Career Transition Tips For Engineers

“𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞..." That’s what they told me, too. When I transitioned from taxation to Investment Banking, mergers & acquisitions, I heard it all— ❌ “You don’t have the right background.” ❌ “It’s too late to switch now.” ❌ “Start from scratch or stay where you are.” But I refused to let a job title define my future. Instead, I focused on what I did have: Analytical skills, Financial acumen, and the ability to solve complex problems. I learned, I networked, and I proved my worth. Your “irrelevant” experience is actually your secret weapon. Most people think: ❌ “I need to hide my background in marketing now that I’m going into tech.” Smart people think: ✅ “My marketing background gives me a unique edge in tech because I understand user psychology in ways pure technical people never will.” Remember, career transitions aren’t about starting over. They’re about repositioning yourself. If you're looking to make a switch, here’s how to do it without wasting years: 1️⃣ Leverage Transferable Skills – Your past experience holds value. Learn to reframe it. 2️⃣ Start creating before you apply – Proof of work speaks louder than any resume. 3️⃣ Network with Intent – The right conversations open doors faster than cold applications. 4️⃣ Position your experience strategically – A compelling story beats a perfect background. 5️⃣ Upskill smartly – Learn what actually matters for your new role. I know how tough it can be because I’ve been there. But I also know that making a career pivot is possible—without starting from scratch. If you’re looking to transition careers and don’t know where to start, let’s talk. I’d love to help. Drop a comment or DM me. Your past doesn’t define your future. You do. LinkedIn LinkedIn News India LinkedIn Guide to Creating #mindset #career #transition #knowledge #skills #upskill

Knowing when to switch roles or companies significantly impacts your career growth and trajectory, and I have a simple 3P formula that can help you find the right time to switch. 1. Paisa (money) 2. Power (core competency growth) 3. Position (ladder growth) At any company you are working at or switching to, you should get at least two of the three Ps. If you are getting fewer than two, it is time to switch. 1. Paisa (Money) Monetary compensation is often a primary motivator for a job change. Consider a switch if your current role does not provide enough or if the increments do not keep pace with industry norms. If the other two Ps outweigh your average salary, it might be worth staying at the current company. 2. Power (Core Competency) Power in this context refers to your growth in core competency and how close you are to becoming a subject matter expert in the domain in which you operate. Aim to become a really good engineer, and a good job will always present you with opportunities to become one. Assess whether your current role challenges you, introduces you to new technologies, methodologies, or projects, and ultimately contributes to your professional depth and breadth. Again, if the other two Ps outweigh the lack of core competency, it might be worth staying at the current company. 3. Position (Ladder Growth) The third P, Position, involves your upward movement in the org ladder. Your official title matters, and it dictates the roles and responsibilities you have handled. Hence, an important criterion to decide if it is the right time to switch or not. Assess if your current job provides a clear and actionable path for promotion and increases in responsibility. Stagnation can often lead to your future employer doubting your abilities and will negatively impact your career growth. Again, if the other two Ps outweigh the lack of ladder growth, it might be worth staying at the current company. Most people remain at an L5 at Google is an example of this. I always evaluated my situation every six months and over-optimized for two of the three Ps. For example, 1. at Practo, I optimized for Power and Paisa 2. at Amazon, I optimized for Position and Paisa 3. at Unacademy, I optimized for Position and Power 4. at Google, I optimized for Power and Paisa My entrepreneurial stint has been about optimizing for Position and Power with a hope for a high gain in the third P in the coming years. To me, this has been a pretty structured framework to guide my thinking process, ensuring that my career decisions are both strategic and beneficial in the long run. Hope it helps you as well.

