01/09/2026
A client once described the week after his redundancy like this: "I introduced myself twice at a dinner party before I remembered I couldn't say 'Head of HR' anymore. I just stood there." The title was gone, but the habit of being someone specific, twelve years at one company, one clear answer to "so what do you do?", hadn't caught up yet.
That disorientation isn't vanity. For a lot of us, the job title did more than describe the work; it answered the question "who am I?" at every introduction, every dinner party, every LinkedIn bio. Losing it can feel like losing the answer.
But the title was always a costume you wore inside one particular building. Underneath it was the actual substance, the judgement, the instincts, the specific way you solve problems that nobody else on your old team solved quite the same way. None of that came off with the job.
The harder truth is this: even before the title goes, most people can't actually see that substance. Your experience was never the problem. The problem is that it's sitting behind a title, a résumé, or a network that only you can see. So when the title disappears, it can feel like the value disappeared with it, when really, it was always the visibility that was missing.
Rebuilding your presence after corporate life isn't inventing someone new. It's finally making visible the person, and the value, that was always there.
Not sure where you actually stand on this? The free 2-minute Authority & Visibility Diagnostic shows you exactly where the gaps are, in positioning, proof, and reach, and gives you a personalised next step. Link in the comments 👇🏼👇🏼
