What Season of Work Are You In?
Career Ecology: A quiz + framework to shift how you think about work.
New here? This is part of a 4-part series:
Part 2: What Season of Work Are You In? (this post!)
Right Plant, Right Place
A few weeks ago, I worked in a west-facing garden in the Outer Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco. The garden is in a spot where the salt air clings on and the wind comes in hard off the Pacific, especially in spring and summer.
Tucked in the shadow of a fence was a small Ceanothus, planted in a patch of dappled shade that probably felt like a safe choice. But it looked scraggly with brittle branches and little leaves. It had been straining outward and upward, for sunshine it could never quite reach.
Seeing this, I remembered a core gardening principle: Right Plant, Right Place.
Ceanothus is a tough, sun-loving plant. It thrives in the kind of dry, sandy soil and coastal wind that would flatten something more delicate. So I moved it a few feet over to an open patch near the walkway. And within weeks, it transformed.
A lot of us are like that Ceanothus.
We feel stunted, stuck, or strangely unmotivated. Not because we’re unambitious or incapable, but because we’re trying to grow in conditions that don’t support us. We spend so much time trying to “fix” ourselves by developing better habits, being more productive, toughening up, when the real issue might be the soil we’re in.
The Career Ecology Framework is built on that idea. I’ve been using it to make more sustainable career decisions by understanding my current needs (Right Plant) and whether my external environment (Right Place) supports that.
Instead of chasing growth, it helps us name what we need right now, assess whether our environment supports it, experiment with small adjustments, and recognize when it might be time to replant.
It moves from inward awareness → outward evaluation → intentional next steps.
What Season Are You In? (Take the Quiz)
Before assessing your ecosystem and understanding how to make aligned changes, you have to understand what you need in this season of your career.
Every season comes with different needs. In a Spring season, you’ll be looking for more growth, autonomy, and permission to explore. In a Winter season, you are looking for more stability and rest.
I recently ran a workshop on the Framework and here are a few of the reactions:
“I feel seen. This is a great framework and so accurate.”
”As a generally lost person - I found this to provide lots of clarity and support.”
I hope the same happens for you! 👇
Take the quiz
Below are 7 questions to understand how you are experiencing work today. At the end, you’ll be matched with a season based on how these needs show up.
Write down the letter of the experience that feels most true for you today. There are no right answers, and don’t overthink it!
1. Right now, when it comes to autonomy at work…
A. I’m itching for more control to shape what’s next.
B. I feel empowered and trusted to set direction.
C. I feel like I’ve lost some autonomy and need to reassess.
D. I want space and distance, no new pressure.
2. Right now, when it comes to collaboration at work…
A. I want gentle collaborators or creative peers to bounce ideas off.
B. I’m fueled by being part of something exciting.
C. I’m feeling a little distant and rethinking who I want to work with.
D. I want closeness without pressure or performance.
3. Right now, when it comes to growth at work…
A. I’d love to test out a new idea or skill. I’m looking for small ways to stretch.
B. I’m applying things I’ve recently learned. And finding it expansive.
C. I’m focused on refining core skills. I find myself saying ‘no’ more than ‘yes’.
D. I need space to just be and recover before I take on anything new.
4. Right now, when it comes to capacity at work…
A. I feel up and down, rushed but excited. I want to try things out.
B. I'm energized, focused, and getting a lot done.
C. I’m running low. I’m trying to prioritize where I can.
D. I’m completely drained. I need time to recover.
5. Right now, when it comes to stability at work…
A. I can handle some uncertainty if it means new possibilities.
B. I feel grounded enough to take bold steps.
C. I’m craving more structure and predictability.
D. I need calm, predictability, and as few unknowns as possible.
6. Right now, when it comes to meaning at work…
A. I sense something meaningful might emerge, but it’s not clear yet.
B. I feel aligned with the purpose of my work.
C. I’m questioning the value or impact of what I’m doing.
D. I feel disconnected, but I’m tuning into what matters internally.
7. Right now, what description of work feels most appealing?
A. Emerging energy, curiosity, experimentation, rebuilding.
B. Momentum, growth, and forward motion.
C. Reflection, integration, realignment.
D. Rest, pause, space to breathe.
Got Your Letters? Let’s Find Your Season
Note: If your results were mixed, you might be shifting between seasons. That’s normal, and that tension in itself can be confusing. The goal here is to name what season feels most true for you today.
