Career Flexibility Considerations

I was a #consultant for the last ~10 years of my Army career I mean...think about the role of the E-9 in the military: What authority do we really have? How many direct reports do we have? What do we really do? Everything is based on us #advising the Commander on courses of action from our decades of specific & relevant experience We see problems, we advise how to fix them That is why Consulting spoke to me so much (once I learned more) Clients hire us to come in, identify the issue, and advise how to fix it 😎 #quinnsights Now before every senior enlisted person in the transition starts putting "Management Consultant" or "Consulting Senior Manager" on their profile, you need to identify a few more things: What are you consulting on out here? Meaning: what is a company paying top dollar for you to fix THAT THEY CAN'T DO IN-HOUSE? If you say "leadership," I'm going to 👊 you (figuratively speaking😊) Because leadership without business acumen isn't going anywhere And leadership exists out here #militarytransition So SGM Quinn consulted on the Army, Military Intelligence & CI/HUMINT while he was still in When I got out, I did a year at a Federal IT Contractor (~500 people) as a Director of Workforce Management that gave me the relevant experience to tie all of my HR-related experience together and consult on HR (training, change management, communications) Having a huge network didn't hurt But it was on an Army account (foundational knowledge) And I learned Business Development in the first job (so I could turn knowledge + relationships into 💰) Which is how I entered at the Executive-level (with a BIG revenue goal on my head) #hiremilitary The point? If you want to be a consultant, you need to put in the work to identify the Service Line you would consult on OR have relevant Client Knowledge that will help the company win more work Plus... in consulting, degrees without experience are entry-level And sometimes you may also need to take a "bridge" job to gain necessary experience like I did Questions? Anything you would add?

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.

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐛𝐮𝐠. It’s actually a 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 requiring high availability and fault tolerance. I realized that choosing a specialization in tech—be it Cloud Architecture, DevOps, or Full Stack—follows the same heuristics we use for 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗗𝗲𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧. Here is the breakdown of the "𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞" protocol: 1. 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗜𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (Know What You Like): Just as we analyze logs to understand system behavior, analyze your history. What topics do you advocate for during lunch? What GitHub repos do you star? This is your baseline telemetry. 2. 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 (Heatmaps): In the sketch, I drew a heatmap matching "Good At" vs. "Like." In engineering terms, this is finding the sweet spot between 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝗽𝘂𝘁 (volume of work you can handle) and 𝗟𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 (how much drag you feel doing it). 3. 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗗𝗲𝗯𝘁 𝗔𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 (The 'Yuck' Stuff): This is crucial. Just because you are efficient at cleaning up messy legacy code doesn't mean you should specialize in it. If a task has high proficiency but low satisfaction, it represents future burnout—essentially, 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒅𝒆𝒃𝒕. Deprecate these tasks early. 4. 𝗘𝘅𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗣𝗜 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀 (Ask the Big Kids): Don't rely on cached data. Poll external nodes (Seniors, Principals). Ask about their daily stack, their leadership exposure, and their context switching overhead. 5. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗔𝗣 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗺 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀 (Pick 2 & Look Closer): You usually have three metrics: 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗙𝘂𝗻, and 𝗣𝗮𝘆. It is rare to get strong consistency across all three immediately. Analyze your "Career Castles" (A vs. B) and decide which trade-off is acceptable for this specific epoch of your life. 6. 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 (Start): Analysis paralysis is the enemy of uptime. If the metrics are close, deploy the instance that you are leaning toward. You can always rollback or re-architect later. Your career isn't a waterfall model; it's agile. Iterate often. Don't worry about a path not working out, you can always roll back :) #CareerPath #SystemDesign #SoftwareEngineering #TechCareers #Sketchnote

From Steel Melting Shop to Consulting via India’s Largest Automotive Manufacturer: My Journey of Pivoting If you’re a young professional dreaming of pivoting into consulting but feeling stuck in a technical or non-business role, let me share a piece of the story. I began my career in the Steel Melting Shop at Jindal Stainless, where the focus was on operational efficiency, and tracking various production and maintenance KPIs. Then transitioned into Research and Development of Maruti Suzuki India Limited. At the time, I never imagined that this foundation would someday lead me to consulting. But it did. Here’s how: 1️⃣ Building Transferable Skills: Working on the shop floor taught me problem-solving, decision-making under pressure, and the ability to analyze processes for optimization. These skills may seem industry-specific, but they are the backbone of consulting too. 2️⃣ Embracing a Growth Mindset: I constantly sought to understand why things worked the way they did. This curiosity pushed me to learn beyond my role, from production analytics to cost-saving measures — planting the seeds of a consulting mindset. 3️⃣ Taking Calculated Risks: Transitioning from the core industry to consulting wasn’t easy. It required upskilling, networking, and stepping out of my comfort zone. Certifications in analytics and business tools like Power BI, SQL, and SAP helped bridge the gap. 4️⃣ Storytelling Your Experience: During interviews, I didn’t hide my technical background. Instead, I turned it into my unique advantage, showcasing how my manufacturing expertise could help businesses improve efficiency and profitability. Today, as a consultant specializing in data and analytics, I collaborate with stakeholders from diverse industries, solving business challenges with innovative solutions. But it all began in the heat of a steel furnace, where I first learned the art of problem-solving. To anyone looking to pivot into consulting: 🌟 Leverage your current strengths: No matter where you are, the skills you gain can have broader applications. 🌟 Upskill intentionally: Learn the tools, frameworks, and approaches valued in consulting. 🌟 Network with purpose: Build connections with professionals who can guide and mentor you through the transition. Your background is not a limitation; it’s your differentiator. With determination and the right steps, you can forge your path. #Career #YoungProfessionals #DataAndAnalytics #ProblemSolving #consulting

