Three Critical Elements of Your Career Strategy

I have been hearing about Kathy Ulrich for about 5 years.  I had a chance to catch up with her at a jam-packed April meeting of SDForum Tech Women where she captivated the 160+ audience for 90 minutes of advice on career strategy.   Today, Kathy is busy putting the final touches on her new book, “Getting to the Top: Strategies for Career Success” (available from Amazon in June). I invited her to chat about the contents of the book and what advice she had for people mulling their career options.

Her advice: “Remember that a successful career strategy encompasses more than your next job search, you need to identify some long term goals, be proactive in your choices, and develop skills along the way that help you reach the top.”

Identifying a long-term career position enables you to proactively determine the gap between your current skills and experience, and those needed to reach your dream job.

Kathy characterizes career pivot points as

• Changing companies
• Getting promotion
• Changing industry/domains
• Changing functions

She recommends you approach the pivot points pragmatically. It is much easier to make a change that involves single decision point.  Trying to do more than one at a time is much more difficult.

Assume your experience/skills gap indicates you need sales experience.  Changing from marketing VP to a Sales VP within a current company has a much greater likelihood of success than changing both functions and companies.  If your gap indicates you need to change domains, switching from high-tech to bio science at the same level (no promotion) and in the same function is your best bet.

This strategy also helps you “tell your story,” relating each job and the experience you gained to your next step along the way.

She also had some great advice for avoiding obstacles, such as age or the proverbial glass ceiling.  She said, “Think about a snow skier who likes to ski between the trees.  If they look at the trees, there is a high likelihood they will run into them. If the skier keeps their eyes on the space between the trees, they will be OK.” So, keep your eyes on the space between the trees!

There were so many good tips in our conversation – but to get the whole story I am planning on buying the book!

Remember

1. Identify long- goals
2. Identify your experience/skills gap
3. Proactively work on developing experiences and skills to fill the skill gap

About Kathy – In her spare time Kathy leads alumni career services at UCLA Anderson School of Management and “Getting to the Top” career development seminars at Stanford Graduate School.  In the 6 degrees of networking – in 2002, Kathy founded the Professional Area Network for Women in Technology (PANW).  Women’s Network. In 2004, PANW became the Silicon Valley chapter of Alliance of Technology and Women (ATW). In 2008, ATW joined SDForum as a program, becoming SDForum Tech Women.  I have directed the marketing efforts for ATW and now with SDForum Tech Women.

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