A career crossroads
I spent the first several years of my career working in operations and technology teams at a large corporation. Over time, I built a mix of skills that became part of my everyday work: technical problem-solving, process automation, SharePoint development, data analysis, project management, and presentation skills. At the time, I didn't necessarily think of these as a collection of transferable skills. They were simply the tools I had learned to use to get my work done.
Eventually, though, I reached a point where I felt like I had hit a roadblock in my career growth. I had to start thinking differently about what I wanted my next opportunity to look like.
An opportunity came up within the same company, but in an entirely different division and with a completely different business subject matter: enterprise resiliency, also referred to as business continuity. The concepts were new to me, and, honestly, there was a lot I didn't know. But I also didn't realize yet how much of what I did know would come with me.
When I realized I knew more than I thought
One of my first activities in my new role was presenting at a kickoff meeting supporting technical resiliency testing. I remember thinking: I don't know anything about technology infrastructure or this type of testing. That could have been intimidating. But then I reminded myself that there was something I did know how to do: I knew how to present. So I focused on that.
I took the templated PowerPoint slides I had been given and tailored them to the specific test I was responsible for facilitating. I focused on organizing the information, communicating clearly, and making sure the audience understood what they needed to know. I wasn't an expert in the subject matter yet, but I didn't need to be an expert in everything to contribute effectively.
After the kickoff presentation, I remember one of my team members looking at my direct manager with a pleasantly surprised and impressed expression and saying, "It went very well."
That moment stayed with me. In hindsight, I wondered if there had been some uncertainty about how easily I would be able to handle the presentation given how new the subject matter was to me. But what I did know was that my presentation skills had been valuable enough to help me navigate a situation where the underlying concepts were unfamiliar.
That was my first small reminder that I wasn't actually starting from zero.
What felt ordinary to me wasn't ordinary to my new team
A few months into the role, I had become more comfortable and started looking for ways to make the team's work more efficient. One area involved using SharePoint to manage a large dataset and inventory that would be used for future testing. To me, using SharePoint to organize and automate a process didn't feel particularly innovative because I had done similar things before. In my previous teams, I had used SharePoint and automation to streamline processes, so this was simply another application of something I already knew.
But my new team saw it differently. They were delighted by the efficiency gains. That experience made me stop and think. The skill itself hadn't changed. The context had changed.
Something that had become almost ordinary to me because I had done it repeatedly in previous roles was new and valuable to a team that hadn't been using it in the same way. That was an important realization. Sometimes we underestimate our own skills because we're too familiar with them. When something comes easily to you, it's easy to assume that it must be easy or ordinary for everyone else, too, but that's not necessarily true.
Then I started learning Power BI — just because I wanted to
As I became more familiar with my role, I also started learning about some of the team's manual reporting processes. One weekend, I decided to learn Power BI. There wasn't necessarily some grand career strategy behind it. I simply enjoyed learning new tools and experimenting with technology. I liked discovering what these tools could do and figuring out how they could be applied to real problems.
So I attended Power BI workshops and started experimenting with what I had learned. When I returned to work, I eventually used Power BI to automate our manual key risk indicator reporting. Over the following few months, that automation resulted in a time savings of more than 8 business days per year.
For me, the process was fun. I was learning a new tool, solving a problem, and getting to play with what I considered another interesting piece of technology. But I didn't fully appreciate the impact in the moment. What felt like curiosity and a natural inclination to learn new tools was also creating value for my stakeholders. They weren't just seeing someone who enjoyed learning technology. They were seeing someone who could identify a manual process, learn a tool, and use it to make that process more efficient.
That became another example of a skill I had developed earlier in my career becoming valuable in a completely different business environment.
I wasn't starting over. I was building on what I already knew.
Looking back, I can see something I didn't fully recognize while I was living through it. I thought I was learning a new role. I thought I was learning a new business subject matter. But I was also discovering something else: My previous experience had not become irrelevant just because I had moved into a different area.
My technical and automation experience came with me. My SharePoint skills came with me. My analytical skills came with me. My project management experience came with me. My presentation skills came with me. Even my curiosity about technology came with me.
The difference was that these skills were now being applied to different problems, by a different team, in a different business context. And that changed how they were perceived.
The value of a skill can change when the context changes
This is probably the biggest lesson I took away from that career transition. Sometimes we look at our careers and think: "I've been doing this for too long. I need to learn something completely new if I want to move forward."
But my experience taught me to ask a different question: "What do I already know how to do that could be valuable somewhere else?"
Your skills don't necessarily lose their value because you've become familiar with them. In fact, the opposite can be true. You may have developed a capability so deeply that you no longer recognize it as a differentiator. Someone else might. That's what happened to me with process automation and SharePoint. I had become so accustomed to using those skills that I didn't think much of it when I applied them in my new role. My new team hadn't had the same exposure or experience, so what felt ordinary to me created meaningful value for them.
A career pivot doesn't always mean starting over
When I think about career pivots now, I don't necessarily think about completely changing everything. Sometimes a pivot can be much smaller. You can take the skills you've developed in one environment and apply them to a new problem, a new team, or a new business function. That's what happened to me. I didn't leave my previous experience behind. I built on it.
And somewhere along the way, without realizing it at first, I discovered a new career direction for myself. It was a direction where I could use skills I had already developed—but in ways I hadn't previously considered. That experience changed the way I think about career growth.
When you're at a crossroads, it can be tempting to focus entirely on what you don't know yet.
What new degree do I need?
What new certification should I get?
What completely different skill set do I need to build?
Those questions can be useful. But before deciding that you need to start over, it may be worth asking one more: What skills have I already developed that could become valuable in a different context?
You might be surprised by the answer. I know I was.
