Dear HBR: · Harvard Business Review

Career Reinvention

May 28, 2020·32 min·2 clips

Monica Higgins explains why employers are hesitant to hire career pivots during the pandemic, but why they might have to.

Career pivots are not treated like theory here. The conversation starts with a practical worry: during the pandemic, employers feel exposed, so they may be less willing to bet on candidates without a track record in the new field. That puts pressure on the story a candidate tells. Monica Higgins frames a good move as a persuasion problem. Past experience has to be translated so it makes sense in the next context. The military question makes the tradeoff sharper. A listener has moved from unskilled work into scholarship-backed schooling, expects a promotion when he returns, and is wondering whether to leave that path for a career that may offer more flexibility and fit his interests better. Monica slows him down. Before walking away from a strong military track, she wants him to name what he wants to do, not just what he wants to escape. The advice is not simply stay put. Alison Beard points to research on former officers becoming senior leaders, including a comparison between the US adult male population and CEOs of S&P 500 firms. Military experience can send a real signal. Dan McGinn adds the more personal part: staying until military retirement at 45 can be a good deal, but only if the life around it still works. Interest matters. The letter suggests the listener may not love military life, and being moved anywhere at any time could strain a family. The panel holds both sides. The current path offers leadership experience, income, promotion, and a pension. A pivot could bring flexibility and a better personal fit. The useful next step is to make the risk concrete. Name the target career, test whether the listener's experience transfers, and compare that real plan against the benefits already on the table. Leaving because something else sounds more flexible is not the same as leaving for a role that uses what he has already earned.

As heard by us

A sober, useful look at whether a career move is a leap or a smart translation.

Career reinvention is treated as a practical problem here, not a pep talk. Monica Higgins talks with Dan McGinn and Alison Beard about what it takes to make a pivot when employers hesitate to back someone without a neat, linear record.

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Why you'd press play

You need a sober read on whether your next move is a translation or a leap.

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