Career Pivot – the key to professional success
Everybody hopes for a glorious career. Some make it, but many don’t. It is not always because of skills or proficiency that some get left behind in the career race. It is because they were not bold enough to make a career pivot.
What is a career pivot?
A career pivot is a sharp change in the direction of your career. To give a few examples:
- You are a marketing professional with ten years in B2B marketing. All your clients are companies, and you deal with the purchasing department of your client to make a sale. You decide to shift from B2B to B2C marketing. Your clients now are individual customers. Your sales channel is the distributor-dealer network. It is a completely different ball game from the one you were used to. This is a career pivot.
- You are an engineer and have spent the last 10 years on the production shop floor. You did an online MBA and asked for a change. Your company offers you the job of procurement. Instead of dealing with machines, you are now dealing with suppliers. This is also a career pivot.
- You are heading the finance function. You keep cribbing to your MD about how a business unit is not focused on the bottom line at all. One day the MD promotes you as the head of that business unit with P&L responsibilities. You now need to think not of as an accountant but like a businessman. This is also a career pivot.
- Finally, after ten years as an employee, you decide to try your hand as an entrepreneur. You no longer have the comfort of a steady income. You must get business and deliver if you want a salary. This is the ultimate career pivot.
These are examples of career pivots- and it is these that lead to a glorious career. Let us see why.
A career pivot challenges you!
An individual performs at their best when challenged. Olympic records get broken every time because of this. The best performer is challenged – this improves the performance. As in sports, this is true in careers as well.
A career pivot challenges you unlike none other. You are in a new and unknown territory. You are out of your comfort zone. It is either a sink or swim situation. This strengthens you mentally and physically. With every pivot in your career, you gain greater confidence. This shows in your body language which others read. With renewed confidence, you perform better.
Success comes to those who dare to move out of their comfort zones.
A career pivot broadens your outlook
As you move out of a known area and take on something new, you change as a person. In addition to the renewed confidence, we talked of earlier, you also increase the breadth of your knowledge. The production engineer who becomes the procurement head brings far greater product knowledge than a pure commercial person who heads procurement. This wider knowledge makes him more effective,
Similarly, a B2B marketing person when he steps into B2C marketing brings with him or her a new set of tools to navigate the new marketplace. This always makes him or her a far better performer.
The broader your perspective, the greater your chance of getting to General Managerial and C Level positions.
Career pivots take away the boredom of a job
Doing the same job day in and day out can become dull. This results in a lack of enthusiasm that shows on the job. This leads to poor results, bad appraisals, and negative career growth. Frequent pivots are one way of keeping the interest and enthusiasm in a career alive.
You don’t grow in your career if you display a boring look. Everyone, especially your boss can see it. Asking for pivots is one way of overcoming this career dampener.
All professionals should look for opportunities to pivot their careers. It is the sure-shot way to professional success. A transition from Employee to Entrepreneur is the best pivot – you are guaranteed an exciting life of freedom, challenge, and wealth.
Read BYOB – Be Your Own Boss, a systematic guide to making a successful career pivot. Order your copy from Amazon.in or visit the online store to get a signed copy.