AMY BERNSTEIN: … from my perspective, a mid-career shift really challenges you to tell your story. You need to make the argument for you. It’s a great exercise because it forces you to make sense of your career, and there are no false moves in a career if you can make sense of them.
NINA BOWMAN: That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right.
AMY BERNSTEIN: And it actually has an additional benefit of giving you some deep understanding of who you are so that you understand you’ve had agency in your career.
NINA BOWMAN: That’s right. And it takes work.
AMY BERNSTEIN: Yeah, it takes a lot of work.
NINA BOWMAN: Because there’s a lot of self-reflection and assessment in order to create that narrative.
AMY BERNSTEIN: And astringent honesty because if you tell a story that rings false-
NINA BOWMAN: Yeah, it doesn’t work.
AMY BERNSTEIN: …your listener is going to hear that.
NINA BOWMAN: They will. They will. So weaving that narrative in an honest way, finding the common thread, it makes all the difference in being able to make a transition.
AMY BERNSTEIN: You’re listening to Women at Work from Harvard Business Review. I’m Amy Bernstein. When you realize the line of work you’ve been in for years doesn’t interest you anymore, or is in decline or won’t ever pay well enough, what’s your next move? Changing jobs is hard already. Changing sectors is daunting. You’ve built a network of reputation, skills, expertise, a firm grasp of how business operates. Maybe you got a degree in this, maybe more than one. And to just leave all that behind? But then you remember you’re bored or less in-demand than before or underpaid.
One of our listeners who feels stuck doing the thing she has a PhD in, that she’s an expert on, that feeds her family, asks that we do an episode about switching sectors mid-career when you can’t afford to make a misstep. So here we are—here I am—with Nina Bowman. She’s an executive coach and managing partner of the consultancy Paravis Partners. One of the many ways she develops leaders is helping them go from one sector to another, which means facing the uncertainty, the time commitment, the strategizing and storytelling, because while the stakes are high, so is your potential to succeed. Plus, it’s not like you’re starting from scratch.
After my conversation with Nina, I’ll talk to two women who made big career leaps. One transitioned from academia to tech, the other from government to consulting. They faced familiar hurdles like building new networks and showing how their skills translated. They emerged with careers that not only better reflect their values and talents, but also give them greater confidence in their ability to take risks and adapt. But first me and Nina.
You’ve seen a lot of career moves. This is your world. What is the most surprising move you’ve seen and how did the person making that move tell the story?
NINA BOWMAN: Oh goodness. I have seen lots of career moves. You’re right. An interesting one: I had an attorney—large firm attorney—shift into a social justice executive director. I have had a career finance, big bank executive transition into a real estate developer. I have had a woman who was an executive—this is probably the wildest one—an executive who had a passion for bears and she wanted to know how she could create a business. So, we shifted from an executive career move to an entrepreneur who found a way to build out a business with her love and knowledge of bears.
AMY BERNSTEIN: And she did. And she managed to pull it off.
NINA BOWMAN: Managed to pull it off, which again is just a reminder of we can do anything when we want to and when we put our minds to what it is we really want, when we take the time to make the connection and then have a process for how we do it.
AMY BERNSTEIN: And I think it’s so important. I mean, what you just described are these sort of jagged career lines.
NINA BOWMAN: That’s right.
AMY BERNSTEIN: These paths… they’re not logical until you apply the logic, right?
NINA BOWMAN: That’s absolutely right. But we get in our own way when we’re trying to apply that logic.
AMY BERNSTEIN: How do we get in our own way?
