From Intelligence Analyst to HR to Tech Industry Leader: How Career Pivots Can Lead You to Success

One of the biggest challenges that service leavers face is selecting their new career. There’s a lot of pressure to get it right, but what if the 'right' career isn't just one path? To answer this, we chatted with Cecilie Lowson whose journey from military intelligence analyst to tech industry leader (with a lot of different roles in between) shows that career exploration may be more important than focusing on one destination.?

Currently CEO and Founder of Peak Enterprise Solutions, Cecilie's post-military journey shows just how varied – and challenging – civilian life can be.?

After leaving her role as a military intelligence analyst, she started working retail jobs. From there, she pivoted through HR roles and administrative positions, gradually working her way into tech. Her impressive 20-year career spans firmware, cloud computing, and global programme management, leading to her current position where she guides organisations through what she calls the fourth industrial revolution.

Her path from minimum wage to managing global-scale projects and advising C-suite executives proves that while the journey may be bumpy, the potential for growth after service is limitless.

Enjoy! ??

(You’ll find key takeaways at the bottom)?

[Annabel] Could you tell us about your military career?

[Cecilie] When I joined at 25, I became an intelligence analyst and immediately fell in love with the job. It was kind of like the behind-the-scenes work - if you get it right, nobody knows who you are, and everybody comes home. I enjoyed the complexity of predictive analysis and figuring out what people are doing, what their intent is, and then giving good information to soldiers.

What happened was after about a year and a half, I had become a single mum, and I’d gone through a divorce. You can't deploy if you are a single parent. So they gave me the option since we were deploying to Afghanistan, to either stay behind in rear detachment or to get out. I felt the best thing for the battalion was to opt-out.?

[A] And can you tell us what happened after you left?

[C] I got out at the peak of the recession, there were no jobs. I have a top-secret clearance, and I've got all this training, but no jobs. I started applying immediately for defence roles and subcontract roles, but because I didn't have in-country experience, it didn't matter. It was about nine months before I got a job, which was terrifying.

Going back to school was a nice idea, but when you have two kids at home, you can't just go back into education. So I got an admin temp role for housing and urban development, working a receptionist job, processing people's paperwork and getting yelled at a lot by strangers. A few years later I used my GI bill to pursue an International Relations and Threat assessment bachelors while working 25 hours a week, married to an NCO in the Army and two kids at home, so there was little room for much else in life for about 3 years. Unsurprisingly, I couldn't finish the degree. Looking back, it was a tough time. Eventually, I went from admin to human resources and did some temp work for Google. I was working on GPS and wifi overlay and mapping, which was stuff I did in the army. I ended up bouncing between those two worlds of HR and tech, before ending up at Amazon and asking to be transferred to Europe, where I joined the military recruiting team and started helping other service members get employed.

[A] So there’s a lot of change there. Looking back now, what have you learned?

[C] I'm thankful I did do night school; I did it in the evenings and weekends and remotely.?

But instead of pursuing my dream degree, I’d have focused on a degree that was probably more applicable. It's hard to be motivated about completing something that you don't care about, but that's a job. Jobs are the thing you do as a transaction for money, it's really not defining your life. I did international relations and threat assessment, which is what I loved, but it has no application in the majority of careers. Knowing that now, I think my recommendation is don't pick a degree plan that's just based on passion if you are at a point where you need employment and you need to buckle down. Stick to your guns on what's relevant in today's market and what you think you're capable of.

[A] And do you think having a degree is essential?

[C] No, and that's where I've gotten a lot of flack. The reality is your strengths are your ability to learn fast, your ability to adapt to the environment around you as it grows and being self-taught. More employers are starting to grasp that a degree can be worthless in the end.?

What they want is certifications, they want to see that you're a self-motivated, self-learner, and driven to get kind of a pass mark. So like getting your Prince2, PMP or ITIL certs, you can get a lot of technical project management roles or even business analyst roles with just a cert, not a degree.

[A] That’s interesting, and what if you don’t have a role, is it worth doing these certifications independently if you don’t have an organisation paying for you?

[C] Fewer companies are willing to pay for those certs unless you're progressing very quickly into senior management roles. Let's say you do get a job as an apprentice or something with a great company like Microsoft or Google or whatever, then yeah, sure, those companies can afford to.

But if you're looking at starting in a moderate-sized company and you're just learning the IT desk or you're just working in marketing and communication and you're just figuring this out, they're probably not going to pay.?

However, it's proactive and looks good for you that you went out and did it. And then when you tell people about it, you're going to have a different confidence level. You're going to say, I then went and obtained a certification, which sounds very different to an interviewer or a potential employer. So I would advocate, continuing learning no matter what job you're in.

