Career Pivoting Part III: Advice

Hello & welcome to what has turned into a 3-part series on career pivoting (we love rule of threes, right?). For reference, you can find part I here (how I realized I needed to make a career pivot) and part II here (how I navigated the pivot, and especially who helped along the way).

Part III is the reflection on what makes for a successful career pivot & the advice I give to someone who is interested in pursuing one. Of course, I am n=1 (and, yes this was many years ago...) so these opinions are my own based on what worked for me!

1️⃣ Invest in your relationships. 🤝

This is probably my #1 piece of advice for anyone, anywhere in a corporate environment — whether you're trying to pivot or not. A wise woman (hi, Sydni Craig-Hart!) once said to me: "People like to do business with people they know, like, and trust."🎤 Mic drop. Particularly if you work at a company with a collaborative culture, but even if you don't, I'm a firm believer that if people enjoy working with you & they trust that you do great work, it will unlock doors for you. I invested early in my cross-functional relationships, so that when I had the crazy idea of pivoting from Finance to Marketing, I had established myself as a trustworthy, hard worker who could get things done, and I had "friendlies" on the Marketing team who helped me not just pivot, but ramp up quickly once I transitioned into my new role. Be likeable, work hard. It will take you far.

2️⃣ Find your pivot point. 🏀

My illustrious basketball career ⛹🏼♀️ came to an end in the fifth grade, but truly one of the "skills" I learned was pivoting: you keep one foot planted, while the other one moves. When I moved from Finance to Marketing, I was making a substantial change in my function, but I kept other things constant: namely the business line and product at the company I worked for. That meant while I was ramping up on the ins & outs of product marketing, I was already an expert in our how our business made money, I understood the product fairly well, and I knew the important stakeholders & what they cared about. 2 reasons I always encourage people to find a true pivot vs. a wholesale career change. First, you'll be more qualified. You have more knowledge to contribute and skills to leverage — you're an easier sell to the hiring team. Second, you'll ramp up more quickly. Having existing knowledge to leverage reduces the number of new things you'll have to learn and gives you a valuable perspective from day 1.

3️⃣ Be willing to step sideways or backwards. 🦀

With my functional change, I accepted that I was going to have to move into a role that was "lower" on the career ladder 🪜 vs. my current position. Sometimes that comes with a pay cut, too. I think this gets harder to "stomach" the further along in your career you go, but it's important to have a realistic conversation with yourself about whether you're OK with that. And, unless there are major financial implications to taking a step backwards, I would encourage you to check your pride at the door — careers are long, and not every step needs to be forward or up. You can learn so much from moving sideways, and it's totally possible to accelerate your path forward following a sideways or backwards step. Mine absolutely did. If you don't believe me, here's a more reputable opinion: "the case for being more like a crab" (h/t to my fellow pivoter Jill Raines , who once shared this on LinkedIn — love it).

Ok... Two final thoughts 💭

I would be completely remiss if I didn't mention the role of company culture. I am HUGELY (I should bold, underline, italicize, and CAPS that word) fortunate to work for a company where "transformation" (of the world, of the company, and of ourselves) is one of our corporate values. That value system enabled and facilitated my personal career transformation — and I couldn't be more grateful for it. Your company may or may not value internal mobility or transformation (something we at LinkedIn are working on actively). If it doesn't, consider what other options you might have to set you up for a pivot: credibly building new skills in the area you want to pivot to.

To that end — I heard from a number of MBAs (thank you to those who shared your experiences!) who credited Business School with enabling them to pivot. It's certainly a more expensive route, but it sounds like you have some fun along the way 😉) And while I can't speak from personal experience there, it was clear that an MBA (or other advanced degree) creates an environment ripe for pivoting:

• It gives you space to explore. "You go in thinking you're going to do one thing, and you leave doing something completely different." Jane Bernhard, MBA
• It can supercharge your network. "My network helped me with every [pivot], and my MBA program helped me grow my network" Stephanie Movahhed, MBA, PCC
• It has a very outwardly marketable end-date. Finishing your MBA is a "signal to the world that your career has evolved" Sarha Mavrakis . Don't squander the opportunity to shout that from the rooftops and make it known what you want to do next. (And hey, LinkedIn is a great place to do that).
• I won't @ mention the handful of you who shared the fun stories… You know who you are 😏)

What did I miss?

Like I said, I often get asked for advice on career pivoting, because it's easy to see that I did it from my LinkedIn profile. But I would love to learn more from others — what's worked (and what hasn't!) — so I can round out my perspective & give even better advice. Let me know in the comments, or DM me, I do love talking about this topic. Thanks for reading!