Every year in Students’ Unions, the same moment arrives. Elections are over, successors are announced, and suddenly the role that has consumed your life starts to feel finite. Everyone knows it’s coming, but that doesn’t always make it easier.
I remember that feeling vividly from my time as President of Nottingham Trent Students’ Union. Two years during the pandemic in the most all-consuming, demanding yet utterly brilliant role, and it was all coming to an end. Pride in what I’d achieved sat alongside real anxiety about what came next. The identity that came with being an officer was beginning to slip away, replaced by a big, uncomfortable question mark.
If that resonates, it’s completely okay to feel that way. Change — even good change — can feel daunting.
That strange in-between period
After elections, outgoing officers often describe feeling a little lost. You’re still in post, still responsible for delivering for students, but your replacement is waiting in the wings. Psychologically, you’re already halfway into the next chapter.
The best advice I’ve heard from former officers: don’t let that feeling derail the final stretch.
Finish projects properly. Tie up loose ends. Document what you’ve done and why it matters. Not only is this the right thing to do for your students and successors, but it will also make a huge difference when you later try to explain your impact to an employer.
And try to let yourself feel excited too. Being a sabbatical officer is an intense, accelerated learning experience, a genuine career incubator. You will probably never again develop so quickly, take on so much responsibility or have such freedom to lead, influence and experiment.
“But how do I explain what I’ve done?”
This is where a lot of Officers get stuck, and as a former Sabb myself, I know exactly how hard it can be to translate the role into language that lands with a hiring manager.
When you step back and look at your experience through an external lens, it quickly becomes clear how distinctive it really is. Fewer than 3% of UK charity trustees are under 30, and fewer than 0.5% are under 25. If you’ve held trustee responsibilities, that’s not a footnote; it’s a differentiator. The same applies if you’ve been a university governor or sat on senior committees.
Your role as an Officer and your role as a Trustee are not the same, and it’s often worth showing them separately. The key is to move beyond listing responsibilities and focus on what you’re proud to have achieved: the impact you’ve had for students, the initiatives you’ve led from idea to delivery and the contribution you’ve made to strategic development. This is where your experience comes to life.
Be clear on your impact
Stop thinking about your job title and think instead about the impact you made.
Ask yourself:
- What changed for students because I was in this role?
- Where did I lead something from idea to delivery?
- What decisions did I influence, and at what level?
- Where did I have to navigate complexity, conflict or ambiguity?
Your experience likely includes things many early-career candidates simply haven’t had access to, including governance, budgets, strategy, senior stakeholders and organisational change. These are powerful, but only if you name them clearly and explain why they matter.
From anxiety to transition
Feeling anxious about what comes next doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means you care, and you’re standing at the edge of something new. You’ve occupied a space very few others have, and you’ve likely developed faster and in more complex ways than many of your peers.
That doesn’t always translate neatly into a CV. It might take a few iterations and a number of applications. You might have moments where you question whether employers will really understand what you’ve done. That’s normal.
What matters is that you don’t undersell it.
Take time to reflect properly. Be clear on what you’ve achieved and the environments you’ve operated in. Speak to people around you, your CEO, your trustees and your networks and sense-check how you’re articulating your experience. Often, others can see your strengths more clearly than you can.
And don’t feel like you have to have it all figured out straight away. This is a transition, not a single decision point. It’s okay to explore, test things out, and take a route that isn’t perfectly linear.
Each year, I offer some of my time to outgoing officers to help with CVs, applications and interviews. It’s one of the most rewarding parts of my work. Sometimes that support leads to real changes; sometimes it simply gives people the confidence to back themselves.
This next step might feel uncertain, but it’s full of opportunity. What you’ve done as a Sabb matters. The challenge now is making sure others can see it too.
Conor Naughton recruits CEOs, senior leaders and trustees for charities and students’ unions, with a particular focus on values-led organisations and emerging leadership. Drawing on his own experience as a former Students’ Union President and trustee, Conor brings a thoughtful, people-first approach to executive search and leadership development. If you’re nearing the end of your term and would like to have a conversation, or if you’re in a position to support an outgoing officer, he’d be happy to speak.
