This is great - I always enjoy hearing about positive professional moves as so many people get stuck in jobs and careers they no longer enjoy or straight hate... even sober people who never had issues with addiction. Congrats on the move
New things and not feeling confident usually just seem scary at the beginning in my experience, once in it, it often turns into positive excitement and anticipation if it is the right choice.
My version is that I've developed a private business since getting sober and it's going very well. Still have my old job/career thatI like it in general, but I have been contemplating becoming 100% self-employed for a while and this COVID lockdown actually reassured me pretty strongly that I don't need to fear making that move (~80-90% of the business involves working from home even during normal times). It would take a while as my old job is now so full of responsibilities/dependencies that I can't just leave overnight (or even over a couple months), but I am working on winding down this year. I might still get another job at a different institution/field eventually and keep doing that in parallel with the business if I find a place that I like and they allow enough flexibility, not sure yet... but definitely all of it is new and exciting. For me, these changes have been gradual over time and I still use my old education and expertise, for me learning and continuing training is a life-long passion... but it definitely stalled a lot during the worst of my drinking.
Most certainly none of these would have been possible while drinking and the professional stuckness was one of the major factors I hated the most at the end of my drinking - even a decent and theoretically interesting job was dull and uninspiring while "competing" with my alcoholism. Wanting professional development was also a major motivating factor for me to quit drinking for good.
All the best, Hodd!