My Declassified Survival Guide to Career Pivots

Introduction

The hardest thing to do is to pivot, especially in an uncertain economy. But if you're like me, it's worth taking the risk to get closer to where you want to be. 

‍

So far, I've done two career pivots: 1) leaving engineering for tech and 2) specializing in cloud & AI. Most recently, I switched careers because I was at the cusp of becoming an expert in an extremely niche, proprietary IBM technology. Most of the experts are retiring, which meant I could expedite my becoming an expert in that space, which certainly would've offered job security. But, I'm one of those people who needs to feel like their job is exciting or helps fulfill my purpose in this world. 

‍

It is scary and tricky to do in an age of auto-rejections and HR bots. So, that's why I put together this survival guide to career pivots. I documented what I did that led to a pay increase, stock options, and better benefits. 

‍

A couple of disclaimers: 

• I have a degree from a reputable institution and 7+ years of work experience at Fortune 500 companies, so take what I say with a grain of salt. 
• It took me almost 11 months to find a job. I already had a job and was casually looking for another opportunity, which only intensified towards the end of that timeframe.

As with anything, results may vary.

‍

Conferences

I started attending conferences. Here are just a few:

• Grace Hopper
• NSBE
• RenderATL
• Baddies in Tech
• Blacks in Technology

‍

I also attended local chapter meetings of professional organizations I was a member of. For example, I went to a "Tech"-themed golfing event with Ladies Who Golf and learned from the ladies there. 

‍

None of these translated to an opportunity, but I was learning what the industry cares about and what roles I should be looking for. 

‍

Networking

I started networking. One thing I did not do was anticipate that every interaction I had would result in an opportunity. I knew that I needed to be in the habitual practice of networking and kept doing it to maintain my networking skills and grow my network. With each interaction, though, I always got more information, so it never was a waste. 

I learned which companies to target, what the industry is hiring a lot for (AI/ML), etc. This information helped me to be realistic during the job search. Talking to people gave me a reality check. I was shooting very high for an opportunity at Google or Microsoft when I could have a comfortable tech job at, say, an insurance company or government. Information from people helped me to readjust my expectations during the job search process. 

‍

LinkedIn

I value in-person interactions over virtual ones. However, I recognize the importance of using LinkedIn to expand your network. I started by warming up my existing network of contacts. This looks like leaving comments, re-sharing posts, or sending personalized messages again with no expectations. You never know when you'll need someone, and you don't want the first time they hear from you in months or years to be an ask or a favor. *Cringe* 

‍

I got a free month trial for LinkedIn Premium, which also didn't lead to a job opportunity but did show me jobs I would be a good fit for. 

‍

Reaching out to recruiters on LinkedIn

Here's when things turned for the better: I read an interesting reply by a recruiter on a Reddit post. Someone was asking if it was a good idea to reach out to recruiters on Linkedin. And this is what a recruiter had to say: 

"I do not mind if people reach out to me, as long as their experience is relevant and they are professional in their approach… And it really helps if they're specific. I get more emails and phone calls a day if I could ever possibly return. And so if I get an email on LinkedIn that says something like "any good jobs for me? Here's my résumé." I just immediately delete it, because I don't have time. But if I get a note that says something [like]: 

" Hey, I wanted to reach out. I'm trying to break into the.xxxx field, and would really appreciate if you could take a look at my background. I think I might be good for the job that you had listed that was job number.xxxxxx." 

That is a good note. Because I can very easily figure out what he's talking about, what do you want to, and who I might send it to to help move along."

‍

Another recruiter said: 

"So long as their experience aligns with what I recruit (my LI is specific), I'm fine if people reach out."

‍

What worked for me

So here's the strategy I used that worked for me: 

1. I looked for recruiters at companies I was interested in that were recruiting for roles I was interested in. 
2. I decided to message recruiters who were actively posting on LinkedIn, i.e., they were posting or reposting roles within the past 2 weeks. I then sent this message:

Hello, I wanted to reach out. I'm trying to break into the AI industry and would appreciate if you could look at my background. I think I might be a good job for the role you had listed that was job number.xxxxx.

‍

I kid you not: this got me an interest call with a Solutions Architect team at NVIDIA. I was not expecting any real engagement. 

‍

Now, let's get into obtaining the job. 

‍

Projects

I'm a member of a Patreon community of a YouTuber who had an episode on careers. She invited her soror to speak about her transition into a new job role and industry. (Not tech. I believe it was DEI. The industry doesn't matter; the process is going to be similar). To get there, she created a 40-page case study that earned her the job. It gave me the idea to work on projects to demonstrate my ability to do a role without having the experience from my past and current roles.

‍

Knowing that I would be interviewing with the NVIDIA AI Enterprise team, I worked on a project to deploy a deep learning model on the cloud using NVIDIA's AI Enterprise tools and technology (Triton Inference Server, TensorRT, NVIDIA GPUs, CUDA, cuDNN, etc). You can check out the project here. 

‍

Did I lose a weekend working on this and spent $100 on AWS? Yes. But I was confident that the skills & experience I gained would be worth it, if not for this then for the next opportunity. I'd have hands-on skills and a project I could discuss during my interview. I knew I had to stand apart. I wouldn't recommend you do this unless you really want the job, which I did. 

‍

Projects and real experience hold a lot of weight, more so than formal education. If you can show you can do it, you're miles ahead. 

‍

Job Tracking

It's a numbers game. I started the job search process and was discouraged by all the rejections. It came one after the other, after the other. I took a break from applying just to take a breather. Then, I grabbed this Trello Job Board tracker and started tracking every application. And I began to appreciate the quick rejections because I could just move the card to the 'Rejected' column and move on to another job. 

‍

The job tracker was particularly useful when I applied to similar roles because I could download the resume I applied to a similar job and tailor it to the new company or role. 

On the Trello board, I kept copies of my resume, links to my Github repository, job applications with links to the job description, the names of hiring managers, the dates I applied, etc. It was convenient for me to see where I was. 

‍

I also ranked the companies I wanted to work for. I'm at the point in my career where I am not desperate for a job. Instead of picking a job for the company name alone, I made a list of things that I valued and ranked companies on my list. I also included Glassdoor rankings in my rankings. If a company ranked higher than my current employer, I went for it. 

‍

Closing Thoughts

It is tough to land a job in this economy. If you feel like it's just you, it's not. It is just a tough time. Be prepared to be looking for at least a year. That's why it's best to look for a job while you have a job. Be open, more flexible, and very patient. 

‍