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Transitioning to a new industry often seems like a daunting prospect if you feel like you have to start from scratch, but that’s not necessarily the case. There are numerous strategies you can employ to navigate career changes, including translating existing achievements into relevant terms, finding unique opportunity gaps, and leveraging transferable skills in meaningful ways. Take it from professionals who have personally experienced this transition (or have helped others through it): you can build forward from experience rather than starting over. Build Forward From Experience, Not From Scratch When I was transitioning from more than 20 years in corporate roles to launching my own business, I told a colleague I felt like I was starting over. “Why couldn’t I have done this at 20,” I said, “before spending decades building all this other experience? It feels like I’ve hit reset on my career momentum, and the mountain ahead looks huge.” She smiled. “You’re facing your version of Everest,” she said. “But you’re starting at base camp, thousands of feet above where others begin.” She was right. I wasn’t starting from scratch. I was starting from experience. Every skill I’d developed working for others was still mine to use. I’ve remembered that reframe ever since and share it with clients who are shifting into something new. When you move into a different industry, start by looking at what still applies. Connect the dots between where you’ve been and where you’re going. Ask yourself: What problems or structures feel familiar? How do the revenue models, customer relationships, or supply chain challenges overlap? Which of your strengths will transfer naturally into this new space? Do your homework. Use AI to gather insights about your new industry. Talk to people who’ve made a similar jump. You’ll discover that what you know remains relevantyou just need to translate it. When I moved from an HR leadership role in healthcare software to one in petroleum distribution, I quickly realized the challenges were similar. Different products, same human dynamics. A client made a successful transition from investment banker to graduate career adviser for international finance students by leaning into his most transferable (and enjoyable) expertisedecades living in Asia, fluency in Mandarin, passion for mentoring, knowledge of the banking world. He’s at a premier university and loves his work. Another client leapt from corporate program manager to nonprofit executive by trusting her strengthsstrategic alignment, stakeholder management, resource prioritization, and risk and issue management. Skills she learned at a huge organization applied differentlywith phenomenal results. Bottom line: you’re not starting over. You’re building forward. Ground yourself in where you’ve been, learn what’s ahead, and construct bridges between the two. That’s how you climb your next mountain, starting from base camp and not from scratch. Tina Robinson, Founder and CEO, WorkJoy Gain Industry Access Through Consulting Projects First To not start completely from scratch in a new industry, I’d advise doing a little side-gig or consulting project within the new industry before pursuing full-time roles. For example, if you are a finance executive who wants to break into climate tech but keeps getting rejected because of the lack of relevant industry experience, you could try to get a freelance role first. For instance, offer to do a 90-day cash flow optimization project for a climate startup. Such an experience will help you see how the new industry operates from inside out, learn all insider terminology, see the unique problems that you can help solve, and make some useful connections who can then advocate for your work. This can change everything about your job search: you are no longer an outsider trying to get in; you’re already on the inside solving real problems. Many companies will take a risk on a consultant they wouldn’t take on as a permanent hire, and once you’re in, the industry experience barrier disappears. Jan Hendrik Von Ahlen, Managing Director & Cofounder, Career Coach, JobLeads Join Digital Communities to Connect Skills Meaningfully Join a digital community, talk with professionals in that industry, and connect the dots from your skills to their needs. I have 15-plus years of marketing and communications management experience, and somewhere along the way, I realized that my team leadership skills and passions in developing communicators and leaders overlaps with the field of L&D (learning and development). I joined an L&D Slack community, which opened myriad doors for me. Through the community, I signed up for their mentorship program and started working with a fantastic mentor to understand how my skills could transfer; I joined a book club, where I could share insights with L&D professionals; I signed up for coffee chats, where I listened to their pain points and discussed possible solutions; and I joined the digital conversations, adding my thoughts or asking questions and collaborating with colleagues in the space. In that way, I listened to stories, learned the ins and outs of the function, and gained valuable insight that helped me connect the dots from my skills and passions to this new function and all it encompassed. In this way, instead of starting from scratch, you can leverage your skills in ways that are meaningful based on empirical evidence. You can also leverage your new network to identify solutions you didn’t know you could provide and to explore opportunities you didn’t know existed. I can’t say enough good things about all the value digital communities have added to my professional career. As I’ve meandered through functions and industries for nearly two decades, communities have made all the difference. Laura Goldstone, Senior Director of Communications and Branding Strategy, AdDaptive Intelligence Inc. Make Skills Company and Industry Agnostic The dawn of AI has many professionals worried about their current careers and considering, if not pursuing, a career shift. First, realize that the days of an entire career with a single company, or even a single industry, are gone for most people, regardless of your education level, geography, or industry. Second, realize that much of your knowledge