If you have 20 plus years of experience, how are you planning your next role in today’s market? Over the past week, I had a few conversations with professionals who have 20 plus years of experience and are thinking about their next move. Most of them are in mid management or leadership roles and are finding that the market is very different from what it was ten years ago. At this stage, changing jobs is not a one or two month exercise. Expectations are higher, salaries are higher, and companies want clear evidence of value before hiring. It is practical to give yourself a six to nine month window to find the right role. Also, your aspirational title alone is not enough. The market must see a strong and logical fit between your past experience and the role you are targeting. To bring structure to this process, I usually suggest a simple matrix approach. First, list the domains where you have real expertise. There will be one or two core domains where you have deep experience, and a few adjacent domains that you have worked in along the way. For example, someone may have started in cloud computing and later worked on analytics, artificial intelligence, security, or data center initiatives. Next, list the roles you have performed over the years. These are your horizontal capabilities, such as product management, program management, presales, sales, or solution consulting. Some of these will be strong areas where you have led teams and delivered outcomes. Others may be areas where you have partial exposure. Now create a simple matrix with domains on one axis and roles on the other. At each intersection, assess your strength. Where both your domain expertise and role experience are strong, treat that as your primary target. Where you have moderate overlap and can reasonably stretch, treat that as a secondary option. Where the fit is weak or unrealistic, do not spend time targeting those roles. After this, validate demand in the market. Check job portals and company career pages to see which combinations are actually hiring. This step prevents you from applying randomly and helps you focus your networking and referrals on roles where you have both strong fit and visible demand. If you are planning your next move at a leadership level, take the time to build this matrix. Spend a few weeks refining it. Give yourself a six to nine month window. The clarity you gain will reduce anxiety and improve your hit rate significantly. I write about #artificialintelligence | #technology | #startups | #mentoring | #leadership | #financialindependence   PS: All views are personal

There’s a reason more senior professionals are moving into consulting right now. The traditional promise of stability from a single employer is breaking down. Layoffs are constant. Industries are shifting faster than org charts can keep up. As Meredith Klein (she/her) recently wrote in Inc. Magazine: Consultants are the new C-suite. Are you considering taking the leap? After twelve years as a career freelancer who’s consulted most of that time, here’s my advice on transitioning into consulting: 1. Value it!! Start by identifying the value you provide to others—not the services you sell. What meaningful outcome do clients get from your expertise? Productivity gains? Risk mitigation? Revenue protection? Strategic clarity? Then build from there. 2. Package it! Turn that value into clear, structured offerings. Define the format, duration, scope, and price. Advisory. Training. Coaching. Retainers. Whatever. Make it easy for companies to say yes and also protect your own bandwidth in the process. 3. Communicate it!!! People won’t know you’ve made the shift unless you tell them. Talk about it publicly. Reach out privately. Activate your network. A simple “I now help X with Y, keep me in mind if anything relevant comes past your desk” goes further than you think. Here’s the article that inspired this: https://lnkd.in/efZnmVxs #freelance #selfemployment #consulting #careerpivot

Most people think career diversity is career suicide. They're wrong. Single-path careers are the real risk. Emily Jones Joanisse proves it. Programmer. DJ. Nonprofit founder. 2008 crisis killed her Italian tech job. She didn't panic. She had options. Here's how she built a bulletproof career: 1. Build Skills That Travel Anywhere Emily learned programming young. Wrote scripts for her physicist father. Studied computer science. Worked across countries. Crisis hit. Job gone. She pivoted to teaching tech to children. Same core skill. Different stage. Americans change jobs 12 times by age 55 (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Portable skills survive. Specialized roles don't. Your move: What skills transfer anywhere? 2. Keep Your Creative Lane Alive Emily started DJing during her degree. Not a side hustle. A second identity. Canada to Europe. Milan hotel residencies. "It gave me community, confidence, and connection." She built networks her programming job never could. Creative paths open different doors. One-third of Americans ages 25-44 completely changed fields since their first job (edX survey). Your move: What creative outlet could become more? 3. Combine Your Lanes for Unique Impact 2018: Emily co-founded Connected Canadians. Free tech support for seniors. "I saw older adults struggle with digital tools." Teaching experience + programming background = solution nobody else saw. Your intersections create value competitors can't copy. Your move: What problems only your combination can solve? 4. Start Your Second Path Before You Need It Don't wait for the layoffs. Emily built DJing alongside programming. Each path supported the other. When tech crashed, music kept her afloat. When gigs were slow, coding paid the bills. 83% of workers now prioritize work-life balance over pay (High5Test research). They want options. Not just paychecks. Your move: Start exploring while you have security. Range is resilience. Multiple paths don't dilute your career. They bulletproof it. ♻️ Share this with someone stuck in one lane 🔔 Follow Kabir Sehgal for more

