How to build a career transition plan

One page, five parts

• THE FOUR DECISIONS. Function, altitude, context, refusals — one line each, in your own words rather than a recruiter's.
• THE LIST. Twenty to forty companies you would genuinely join, chosen because they fit the four decisions and not because they are hiring.
• THE PEOPLE. For each company: who you know, who you nearly know, and who holds the function you want.
• THE RHYTHM. What you do weekly, in hours you will actually spend.
• THE REVIEW. One date a month when the list gets edited and pursuits that have gone quiet are either nudged or dropped.

Why the list comes before the search

A list turns an open-ended problem into a finite one. Without it you are waiting to be told what exists; with it you are watching a set of companies and deciding when each becomes worth approaching. The change is psychological as much as practical — a finite problem can be worked at for months, and an infinite one cannot.

The weekly rhythm that actually holds

Three hours, split three ways. An hour on what has changed at the companies you watch. An hour on two or three real messages to people, rather than applications to portals. An hour on the material — a story sharpened, a case written down, a question you fumbled last time answered better.

The rhythm is the plan. Everything else is a list of intentions until it is attached to hours in a week you have already blocked.

The monthly review

Twenty minutes, the same date each month. Remove one company you have gone off. Add one you heard about. Look at every pursuit that has gone silent and make an explicit decision: nudge once more, or let it go. Pursuits that are neither nudged nor dropped are what quietly consumes a search.

What to leave out

Salary bands you cannot verify, timelines you do not control, and any goal phrased as an outcome somebody else has to grant you. A chief role by March is not a plan, because you do not hold the pen. Eight real conversations a month with people inside your twenty companies is a plan, because you do.