and many of your skills are company and industry agnostic. Start by making a comprehensive list of your knowledge, skill, and experience. Are you a good writer? Are you a Microsoft Excel expert? Do you have any certifications like “Project Management Professional” or “Six Sigma Black Belt?” Have you managed people? Take your time and be thorough. Note everything on the list that is useful outside of your current or last company and industry. Next, rewrite your résumé to be company and industry agnostic, using your list as a guide. Again, take your time and focus on your audience, who does not know your company or industry specifics, acronyms, etc. Be sure anyone could read the résumé and understand your competencies and their value in any company. Lastly, practice interviewing and answering common interview questions. Here, AI can be very helpful in identifying industries and companies in “hiring mode” and generating likely interview questions. Use a family member or friend for “role play” interviews to practice your responses. Even though you may have used AI to generate the likely interview questions, do NOT use AI to generate the best responses. The responses must be yours and must be genuine. Just be you. Interviewers can smell AI-generated and/or “boiler plate” responses within a few words. While this strategy may seem “old school” to some, I can attest that it still works as well as ever. I have a client who transitioned from financial services to healthcare analytics. Their core principles of data interpretation, regulatory compliance, and stakeholder communication used in finance translated well to the healthcare industry. They used this strategy, while also enrolling in a short online course to gain familiarity with healthcare-specific terminology and regulations. Because they could demonstrate how their existing skill set aligned with the new role’s requirements, they were able to secure a mid-level position instead of starting in a junior role. Don’t underestimate the value of your hard-earned knowledge, skills, and experience. Joe Palmer, Managing Partner, Prosperity Partners Consulting, Inc. Map Your Strengths to Find Transferable Joy Write down your primary work responsibilities and rate them on a scale of 15, with 5 being the tasks you do with ease, excellence, and joy. Consider what the high scores tell you about your performance, thought process, relationship building skills, motivations, and work style. This gives you a road map of the type of work you would enjoy in the new industry and examples of the responsibilities and skills you hold that transfer over. When I coached someone using this strategy, she quickly realized why she was burned out as an attorney. She quit not too long after and found success transferring her legal knowledge to the nonprofit space. Jaclynn Robinson, Founder | Organizational Consultant and Executive Coach, Nine Muses Consulting, LLC Find Opportunity Gaps Others Miss One of the main operating strategies I brought with me when I transitioned from executive production into successfully founding my own company in the world of brand strategy is, “Hit it where they ain’t,” a quote popularized by baseball hall of famer Willie Keeler. If you adopt this strategy, everything else you do will ladder up to it. This is a transferable skill. It’s true of baseball, advertising, and business in general. I’ve fine-tuned this skill, like a strategic curiosity looking for the useful gaps, throughout my career shifts and growth, and it’s served me well. For example: we live in a highly digital world. Where most entrepreneurs I know are focused on winning in the digital space, we’re focused on finding real-world, offline opportunities to connect. We’ve joined a number of business development councils and networking groups that have taken our business to the next level. Segmenting 10% of my week to making meaningful connections within my space through both potential clients and competitors has been transformative for us as a business, and me as a leader. The world around you is built by people who, in any realm, decided their 24 hours would be put towards building the world around them in their own vision, not someone else’s. “Hitting it where they ain’t” is about having the courage to dream big, taking a big swing, and making sure to follow through. Andrew Stadelberger, Founder, Player/Coach Leverage Executive Advising for Leadership Positions One of the most overlooked transferable skills is executive advising. Consultants learn early how to communicate with and earn the trust of senior leaders. Their ability to distill complexity, identify what truly matters to the business, and operate with executive presence uniquely positions them for leadership roles. Several of my clients have leveraged this skill to step into senior positionsa senior manager became a department head leading 25 people, and another advanced straight from manager to director of partnershipswithout having to start over. Cydnee DeToy, Career Coach, Cydnee DeToy Coaching Translate Achievements into Target Role Language Start by picking one target role and gather 10 job posts for that role so you can see the same tasks and words repeating. Then translate your current achievements or roles into that language on a single page that lists three results you’ve delivered that match those tasks, written in plain terms with the metric that field is using. Build two small proofs of work that fit the role, such as a sample analysis, a short teardown, or a simple workflow built from public data, and keep them tight enough that a busy manager can read them in five minutes. While you build those pieces, talk to five people who do the job today. Connect using LinkedIn, politely ask how they spend a normal week, what gets them judged, and what a good first 90 days looks like, then adjust your proofs to mirror what they told you. This gives you a clear story, real information, and the right words, which is what hiring managers need to see when you come from somewhere else. Jeff Mains, Founder and CEO, Champion Leadership Group Showcase Expertise Through Content Creation Platforms One great way to make a smooth transition into a new industry is by tapping into your transferable skills through writing on Substack. I’ve used this platform to share insights from