Coming into my PhD I never would have thought what would follow. What followedwas several years of national and international collaboration on athletes’ dual careerssupporting my PhD on the same topic (Linnér, 2021). This granted me the opportunityto later accept a part-time position and take a lead as Head of operations anddevelopment at Halmstad university as one of six National sports universities in Sweden.Using Stambulova’s (2009, 2020) athletic career transition model as an inspirationmy aim for this presentation is to share my journey of transitioning from PhDto a multifaceted role encompassing teaching, administration, research and development,and the helm of operations and development running a sports university.In essence, my transition can be summarized as moving from researching athletes’dual careers and exploring dual career development environments (e.g., Henriksenet al., 2020) to developing a dual career development environment and support inpractice, while continuing to do research and collaborate about athlete’s career developmentand transitions. Keeping in mind a whole-person approach, my transitionmainly revolved around vocational changes, whereas psychological, psychosocial,and financial aspects of my life remained mainly the same. I will outline my key transitiondemands including the dual responsibility of steering the sports university towardsincreased integration of efforts based on developing stakeholder relationshipswhile also contributing to research through paper publication as a central expectationwithin the university. I will summarize my main coping resources (e.g., organizationalskills, determination, an in-depth understanding of athletes’ dual careers,pre-existing relationships with stakeholders, and supportive colleagues) and barriers(e.g., lack of understanding from the organization) and outline my coping strategies(e.g., strategic planning, self-compassion) in balancing the roles of being a youngscholar and an organizational leader.