fears might be: What if I make less money? What if I fail at something new? What if I don’t know what I want and end up somewhere worse?
These are real fears. They deserve to be acknowledged. But they are not justification to stay put.
I’ve worked with many clients who let those fears run their career decisions — sometimes for years. And almost without exception, the thing they feared about leaving would cost them less than staying. Staying cost them their health, their relationships, their sense of themselves.
Staying somewhere that’s wrong for you is not a neutral choice. You already know that. That’s why you’re here. So, take a step.
Brandy DeOrnellas is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and former attorney based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works with individuals navigating career transitions, career growth, and intentional life design through 1:1 coaching and online courses.
© Life By Design Coaching LLC · bdeornellas.com
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