my teaching experience in careers and personal development, which have helped me pivot into a new career as a coach. By emphasizing the skills I already possessed and picking up new skills such as writing and marketing along the way, I have managed to connect the dots between education and entrepreneurship. Writing not only gave me a platform to showcase my expertise but also allowed me to engage with an audience that appreciated my viewpoint, making the whole transition fel like a natural evolution instead of having to start from square one. Katharine Gallagher, Founder, Personal and Professional Growth, katharinegallagher.com Take Small Steps Before Making Big Leaps When you know you want to transition into a new industry, you should focus on starting small and doing it step by step. You cannot simply drop everything, leave your company, and expect to get hired by a new company for a senior position. The best approach in my opinion is starting by listening to podcasts, interviews, and webinars from industry experts. Transferable skills like good adaptation, project management, and attention to details will be your biggest allies because the soft skills are always important, and you need to learn just the hard skills. I’ve been working in the HR industry, and when I knew I wanted to change my career, I started working on it eight months before. I read magazines about digital marketing, started following industry leaders, and launched my small side-hustle project, which worked like a playground for testing my new skills and knowledge. Jan Kawecki, Cofounder, Kontra Outsider Perspective Becomes Your Greatest Advantage Every industry is drowning in sameness, so even though it may seem counterintuitive, you should lean into the fact that you’re an outsider. The fact that you don’t come from that world is your leverage. You have a different perspective, a different mindset, a different network even. A lot of people complain about imposter syndrome, and that’s a very real phenomenon, even with people who have been in the industry for ages. So I don’t think the advice of “fake it till you make it” is really practical. It’s better when you look at yourself as the fresh variable in a system that’s been running on the same formula for too long. And it also allows you to be more authentic. That honesty translates and people respond to it because it doesn’t feel rehearsed. Paul Carlson, CPA & Managing Partner, Law Firm Velocity Strong Communication Skills Outweigh Technical Experience Developing one’s interpersonal and communication abilities is a highly effective strategy to avoid starting from scratch when transitioning between industries. Oftentimes, companies believe it is easier to teach employees technical skills than social skills. Therefore, displaying strong interpersonal skills can be viewed as highly advantageous for employers and can compensate for having minimal or no experience within a specific industry. As a clinical psychologist, when working with clients who are looking to pivot between job industries or are starting fresh without a prior employment history, a major focus of our work is on strengthening their interpersonal and communication skills. Examples of these skills, which can be developed through a range of practices, include speaking confidently, maintaining strong eye contact, practicing empathic and reflective listening, and displaying relatable body language. Kimberly Glazier Leonte, PhD, Psychologist, Break The Cycle, LLC; Clearview Horizons, PLLC
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E-Commerce
Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! Im Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. Performance assessment matters: Research from McKinsey & Co. maintains that companies with a focus on employee performance see 30% higher revenue growth and lower attrition rates than their peers. In the past, though, top executives seemed to care mostly about the results of employee reviews: GE chief Jack Welch, for example, famously used performance appraisals to rank employees and fired those scoring in the bottom 10%. Performance reviews reviewed Dan Springer, CEO of Ironclad, makes the case that CEOs who care about culture should also dig into the quality of employee reviews. When he joined the 650+-person AI contract-management-software company, employees praised the culture but, he says, indicated that manager evaluation of their work was often lacking. When you asked if they were getting the kind of feedback that they needed to do their jobs, they didnt say no, but they were sort of bemused by the question, he recalls. Springer conducted a training session on how to do performance reviews, going as far as role-playing a review with chief financial officer Helen Wang, who delivered an unvarnished assessment of Springers first few months on the job. (Helens tough, Springer says. I think people really enjoyed seeing the CEO get reviewed.) The CEO then read one written midyear review from every frontline managerabout 80 in total. He says about 20% were outstanding. Another 60% were solidclear, metrics-driven, with specific examples. But roughly 20% missed the mark. Some featured long narratives that showed care for the employee but lacked actionable guidance. Others were short and vague. Springer tapped these managers for further training on how to give effective feedback. We really did try to make it fun and not boring, he says. A chance to fill in the gaps With a résumé that includes CEO roles at Docusign and Responsys, Springer notes that at Ironclad and many other tech companies first-time managers sometimes get promoted without proper training. The great news is, our people are really smart, he says. Some people had not been trained on these best practices. He says he believes Ironclads efforts to improve the quality of reviews will lead to better feedback in the long run and also send a powerful message to the organization. A number of employees feel that Ironclad has a kind and understanding culture, and while we have great company performance, they wanted to see our leaders raise the bar on addressing low [performance] and rewarding high performance, he says. So as CEO, I want to up the sense that were a performance culture by demonstrating that any chance I get. Privately held Ironclad says