Taking a leap of faith: Here's how this Gen Zer made an early career pivot

Neal Sivadas always knew he wanted to break into marketing. One of his first opportunities in the field came before his senior year at the University of Southern California. It was the summer of 2020 and Sivadas was joining the virtual ranks of Amazon Web Services as a product marketing manager intern.

“I did that internship over that summer and enjoyed the 'virtual culture' of Amazon enough to accept the return offer that I received,” he says.

Sivadas headed back to school relieved that come May he would be entering the working world with a secure job — or so he thought. Just a month before graduation, Sivadas learned that the program he intended to join at Amazon was cut.

“What they told me was that we no longer can offer you this role, but we can find you a different role within Amazon,” he recalls. “I had a minor in applied analytics in college, so I knew a bit of SQL and Python. I eventually was offered a data analyst position.”

Although data analytics wasn’t what Sivadas wanted to pursue, he accepted the new job offer. “I took it because it was a month before graduation, especially in a tough time,” he says. Sivadas started his role in July, hopeful yet apprehensive. It didn’t take long for the now 23-year-old to realize that it was not a good fit.

What did he do? I spoke to Sivadas, who is a LinkedIn Top Voice and author of the Find Gen Z newsletter, to find out. He shared how he made an early career pivot, ultimately landing on his feet at TikTok as a global product marketing manager. Below are excerpts from our conversation (some quotes were edited for length and clarity):

How did you realize that your position Amazon wasn’t a good fit?

From the beginning I knew it was a bad fit. … There was an expectation that I knew how to use SQL really well, but I had a very entry-level ability. I will say also, for this job I was not actually vetted at all. I didn't talk to anyone about the job before they offered it to me and no one interviewed me.That was probably the first red flag. About a couple months in, I realized that I was at this impetus of, what do I do? I'm in this job that I realized I didn't have the technical capabilities for. I wasn't receiving the training that I needed to be successful and I wasn't particularly happy in my role either, especially given that I onboarded during the pandemic. That was very difficult because there was no in-office support.

What steps did you take once you had that realization?

I consulted my former internship manager at Amazon. I consulted some of my mentors, friends and family. The advice I got was, 'Don't quit your job right away unless it's a super toxic environment. It's easier to find a job when you have a job.' The second piece of advice was something I didn't follow. We hear this a lot, 'Your career's a long time. Three months or even a year is really a short time in that period, so you should stay in your role and try it out. If you don't like it, you can leave after a year.' I realized I did not want to do that for a year. Maybe it was just me being selfish, but I was like, ‘I don't want to do that,’ so I started applying to other jobs.

Did you ever have any hesitation that a short stint on your resume would hurt your candidacy? How did you explain that in interviews??

Absolutely. It's definitely a stain on the resume. You don't see a lot of few-month roles on people's resumes, especially when it's their first job out of college. What does the employer think? 'That's a red flag. They clearly can't even handle their first job.' How I explained it was, I was super honest and I had a story. What happened with the internship, getting thrown into a role I wasn't capable of. I didn't vet them, they didn't vet me, so we knew it was a bad fit. I explained where my passion really lies and you could explain this on my resume because all my previous positions were in marketing. I could explain that this is what I really wanted to do.?

What roles did you target when you started job searching, and how did you ultimately land a job at TikTok?

I was going pretty broad because even though I knew I wanted to do product marketing, there were actually not a lot of product marketing roles out there. There were just general marketing roles. I focused on tech companies before, that was kind of my thing, so that was definitely the focus. I cared more about leaving the job than finding the perfect role. I was open to things outside of tech. The biggest thing was about stability. I knew that my second job had to be a place I could settle down. I cold applied to a lot of different roles and eventually was able to land a few interviews at various companies. For the TikTok one ... in the interview process itself, I was immediately able to explain my situation, why I wanted to hop back into product marketing and why I thought it was a good fit. Also, having a side hustle in the Gen Z space I think did help with that application.

What advice would you give to other new grads who end up in a job that’s unfulfilling??

A few questions you might ask yourself if you're in the situation of 'I've been in my first job out of college for a few months and I'm not really sure if I want to do this' are, do you see a long-term outlook? Is this a role that you could be doing long term, getting promoted in the role? Do you feel like the environment you're in right now is safe? Is this an environment where things aren't necessarily perfect, but you feel supported by your team? There are a few things I would think about to decide how to make that jump. You have to tell a good story. Understand that not everyone's going to believe or understand your story. I think even if it makes sense, people will still have doubts in the back of their mind because they don't have the full picture. Only you have the full picture … You may have to go above and beyond in interviews. Go the whole nine yards with preparation and suggest ideas that they didn't even think of.

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?? Always be a student

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?? College corner?

How do you thrive in a fast-paced internship??

It’s important to set goals for your internship — but the path you take to achieve them will likely not be straightforward. Embrace each opportunity, even if it requires you to step outside of your comfort zone. This will help you gain new skills and experience, making your internship a success. Click here for more advice.

?? 9-to-5 with me

As the CEO and founder of The Conversationalist — a content platform of 125,000 Gen Zers —? Sophie Beren knows a thing or two about building a community from the ground up. She encourages other Gen Zers to prioritize relationship building in their own careers. For more advice and to see what Beren gets up to in a typical workday, check out her video below or by clicking here .

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