From Aspiration to Market Reality: Turning Ambition into Market Fit
By Rhoda Yap, Executive Director, INSEAD Career Development Centre | 2 February 2026Career transitions are often framed as personal journeys—stories of ambition, reinvention and courage. These narratives are compelling and often inspiring, but they rarely tell the whole story. In practice, many stalled or frustrating career transitions do not progress as expected; not because individuals lack talent, motivation, or clarity of purpose, but because effort is often concentrated on the self without a sufficiently structured way of engaging with market realities.
