I'm in a PhD program, so I applied through their formal application process, but there were many kind souls along the way who gave me the feedback I needed. I emailed my advisor beforehand to ask her if she'd be interested in working with me. I also asked at least 5 professors and 2 PhD students to look over my personal statement, and 2 native-Spanish-speaker friends helped look over my writing sample (in Spanish).

Hi Melody, how comfortable do you feel reaching out to cold/warm-ish contacts? What's helped me is: 1. making a list of industries/roles I'm interested in 2. reconnecting with people from each "phase" of my life (high school, college, grant programs, former jobs, etc.) and reaching out to people in the above industries/roles 3. meeting new people via Elpha, Peppercorn, and friends of friends and reaching out to people in above industries/roles 4. reading books by people who have pivoted ("Leaving Academia" lol lol) and either reaching out to them or finding the community that's also reading those books via Meetup, LinkedIn, etc. 5. reaching out to fellow participants I feel a connection with at Zoom events/workshops Many people I've talked to are ex-PhDs...former advisors...former colleagues...and many new friends as well (thanks, Peppercorn ;) ) I come from a field where it's fairly hard to get appointments with people or where I feel like I have to "measure up" in knowledge in order to even merit a meeting with them, so it's actually been super refreshing to see how willing people are to talk and share about their jobs/lives. I've actually been taking a hiatus from social media over the past several years, so a beautiful thing about this process has been just reconnecting with old friends I haven't talked to in over a decade.

I love this question for a chance to reflect/articulate where I am. I'm in academia (currently a PhD candidate) and here are my pivot reasons: - Advancement in academia is very publication-dependent, and it takes me a while to craft a high-quality writing. I do believe that I could make my publishing quotas...but the question is, at what cost? - Looking to work with people more - Looking to shift to a process-based career (leadership development, training, system design, project management, ideating) rather than one that puts the highest premium on very specific subject matter expertise (like a policy expert) I'm going to miss the freedom and flexibility, though! Part of the reason why I even get to do Peppercorn and think through the next steps is because my program affords me that flexibility.

Congrats on the career pivot, Raquel! That is very exciting that you are getting out of your comfort zone and trying something new. Just playing a little bit of devil's advocate though 🙂 ... maybe the nervousness and anxiety you feel and the feeling that you "never liked working with Sales" might be something to pay attention to... Are there other ways you can be involved in business and stay more aligned to what energizes you?