its annual recurring revenue is north of $150 million, and top line is growing about 40% a year. Springer says he aspires to take the company to another level. Why better reviews matter While Springer joined Ironclad in April, he opted not to rewrite corporate goals midyear. Now, he is focused on finalizing goals for the companys next fiscal year, which starts in February 2026. Springer says corporate goals will be centered on customer success, business and financial performance, innovation (particularly around AI), and employee success. Once theyre established, managers and employees will create objectives and key results that align with the companys priorities. Its a challenge to give good feedback if you dont have clear goals to talk about, he says. I asked Springer why hes been so engaged in performance management and why other CEOs might want to invest time in making sure their employees are dispensing constructive feedback. There are only two reasons why, I think, a CEO should really care, he says. One is that they want to have a high-performance company, and two, they want to develop their talent. Those are pretty important reasons. How are you raising the bar? How does your organization approach performance management? Are there ways your CEO is directly involved in the process? Share your insights with me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com, and well include some of the best reader feedback in a future newsletter. Read and watch more: feedback loop How top CEOs get better at giving feedback Can AI make performance reviews less terrible? Executives, heres the one question your employees should ask during reviews
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E-Commerce
Over the summer, Bogg bags were ubiquitous at beaches and parks. This year alone, the company has sold more than $100 million of these plastic totes full of holes that come in a rainbow of colors. But now, the brand is trying to get you to bring your Bogg bag to dinner at a fancy restaurant, or the office, or a hot date. Today, Bogg releases its newest line, which it is describing with a delightfully tongue-in-cheek name: Bougie Quilted Collection. The structure of the bag hasn’t changed much; it is still made of plastic and has plenty of holes on it. But it also has a quilted texture, reminiscent of the surface of a Chanel flap purse or a nylon Prada bag. And it comes with an array of accessories, like a chain, pom-poms, and pearls, designed to elevate the bag. The question is: Will Bogg fans buy this as an everyday bag for the winter, before they’re ready to head back to the beach again? [Photo: Bogg] Kim Vaccarella, Bogg’s founder and CEO, believes they will. Over the past few years, she’s identified a very devoted customer base who tends to buy the bag in many colors, collecting them in the same way people collected Stanley tumblers. But given that the bag was designed for the beach, Bogg sees a big dip in sales after the summer. The Bougie bag is designed to test customers’ appetites for an everyday bag that they can carry throughout the winter. The bag comes in the same three sizes as the original, from the enormous tote to the ‘bitty’ which is more like a small purse. “We know we’re not a fashion bag,” says Vaccarella. “But we wanted to create a bag that is more fashionable, so you can use it in more places, especially when you don’t want to be carrying your Gucci or Chanel purse.” Bogg has grown exponentially over the last few years. Vacarella first came up with the design of the original bag back in 2011. She was looking for a solid beach bag that would carry everything she needed for the day while also being easy to clean out. The company was a tiny operation for years; it only had two employees as recently as 2018. But something happened in the pandemic. For a brief period, canvas and cloth bags were considered problematic because they carried germs, so nurses and teachers turned to Bogg to carry their stuff to work, and would hose them down afterwards. This was also a time when people were flocking to parks and beaches to get out of the house while remaining socially distanced. The Bogg bag suddenly became a useful accessory. [Photo: Bogg] In the years that followed, Bogg bagswith their distinct Crocs-like aestheticbegan showing up everywhere, and word of mouth spread. They are particularly popular in families with school-age children. Customers quickly found that there were many use cases for the bag outside the beach, from sports practice and school events to tailgating. “They keep finding new uses for them,” says Vacarella. “Kids are using them to bring their stuff to school. Over Halloween and Easter, kids are using them to collect candy.” [Photo: Bogg] Every year, Bogg has doubled in size. And this year, Bogg will generate $100 million in revenue, which is as much as it has made in total since 2011. Now, Vacarella is keen to continue building momentum. It’s a conundrum that other brands have faced. Consider Crocs and Birkenstockboth of which are highly functional, unique looking shoes that suddenly became ubiquitous in the mid-2000s. These brands have tried to continue growing by producing a constant stream of new products, including regular collaborations with other brands. Since they are both summer shoes, they’ve both come up with shearling-lined closed-toed shoes that can be worn during the colder months. This strategy has worked: Crocs generated more than $4 billion in revenue last year, while Birkenstock made more than $2 billion. Will the Bougie bag help Bogg achieve its next level of growth? Over the last few years, Vacarella has made the bags in a wide range of colors and patterns, and she’s noticed customers coordinating the bags with their outfits. Now, she’s giving them even more options. When she designed the Bougie bag, she decided it was important to keep the holes, since they have become Bogg’s defining feature. “In the past, when I created prototypes of bags without holes, customers said they just didn’t look like Bogg,” she says. Still, the quilted texture gives the bags a slightly different, trendier aesthetic. Will Bogg’s customers take a cue from the bag’s name and bring it to bougie places? We’ll have to wait and see. [Photo: Bogg]
Category:
E-Commerce
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