Switching careers laterally – Part 2

After a short hiatus, I am back with the part 2!

In the previous blog, we discussed how to effectively position yourself with prospective employers when you do not have prior experience in their domain. But that is only getting the foot in the door. Once you have that dream job, establishing yourself in the new domain is a different ball game.

Unlearn: When you make lateral switches in your career, the first thing to do is to identify areas that you should unlearn from your previous background. Holding on to ideas that are not relevant in the new environment could become an impediment.

in parallel of course you need to work hard to learn the new domain. Apart from leveraging formal training programs and on line training, these days there are various short videos I watch about my current domain – banking – which I am relatively new to. The next question is the all-important one – how do you find the time to learn new things? I look up this material while traveling or waiting at airports. I find them very useful and use the otherwise unproductive time.

Find the right synergies: Just as you identify areas to unlearn from your previous background, you should also be on the look for areas common between the two domains.

I switched career again, when I left Wipro to join Sasken! Here we were working on innovative products that were developed out of R & D. The programs typically involved higher technical risks, were fluid in scope, and had unpredictable schedules. Given my previous background, I decided to focus on my key expertise - customer account management, mitigating risks, and managing contracts - all of these were highly relevant in Sasken.

As it turns out, I filled a natural gap and added value to my team, as well as my organization. With this approach, in a very short period, I earned the respect of my customers, my team as well as my superiors.

I could manage to turn around a couple of bad contracts, where the underlying issue was related to expectation management and needed increased customer centricity. Soon, I was made in-charge of the APAC region followed by global responsibility a little later.

Overtime I learned the technical details about the products and started getting involved in technical solutioning and sales. When you launch new ideas and products, it entails concept selling, something I had built specialization in. Experience in technical sales also helped me in my subsequent stint as global head of Mobile applications.

No room for Insecurity: In Sasken, I joined a highly qualified and technically strong team - one of the best in the industry. Team members included PhDs or post-graduates in Digital Signal processing (DSP), and many of them were patent-holders too. I, on the other hand, was rather clueless about audio-video codes – our main products at the time.

I let myself guided by my junior team members on technical aspects. I considered their opinion and expertise to take decisions related to technology choices, optimization of performance, etc. I continued to add value leveraging my experience in customer centricity. As I was learning about DSP, I was able to ask the right questions to identify risks and guide our teams, as well as have meaningful conversations with my customers. This not only gave my team space to adjust to a new leader, but also created a win-win situation. As the cogs set together perfectly, it also boosted my confidence. Very soon I got rid of any inhibitions I had about not being a DSP expert.

On the flip side, I know many instances where smart people ruined their careers simply because they are insecure and unable to work in a team. Insecure people start ‘turf protecting’. This kills teams and sets you up for failure.

Thank goodness you aren’t the smartest one around: Even as you gain expertise in your new domain, today technology is changing so fast, it’s difficult to keep pace with the constantly dynamic environment. As a successful leader though, if you surround yourself with people smarter than you, you as a team can be on top of the changes. The trick then, is to work cohesively towards a common team goal!

Through all my career switches these techniques have helped me succeed. And what worked for me many years ago, is equally important today. Taking calculated risks, learning from seniors, peers, and juniors alike and letting go of your inhibitions are the foundation stones of making a successful career leap.