How to Manage Critical Changes in Your Career

Since joining Microsoft as a new grad, I was lucky enough to meet and learn from Hema Sandhu, National Director of Customer Success at Microsoft Canada. I’ve always been inspired by Hema’s calm air of authority in business meetings, and I also felt empowered by her guidance and advice in our career conversations.
Today, I am pleased to share Hema’s perspective on managing critical changes in one’s career. In this blog post, we’ll go over Hema’s own experiences transitioning from the telco space into tech and how she balances changes in her life and career. We’ll top it off with important tips for those of you who are looking to make a big change and want to know how to convince a hiring manager to take a bet on you.
Finding an interest early-in-career
Initially, Hema’s fascination with people, culture, and history led her to pursue studies in the world of anthropology. However, instead of following the traditional academic path and finishing her Arts degree, she decided to start her professional career early in the call center by pitching long-distance plans. During this experience, she realized her strength with initiating and building personal connections with people. As she continued talking to customers, she also learned more about the technology, business, and telco industry.
When looking to change the direction of your career, recognize what your key strengths and look for opportunities to build on them.
Growing from an individual contributor to leader
Over time, Hema took on a series of technical and functional roles which then led into management opportunities. Before joining Microsoft, Hema spent several years managing multimillion dollar portfolios and leading the Program Management Office (PMO) at Rogers Communications.
Hema emphasizes moving from an individual contributor to leader requires a different set of skills in terms of understanding and defining success, influence and impact to the business. Instead of getting too deep in the weeds of the technology, leaders add more value when they can coach their teams through problems while understanding the tech at a higher level. Even while leading technical teams, Hema found that the main challenges were never technical in nature; — instead, it was how she could best support her team on navigating the customer/partner and the internal organization in the most effective way—aka stakeholder management.
If you want to become a people manager, it is more important to build your muscle focused on other people’s success, helping to simplify big company goals, and organizational awareness rather than understanding how to implement a super technical solution.
Seeking and welcoming change
The catalyst for finding a new role or opportunity usually comes when you no longer feel challenged. Since learning is so fundamental to our growth and development, there will come a time when you start feeling thirsty for something more. However, you may also feel hesitant about the potential change because you find it uncomfortable. Rather than staying hesitant, try to understand what you are actually afraid of beyond the change itself.
You accelerate the most in your career when you are challenged.
As Hema reflects on her career, she shares that she has never experienced a change that ended up being a bad thing but rather a blessing in disguise! When it comes to welcoming change, here are some tips to keep in mind:
- Change is inevitable, so the quicker you can embrace it—the better!
- Adaptability is one of the most important skills you can build in your life and career.
- Feeling uncomfortable is completely natural. Try to trust the process and build your confidence by constantly reassuring yourself (don’t be afraid to look in the mirror and say “you can do this” and “you will be OK with all the change that is happening”).
- Find a support system and network to help you navigate the changes (find an inner circle of friends, colleagues, and a partner who can help put things into perspective).
- As you experience major changes, developing and sticking to a routine is critical (e.g. going on walks, working out everyday, etc.).
Convincing others to take a bet on you
There will come a time when you want to change roles, teams companies, or even industries. For these key moments, remember the following:
- Find opportunities to get exposure to the hiring manager (it could be through a meeting, networking event, or referral).
- If you can’t get exposure, strengthen your resume to show that you have valuable and relevant skills, qualifications, and foundational experiences.
- Build your domain knowledge by taking relevant courses/trainings and doing your homework to understand the organization and ecosystem.
- Develop your personal brand and network to demonstrate what you have done above and beyond your core role and responsibilities.
- Look for champions and sponsors who will advocate for YOU when you’re not in the room.
For those who are interested in leadership paths, remember that you don’t need to be a manager to take on leadership responsibilities. Figure out which roles and projects can be stepping stones that give you opportunities to influence without authority and execute through others. Ultimately, you will prove yourself through change and challenge—and come out stronger on the other side.
Thank you Hema for taking the time to share her learnings and experiences with managing change! I hope that you will find these words of advice helpful and reassuring as you tackle new changes and challenges in your careers.
Karen’s personal philosophy is “growing 1% everyday through finding inspiration to share with the world”.
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