No one claps when: • You fix a weird production bug at 2 AM • You spend weeks onboarding yourself with zero documentation • You sit with logs and errors for 9 hours straight, chasing that one broken flow But they’ll cheer when you put in your resignation. They’ll notice when you announce a better offer. That’s how tech works sometimes. The invisible effort rarely gets acknowledged. And that’s okay — but here’s how you can protect your peace and grow anyway: Here’s what helped me personally: Document your wins — even the small ones Keep a personal log of every production fix, tech debt cleanup, and successful delivery. You’ll need it for appraisals, interviews, and confidence boosts. Build proof outside of your job Contribute to open-source, write technical blogs, or create small tools. If no one at work sees your skill, the internet will. Don’t rely solely on internal validation Most engineering excellence is quiet. Learn to reward yourself. Track impact, not applause. Get better at storytelling Techies often undersell their contributions. Learn to communicate your work clearly in 1-on-1s and updates. Network outside your org Join tech communities, local meetups, or Discord groups. Your work deserves an audience — even if it's not your manager. Resources that helped me grow silently: • Writing Better Engineering Updates: https://lnkd.in/gMrY7tW6 • “Staff Engineer” Book by Will Larson (on leveling up): https://staffeng.com/book • Build a Tech Portfolio: https://lnkd.in/gfXE2R5n • Learn Public Speaking in Tech: https://speaking.io/ You may not get claps. But you’ll build credibility, reputation, and resilience. That’s what outlives applause. Keep showing up. Quiet progress still counts. Do subscribe for more resources : https://lnkd.in/gT7acAgd Follow Abhay Singhfor more such reads.

Hiring managers will not connect the dots for you. If you leave it up to the hiring manager, they will not make the connection between your experience and their needs. Your resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile must spell it out for them. - Clearly. - Simply. - Quickly. Here's how to do that. 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐣𝐨𝐛 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲 and note the key hard skills and experience the company values. I recommend that you identify at least 3 major needs the employer has that this position will address. 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞 3 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 that align with the needs you’ve identified and demonstrate an example of how you’ve met them in the past. Use the CAR format to make it easy for employers to see how you’ve solved similar problems. 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞: What problem did you face? 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: What steps did you take to address it? 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭: What was the outcome? 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 3 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 at the top of your resume. I recommend a Signature Accomplishments section separate from the other content, perhaps set off in a shaded border. 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬. If you're looking to switch industries or roles, identify the skills that are transferable. List these prominently and provide context for how they can be applied in the new role. 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲-𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐤𝐞𝐲𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬. It’s so important, especially if you’re switching industries, that you make sure your resume isn’t full of jargon from the industry you’re leaving. Use the language of the industry you’re trying to transition into. I also strongly recommend that you choose 3 high-priority keywords and place these at the top of your resume right underneath your target job title. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐟. Add metrics to quantify your results. Even if you’re not responsible for revenue generation, you can add in how much, how many, size, time, or comparison to work in numbers. 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲’𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫. Explicitly draw lines between your experience and the company’s needs. State specifically what they need and how you have relevant experience doing that. Give an example. This leaves no room for doubt that you are a fit for the role. How do you connect the dots? #resumes #Careers #LinkedInTopVoices

More often than not, people who change jobs later admit they did it too early. They moved not because they had clarity, but because they were uncomfortable with not knowing. That discomfort is costing people their best career moves. If you feel restless at work but cannot yet articulate what you want instead, that is not a weakness. It may be the most strategically useful phase of your career. Here’s how to use it well: 1. Treat uncertainty as an expansion, not a gap When you stop forcing yourself to name the next role, you give your thinking room to widen. Instead of asking what job you want, ask where you have done your best work before and under what conditions. Patterns emerge when pressure lifts. 2. Learn to separate signals from fear Ambiguity makes everything louder, especially anxiety. Fear pushes you toward familiar roles that look good on paper. Curiosity shows up quietly in the work you lose track of time doing. One leads to safety. The other leads to direction. 3. Build your future around skills, not titles Titles lock you into narrow paths. Skills travel. Inventory what you are genuinely good at and where those capabilities could matter in different contexts. Then identify one or two skills worth deepening before you decide anything else. 4. Replace purpose statements with purposeful days Purpose rarely appears as a single sentence. It shows up in how you allocate your time, who you help consistently, and what you choose not to pursue. Alignment comes from daily decisions, not grand declarations. Career clarity is often iterative and occasionally messy. Rushing to resolve uncertainty usually trades short-term relief for long-term regret. If you are between chapters, resist the urge to force an answer. The uncertainty is not something to escape. It’s information worth listening to.

