All good career breaks must come to an end! And so it is with mine as I start a new role in the fintech world combining my 3 great professional interests: harnessing financial services and technology for positive impact in Africa.

My willingness to talk about leaving investment banking to take a career break led to many rich conversations within my social and professional circles, across age groups and industries. It’s been abundantly clear that many of us are ready for change in our careers or lifestyles, and are at different stages of preparing for it or are grappling with how to achieve it. In my experience, once one graduates from thinking about change to being ready for it, the desire becomes insuppressible. So for those who are looking to shake things up, I’d like to share the themes I explored to actively prepare for a career change.  

I had 5 main questions about what ideal work would look like since I was starting with a blank canvas:

A few books added great insights as I filled out my canvas, and I will share my favourite reads as I explored each question.

Follow my passion - really?

My View

Yes, really! In my heightened appreciation of time, and belief that surely I am here to have a life of meaning - I choose to pursue passion. Choosing to live in an inspired state is actually hard work even though the concept of following one’s passions is talked about in fanciful terms. However, the way I relate to this is that I wanted to choose interesting and challenging work that facilitates a life that I’m passionate about. There’s an important nuance there.

I’ve experienced that passions don’t unearth themselves by brainstorming what they could be. At this stage, experimenting with the added benefit of the 4Cs I’ve mentioned before (confidence, competence, connections and capital) to gain new experiences will reveal them in new and surprising ways.  

The Book Which Helped Me Most

Favourite Insights

I agree and disagree with many parts of this book - which is great because it made me way more attentive.

• For me, it’s not that following one’s passion is bad advice; it’s that it’s not the only way or even the best way to pick a career. It’s one of those statements we treat as a black or white issue when real life application is actually grey.

• I agree with the merit of creating rare and valuable skills which generate the career capital needed to gain the 3 things that humans crave in order to find work meaningful: autonomy, competence, and relationship with others. This is where you get so good they can’t ignore you and can call the shots in how your career unfolds. You can learn to love or be passionate about meaningful work. If this is the case, you ought to have a “career mission” - a unifying goal that can keep you motivated to excel at the cutting edge of your profession long enough to build career capital.

Making the risk of changing industries exciting

My View

My personality type is such that I take calculated risks, making me a quick but not immediate responder when it’s time to try something new. I genuinely believe most worthwhile endeavours require a certain level of risk. However, taking the time to lay the groundwork for success, or to mitigate the impact of potential failure are important for me to sustain a healthy risk appetite over time.

When it came to the risk of transitioning to a different industry (technology), I prepared for it along three main lines:

1. I completed a Masters degree tied to my new career path during my career brainstorming phase to have a “blank canvas” feel for how genuinely interested I am in technology. Being willing to invest my sabbatical and savings to learn more, to apply it in my daily life and to my investing strategy was a strong indicator that this wasn’t a passing fad.

2. I took my time to network internationally and regionally to gain insights into the types of problems I would enjoy solving. Being in such regular flow of technology-related conversations made me confident that I could learn the parts I’m not experienced in whilst identifying where I could add value in that new environment. My focus was always on the “problems to solve” rather than “the job title or work labelled to be done”.

3. I combined technology with the industry where I have some domain expertise in order to add value even as I acquire new skills and industry knowledge. It also helps that I am still passionate about finance so combining the two fields tactfully compounds my career capital rather than create siloed experiences where the first 12 years of expertise would be disconnected to my future.

One of the business model strategies we studied in my Digital Transformation class was the Accenture Wise Pivot captured in the diagram below. My career strategy clicked once I saw this as I could:

• link my investment banking career (which was a great experience!) to the legacy business in purple,

• I could map the the core transferrable skills to the arrows that make everything turn, and

• I could leverage overlapping professional networks and experiences at the centre to support a transition into African fintech (the new area in blue).

Looking at it this way made me appreciate that career change risk didn’t have to be a bungee jump into the unknown, nor did I want it to be. 

The Book Which Helped Me Most 

Favourite Insights

“Being original doesn’t require being first. It just means being different and better.”

“Having a sense of security in one realm gives us the freedom to be original in another.”

A paraphrasing of the idea that the most successful originals were better risk mitigators than they were risk takers.

“This explains why we often undercommunicate our ideas. They’re already so familiar to us that we underestimate how much exposure an audience needs to comprehend and buy into them.”

“Argue like you’re right and listen like you’re wrong.”

“Procrastination may be the enemy of productivity, but it can be a resource for creativity.”

Wrapping Up

I mentioned a few times that I worked on getting very clear about what my value addition would be as I switched from one industry to another. This is one of the hardest things that I suspect has blocked many a career transition: articulating what role you can play in a new environment where your past experience is not a direct plug-and-play application. Employers are spoilt for choice in diversely qualified talent so navigating a career change or a career pivot needs careful communication about this point.

I read somewhere that clear thinking produces clear communication. As you prepare to change careers into an adjacent field or pivot into a new direction, I believe clear thinking and communication about your value proposition is the best preparation you can do for successful engagements. It will enrich the quality of your interviews and interactions so you can demonstrate your intelligence and competence without relying on them as your main differentiator.  

I still have three questions to cover: 

1. What’s my plan to thrive in a new industry?

2. How do I frame my value if I’m no longer “the” expert in the room?

3. What leadership qualities do I want to improve in this phase of my career?

I’ll cover those in the coming months once I have had some time to acclimatize. So far so good though! Cheers to new beginnings, and I hope we are all pursuing the changes that are important to us. There is no better time than now! 

Are you in the process of a big career change? What’s on your mind as you prepare your strategy?