[A] Okay. That makes sense. Thinking back to job-switching then,?how do you get comfortable knowing that you might have to move jobs again?

If you can uproot yourself and move to another state, another country, or another base, then what is the fear of moving jobs?

The other thing that's really important to keep in mind is knowing when you want to make that change. there are a couple of things you should always ask yourself:

If you’re at a point where either you or your management can't communicate effectively, then it's probably time to move on. Or, are you at a point where you do not see eye to eye on your career progression needs? And that could be financial, budgetary, or personal.?

And then the second thing is, is this organisation growing at the pace that matches your ambition and your capabilities? So if the company's not growing and you are, you're going to hit that ceiling very fast. If it's more about your growth that hasn't happened, I think that's when it's great to have mentors and coaches in your life. There are a lot of people out there who want you to pay for coaching, but I would say just find mentors until you want to pay for coaching. The mentorship relationship is great because they will sense check you on your BS, they’ll know you're being ridiculous about things, and that's great feedback to get. So always sense check.?

Your mentors can be people from different industries, and different sectors. They can be five years older than you, 20 years older than you. They could be just people who've been successful and are younger than you because they've got some kind of experience to leverage.

Whatever the situation, level with yourself and say, okay, I can see this coming, so it's no longer scary. I can plan for this and I can react before I'm backed into a corner where maybe I would be let go because they can tell I'm unhappy or they decide to downsize.

[A] This is really great advice, thank you Cecilie. Would you say your career changes were strategic or more reactive?

[C] I'd say in the earlier part, it was not strategic. After learning a few lessons, it became almost like I was hyper-aware of leaders before even bothering to apply and I’d ask a lot of people who work there for insights.?

It was no longer, "I should convince them to give me this job." It was, "do i want to work there."

The thing is, you can’t map progression so well outside of the military, where progression is very transparent. In civilian life, it’s not the same at all. Some companies have a culture that tries to be upfront, but there are politics which impact it. You have to self-advocate, pulling out what you’re doing well, otherwise everyone's too busy to stop and look. And it's not that they don't want to, they're just too busy.

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[A] What advice do you have for people approaching a job change?

[C] Very few people get roles just because they apply blindly. And when you do, it's usually because of timing, perfect timing. You got in early enough and you're one of the first 50 or 100 applications that came through.

That's why if you job search, you should always job search for everything posted in the last 24 hours. The other option is if it's been posted over a certain duration, like over a month, then you know that they've been struggling to find the right person. That's when you can still apply and then start networking with people who may have the same titles or similar types. And then you start talking to them and let them know you applied. And then that gets you in.

[A] Okay, that's helpful. What if you know you need a change, but you’re unsure what to do next?

[C] I take a look at the 15 things I would love to have as part of my job and I write them down. And what I do is I look for very senior tenured folks who are doing those kinds of things and then write down their previous job titles and maybe what education they've got, certs, degrees, whatever.?

It kind of makes like a nice little stepping-stone map for you. And then I look at how much of that you already have. Then, so long as you're progressing forward on any one of those trajectories, you're hitting within a range of these top positions that you know you could be probably happy in and successful in.

[A] That makes total sense. Thanks, Cecilie. Do you have any parting words of wisdom?

[C] Don't put it on yourself to figure everything out.?

No one does. No one will.?

You're in a state of transition. Transition is uncertain, it's emotionally impactful. And the biggest part is to have conversations with folks like myself or others who've been out for a while and say, 'how do I make sense of some of this chaos?',? ‘How do I prepare for some cultural changes I didn't anticipate?’.?

Key takeaways:

1. Value Practicality: Focus on degrees/certifications with market relevance, and consider certifications (like Prince2, PMP, ITIL) over degrees. Show yourself to be a constant learner throughout your career.
2. Know When to Change Jobs: Watch for communication breakdowns with management and assess if company growth matches your ambition, it will help you plan transitions before being forced into them. Rely on others to sense check if it's an issue you should learn from and grow from, what you should improve on for yourself. Be humble too.
3. Use Strategic Job Search Methods: Focus on postings from the last 24 hours or those open longer than one month, and network with people in target roles.
4. Create a Career Roadmap: List desired job characteristics, study successful people's career paths and map your existing skills against target roles
5. Build a Support Network: Find mentors across different industries and experience levels, and connect with other veterans who've made the transition.?

Whether you're just starting your transition or well into your civilian career, remember that career paths rarely follow a straight line. As Cecilie's story demonstrates, success often comes from being adaptable, staying open to new opportunities, and maintaining a strong professional network.

Need help exploring your options? Our Career Recommendation Report analyses your skills, experiences, and goals to identify three civilian careers that could be your next perfect fit. It takes just minutes to complete.?

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