Are you so focused on doing great work that you’ve stopped looking at where the market is heading? For senior women with years of experience, one of the biggest risks in the AI era isn’t just automation. It’s failing to read the market clearly. Because the market is shifting. The language employers use is shifting. The skills being prioritised are shifting. The problems businesses need solved are shifting. The way value is measured is shifting too. This is why excellent work alone is no longer enough. You need to understand how your experience translates into what the market needs next. In this video, I break down my SCAN Framework a simple four-question framework to help you identify where you may have career intelligence gaps and how to position yourself ahead of industry change. S - Skills in demand Are you speaking the market’s language? Don’t just rely on internal feedback or past performance reviews. Look at current job descriptions at your level and pay attention to the language, capabilities, and credentials employers are asking for right now. C - Change coming Can you see where your function is heading over the next 2–3 years? In many roles, value is moving away from simply “doing” or “building” and towards strategic influence, commercial outcomes, cross-functional leadership, and business impact. A- AI impact Do you know which parts of your role are AI-exposed and which parts are AI-irreplaceable? AI can support analysis, drafting, automation, and execution. But it cannot replace judgement, trust-building, stakeholder influence, emotional intelligence, or the ability to read the room. N -New problems emerging Are you still positioning yourself around problems the market has already moved on from? Disruption creates new friction, new risks, new gaps and new opportunities. The women who stay ahead are the ones who can spot those problems early and position themselves as the person who can solve them. The era of passive careers is over. You cannot wait until you need a new role to understand where your market is going. You need to look up, read the signals, upgrade your positioning, and make sure the market understands the value you bring now and next. If you want to see where you stand I have created a free tool to help identify your gaps, opportunities, and next career moves. I will link it below. And if you’re ready to go deeper and properly position yourself in this market, I have 2 spots remaining for my May cohort. This is where we work together to get clear on what you want next, strengthen your positioning, upgrade your LinkedIn and CV, and build the visibility and confidence to create more choice in your career. If that speaks to you, reach out and let’s see if we’re the right fit to work together.

You don't have to quit your job to reinvent your career. I know my content might suggest otherwise — I talk about leaving banking, saying no to big tech, building on the side. But not every path looks like mine, and I want to keep this corner of the internet nuanced. Let me introduce you to Ed Essey. He's a Senior Director at Microsoft who's been there for 20 years and grew his Instagram to 100K+ last year within a few months. We initially connected because he said my story resonated with him. I was surprised — on paper, we couldn't be more different. I'm a "job hopper" who's bounced between banking and tech. Ed built his entire career at one company. But here's what he did inside Microsoft: → Worked on early products like InfoPath and Office Server → Moved into parallel computing in DevDiv → Taught design thinking to 22,000 engineers over 200 days → Built cross-functional influence across the org Every time he got an external offer, he went to his manager and said "I want to work on different problems." And his manager shaped his role around that. He didn't need outside leverage. He just articulated what he wanted to learn and why it mattered to the business. The teaching stint is what resonated most with me. He was terrified of public speaking but said yes anyway. That year completely rewired his confidence and gave him the foundation for later building his personal brand outside the company. Internal pivots don't get the same attention as external ones because they feel less exciting. They're harder to execute but can be more powerful. You don't always have to blow everything up to grow. Sometimes the opportunity is already where you are. If you're thinking about switching things up without leaving your job, I asked Ed to break down how he navigated internal pivots throughout his career in my newsletter this week: https://lnkd.in/eviQgRVv