Your Season, Explained
Based on your responses, you’ve landed in a season of Spring / Summer / Fall / Winter.
Identifying your season isn’t about labeling yourself. It’s about understanding your current career phase to make better choices about what to focus on, what to let go of, and what kind of support to prioritize. It gives us a shared language to reflect the different energetic and emotional states people experience in their careers.
Below is a short description of each season—what it might feel like, what it’s asking of you, and where your energy is likely focused. In the next post, we’ll investigate how to work with that season and what to do if your current environment doesn’t match it.
Spring 🌱
Spring feels like the return of curiosity after a long stretch of quiet. You’re not totally clear on what’s next, but you want to explore. It might show up as bursts of energy, random ideas, or the urge to say “yes” to things that aren’t fully logical yet. There’s this sense of possibility again, and that in itself feels like momentum.
What helps: giving yourself permission to try things without committing to them. Light structure. New inputs. Being around people or ideas that spark something.
What strains: pressure to have a fully formed plan. Deadlines. Treating it like you need to be “back” already. That shuts down the experimentation before it even has a chance to take root.
Summer ☀️
Summer is the doing season. You’re feeling traction around a job, a project, or a clear goal, and you’re in motion. You’re executing, producing, and showing up. You feel aligned and energized.
What helps: having time, energy, and even attention boundaries. You need support systems and recovery woven into your week. Because there’s forward motion, it’s easy to overdo it.
What strains: the idea that just because it’s working, you have to double down. Overcommitting. Letting urgency win. Forgetting to pause. You can’t bloom all the time.
Fall 🍂
Fall can be one of the hardest seasons to name, because from the outside, things often look stable or successful. But inside, there’s a slow unraveling. You start to feel detached from things that used to light you up. Your clarity gets murky. You’re asking bigger questions that don’t have quick answers.
What helps: space. Time to reflect, journal, walk, read things that deepen rather than distract. Being able to acknowledge what’s no longer working without having to immediately fix it.
What strains: external pressure to stay on the path, keep pushing, hold it all together. When you don’t give yourself room to notice what’s ending or to feel uncertain, you get stuck.
Winter ❄️
Winter is stillness. Sometimes it’s chosen, like a sabbatical or a break, and sometimes it’s not. Maybe you’re recovering from burnout, or a loss, or the slow depletion that comes from pushing for too long. It can feel disorienting, especially if you’re used to defining yourself by what you produce.
What helps: predictability. Slowness. Gentle routines. Fewer decisions. People who don’t expect a lot from you. Letting yourself be in the season without rushing to spring forward.
What strains: guilt. The belief that if you’re not productive, you’re falling behind. Or that rest needs to be earned. But growth is happening, it’s just underground.
Up Next: Aligning Your Needs With Your Environment
So now you’ve got a season. And maybe it feels spot on. Or, maybe it feels like a not-quite-nameable edge between seasons. That’s okay. The point isn’t to get the “right” answer. It’s to start noticing the patterns of what’s shifting, what’s calling for more attention, and what no longer fits.
Because once you name where you are, everything else makes more sense. You stop trying to bloom when you’re meant to be resting. Or waiting around for clarity when you actually need to take action.
In the next post, we’ll look at how your season affects what you need from your work environment and how to tell if your current environment is helping or holding you back.
Two ways I can help:
1️⃣ DM: Feeling in between seasons or want to ask a question specific to your life and experiences? Send a DM my way.
2️⃣ 1:1 Coaching: Feeling burnt out, interested in exploring a career change, or just plain stuck? I work 1:1 with people to go through Career Ecology Framework together and design work that feels right for your season. Book an intro call here.
Share in the comments
I’d love to know: What season are you in?
Other things to talk about in the comments:
Are you clearly in one season, or somewhere between two?
What part of your season description feels most true?
In the next post, do you think you’ll discover that your environment is supporting or straining your current needs?
Anything that comes to mind!
Share below:
What season of work are you in? Are you clearly in one season, or somewhere between two?
I am between spring and summer, but because I am on a career break, there is an element of winter that keeps showing up.
I love this concept and I was working on something similar, there I call the career seasons: exploration, building, stabilising, rooting, expression and recovery.
I think I was for so long on exploration and now moving to building, and next will be rooting and stabilising hopefully 🙏🏼