Ash Barty’s tip for making a big career move: Trust your gut

Sitting in front of Ash Barty, a few words spring to mind: relaxed, composed, at ease. She’s telling me about her momentous decision to leave professional tennis at the top of her game – as a three-time grand slam winner, with the hopes of a nation on her shoulders — and it’s clear from her body language there isn’t a hint of regret.

That’s the goal for every big career move — to make your choice, and know it’s the right one for you.

She tells LinkedIn News she has one piece of advice for anyone thinking about leaving what they know to pursue something else.

“In a really big decision, I just trusted my gut. I thought it was the right time for me. I knew it was the right time for me."

“I've always been a very driven person and passionate about knowing what I want and I think I wanted to try and chase and challenge myself in a different way.”

She’s recently accepted her first role outside professional tennis as Optus Chief of Inspiration. Like anyone changing careers, she looked at her skills to see what was transferrable from her old job — the world’s highest ranked tennis player — to this new position. She’s also previously made the decision to leave tennis for cricket and back again, and says every experience teaches her how to find the transferrable skills.

“I was working in a team when I played tennis. I think now being able to work with a new team at Optus, the skills transfer over, from work ethic to enjoyment, to leadership skills, to being vulnerable, to having trust in each other."

"So many of those skills will transfer over and now, it's exciting to explore them together and put a little bit of an Ash flavor on some of the projects and some of the fun that we get to have.”

It's a lofty role, to inspire Australians, and she says she will build on her own personal sources of inspiration that led her to become the world’s best.

“My inspiration as a kid was my mum and my sisters. As an athlete, it was Yvonne Goolagong Cawley. I was so fortunate throughout my life to have so many different sources of inspiration and different people that have paved different pathways, that have offered advice and encouraged me to chase my dreams and to make decisions for the right reasons.

“Now I feel extremely fortunate to be able to do that myself. I'm not quite sure how we will do it. I think it's exciting because it's new. It'll be authentic. It'll be raw. It’ll be brilliant.”

Now that is the kind of enthusiasm we all want to feel on week one of a new job.

Have you ever left what you know to try something new in your career? Share your advice and experiences in the comments below.

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