I’ve single-handedly delivered multiple million-dollar IT projects on time without compromising quality. But the moment I switched from SDLC to the mining process, even simple tasks started making me feel like a complete beginner. This explains why our confidence can drop overnight, even when our skills haven’t gone anywhere. But because our environment changes faster than our identity, something unexpected happens: We start doubting ourselves for tasks that have nothing to do with our actual capability. You can excel at complex systems and still freeze at unfamiliar ones, not because you’re inexperienced, but because the game is different. So, how do we rebuild confidence when we suddenly become beginners in a new industry or new country? By separating our skills from our environment. Here are 4 steps to help you get started: 1. Learn one new word, tool, or concept from your new industry every day. (eg: I always get confused between comminution and communication, two completely different things.) 2. Map something from your past experience to your new industry so you don’t feel lost. (eg: I compare mining processes to SDLC so my brain has something familiar to hold on to.) 3. Keep a career journal and write one daily sentence about what you learned or felt. (eg: Today I realised I tried to learn the whole pump system without knowing the basics.) 4. Ask one clarifying question a day instead of overthinking things alone. (eg: ‘Can you show me an example?’ instead of stressing for hours.) Take the next 30 days to practice this identity shift, and you’ll rebuild the confidence you thought you lost, this time, with even deeper self-awareness. LinkedIn Guide to Creating Get Hired by LinkedIn News India

I've left three jobs without having another one lined up. Not everyone can. Here's how I did it. You hate your job. It's affecting your ability to interview. It's becoming soul crushing. It's a toxic environment for your mental wellbeing. Whatever the reason, sometimes being between jobs is better than being in one. Here's how I got confident and comfortable to take the plunge. 1. Build savings. If you don't have savings, you don't have the financial safety to continue living the way you have been until you find your next job. You aren't going anywhere if you run out of food 2 weeks after quitting. It also gives you the peace of mind while in a job to know that, if you needed to, you could leave. 2. Define what you want. Value alignment? Better work environment? Different professional challenges? Define what do you want from your next role so you know why you're leaving and what to work towards next. 3. Listen to those around you. Spouse, friends, colleagues. If they're starting to tell you you're not in a good place with work, listen to them. Sometimes your wellbeing can be like boiling a frog — you don't notice you're getting all bitter and twisted about your job, but those around you can see it. Listen to them and take action, which might include finding that next environment. When you spend most of your waking life at work, make sure you're doing right by yourself and choose somewhere that makes you happy. What do you recommend having in place before leaving without another role lined up?

Every Director and VP I have ever worked with who was stuck had the same problem. And it was never about their qualifications. The pattern is always the same. A strong track record, years of results, and a voice in the background saying, "Not yet, not ready, not enough." That voice is not intuition. It is a belief. And beliefs can be changed. Here is what that voice actually is and how to stop letting it run your career: 𝟭. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗳 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹. 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗲. Limiting beliefs feel like self-awareness. They present as caution, realism, or humility. But there is a difference between an honest assessment of where you are and a story that has been running so long you stopped questioning it. Write the belief down word for word. Seeing it on paper is often enough to start doubting it. 𝟮. 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗳 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲. 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁. Most limiting beliefs were not conclusions you reached. They were handed to you. A manager who needed you contained. A company that rewarded compliance over ambition. Feedback that said more about the giver than the receiver. Trace it back far enough and you stop treating someone else's ceiling as your own. 𝟯. 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗳 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁. Ask yourself: if someone else had my exact track record, would I tell them they were not ready? The answer is almost always no. Your belief is not based on your record. It is based on how you feel about your record. Those are not the same thing. Use the evidence, not the emotion. 𝟰. 𝗔𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗱𝗼 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸; 𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀. Do not replace a limiting belief with a positive one you cannot defend. Replace it with a specific, provable statement. Not "I am ready" but "I have navigated this before, delivered under pressure, and been trusted with more every time I stepped up." That is a record. Build the statement from it. 𝟱. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁; 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁. The belief that you must feel ready before you move is the belief's most effective defense mechanism. Confidence follows action, not the other way around. The professionals who break through do not do it by waiting. They move before the fear has permission to stop them. Most senior professionals do not have a capability gap. They have a permission gap. And the only person who can close it is the one reading this. Save this if you are a senior professional who has ever mistaken a belief for a boundary. The work to change that starts with one honest conversation. Not everyone is ready for it. If you are, send me a message. I want to hear your story.