Some questions hit my DMs and instantly tell me someone is thinking like a future consultant. Here’s one of them. “I’m leading regulatory affairs, active in industry bodies, and I’d love to take on advisory or consulting work on the side. How do I position myself?” This is the moment most people wait far too long for. They only think about consulting once they’ve left corporate - which means starting from zero. If you’re asking this now, you’re already ahead. From here, it comes down to four things: 1. Check your employment contract Not exciting, but essential. Some contracts block paid work that overlaps with your day job. Make sure anything you do is clean, compliant and conflict-free before you move. 2. Position yourself clearly “Regulatory affairs” is broad. “I help MedTech startups prepare for EU submissions with speed and confidence” is specific, valuable and memorable. Your niche is what people buy. And if you want to make your positioning crystal clear online, I’ve put together a free LinkedIn profile cheatsheet you can put into action straight away >>> https://lnkd.in/dZhubpFY ! 3. Decide how you’ll package your expertise Board advisory? Fractional? Interim? Mentoring? People won’t buy what they can’t understand. Give your expertise a clear shape. 4. Build visible proof Companies don’t buy years of experience - they buy evidence. Show the problems you’ve solved, the insights you share, the panels you contribute to. Make your track record easy to see. And yes, this approach works. A senior RA professional in our network picked one MDR pain point she understood deeply, shared short, practical insights around it, and within a few months she had inbound requests for paid advisory work - without ever leaving her full-time role. That’s the impact of clear positioning matched with visible expertise. If you’re thinking, “that could be me”, start small. Define your niche. Shape your offer. Get visible. Consulting isn’t about leaving your job. It’s about leveraging what you already know to create more impact, more influence and more income. What do you think - is consulting something you’ve ever considered?

When I make enough money, I'll move to Dubai/Canada/UK... I hear this from Pakistani freelancers all the time. It's treated as the ultimate success marker - the final destination of the freelance journey. But after 8+ years in this industry, I've come to a controversial conclusion: Moving abroad is often a DISTRACTION, not a destination. Let me explain why this mindset might be holding you back... When you live in Pakistan but earn in dollars, you have a wealth-building superpower that disappears the moment you relocate: ✅ Your $5,000/month is ~1.4 million PKR here ✅ That same $5,000 barely covers rent in many Western cities (because you have taxes) ✅ Your 30% savings rate in Pakistan might drop to 5% abroad The math is simple: You can build wealth FASTER while based in Pakistan. Because there are hidden costs nobody talks about. Moving abroad comes with expenses beyond the obvious: ❌ Starting your social network from zero ❌ Higher taxes eating into your income ❌ Lost proximity to family and support systems ❌ Cultural adjustment stress affecting productivity ❌ Competing directly with locals who don't have visa concerns The REAL End Goal Should Be: Location INDEPENDENCE True freedom isn't permanently relocating. It's having the OPTION to: ☁️ Live in Pakistan and visit abroad regularly ☁️ Split your time between multiple countries ☁️ Travel whenever you want, not immigrate permanently ☁️ The Smarter Path Forward Instead of saving for permanent relocation, consider: 🤑 Building geographically independent income streams 🤑 Set up an LLC abroad for payment processing and credibility while living in Pakistan 🤑Creating a 3-month travel rotation by spending 9 months in Pakistan building wealth, 3 months abroad expanding horizons 🤑Investing in Pakistani real estate + global assets 🤑Focusing on wealth accumulation, not relocation

Does tech seem intimidating and out of your reach? Think again. Your unique skills might be just what the industry needs. When I first considered tech, I counted myself out because I wasn't a coder. But then, I realized something crucial: tech isn't just about coding. It's about problem-solving, creativity, and leveraging diverse skills to drive innovation. I've seen many professionals from diverse backgrounds successfully transition into tech roles by leveraging their transferable skills. For instance, a friend with a background in project management excels as a product manager, while a former PhD student became a technical writer. ⚡ Let’s dispel the myths and embrace the possibilities. The truth is, tech is an ecosystem with numerous roles that require a variety of talents. Here are some actionable steps to carve your path in tech: ✅ Identify Your Transferable Skills: Whether it's project management, communication, analytical skills, and problem-solving, your existing skills can be a great fit for many tech roles. ✅ Explore roles beyond coding: Consider product management, technical writing, UX/UI design, sales engineering, data analyst, AI ethics, or customer success. ✅ Embrace emerging technologies: Stay curious about AI, data science, cybersecurity, and cloud computing. Get familiar with and use GPT tools. ✅ Start Small: Volunteer for tech-related projects or build a product. Real-world experience, even on a small scale, is valuable. Remember, tech thrives on diversity and innovation to solve problems and create value. You have a unique perspective to offer. Don't let self-doubt hold you back. With the right mindset and skills, you can thrive in tech. 🚀 #TransferableSkills #Technology #Innovation