I joined as the CEO of Gallup in India. Gallup took a leap of faith and recruited a CEO with no background in employee engagement or customer engagement.

This was a major career shift. It was a big deal to become a CEO before the age of 40. Gallup came my way and gave me an opportunity to become CEO, India.

I was intrigued by the opportunity to become a CEO.

It is said that there are 3 components to any job, Product, market and consumer. Ideally, only 1 out of 3 should change while in a career transition at senior level.

In my case, both the product (strategy to employee engagement) and the clients (CEOs to CHROs) changed. The only familiar aspect was the market i.e. India.

I still managed to succeed, because I turned my weakness into strength. I turned employee engagement into strategy enabler. Engagement became a CEO-agenda while the client was still the CHRO.

CHROs felt empowered to impact strategy. I identified gaps in strategy implementation and engaged employees to fill those gaps.

This way, the CEO became my ultimate client.

As a result, Gallup’s revenue grew 6-fold, through market expansion and gaining market share. We had 95% market share.

This was the biggest career transition of my life. We do not find many examples in the present scenario.

What has changed?
In an ideal world, every individual should have been placed in the right job. However, the real world is different, and individuals must take the first available job when they graduate. The next job builds on the experience gained in the first one. The story continues. It is certainly unfair to expect a 21-year-old to decide her/his career for the rest of the life. Even a 35-year-old may need to transition her/his career because the present job may be redundant, or one wants to do something new or different.

Today, job rotation is limited at all levels and companies hire people to do what they were doing yesterday.

Why?
The tenures have become shorter. Investment in job rotation and even training do not yield results for the businesses. People can’t alone be blamed for shorter tenures. Many companies downsize workforce at the slightest provocation.

How can you make a huge career change possible today? Today, career transitions are more likely inside a company rather than outside.

You can take the following steps to make it happen:

1. Find alternative paths inside the company.
2. Understand the gaps and competencies required for the job.
3. Fill the gaps by learning new things and volunteering for special projects with in the company.
4. In case the gap seems too big, try reaching the adjacent or the intermediate role before achieving the final one. For instance, if you want to move from strategy to employee engagement, first move to performance management to enable strategy and then transition to employee engagement.
5. Focus on managing stakeholders and creating value. A career is a combination of skills, capabilities and opportunities. While skills and capabilities are in your hands, opportunities lie outside of our circle of influence.

Hence, focus on improving relations with the managers who can provide you with an opportunity. In the case of large companies, network with people who can influence the final decision-maker.

Making a successful career transition is not easy, but with the right strategy, preparation, and mindset, everything is possible!

Whether you’re planning to pivot within your present company or venture into an entirely new domain with a new employer, please remember that adaptability, continuous learning, and relationship-building are your greatest assets.

Have you ever made a significant career transition, or are you planning one?

Share your experience or goals in the comments below! I look forward to reading your inspirational story and learning from your journey? A lot of people will benefit from your experience.