Switching Industries

Switching industries from oil & gas to tech. Looking back 7 years.

It felt like a pretty sharp turn at the time in 2018, but looking back, the ride (adventure?) has been more familiar than I expected.

▶️ Turns out a lot carries over in similarities between the two industries. Here are a few examples of things that were/are strikingly similar:

• Process, operations, and project management excellence all translate seamlessly and are highly sought after.. truly.

• Business development, people ops (HR), C&P, finance, etc. are nearly identical.

• Being able to zoom in to understand the details and apply them strategically when zooming out is invaluable in both.

• The people in both industries are professional, driven, deeply engaged, very smart, and always willing to help and recognize when good work is done.

• Qualities of good leaders and how they work with their teams are very similar.

🔀 But tech does differ in a few ways:

• You never feel fully on top of things (in a good way). The speed of innovation is so fast. You feel like you have things under control in the morning.. only to feel like you're behind after lunch. .. and I do actually mean this literally.

• The scale of impact is visible in real time. Yes, oil & gas impacts billions. I'm fully aware of this. What I mean is that in tech, a billion-user change today will look completely different next week. The rate of change and its global impact is unmatched by any industry out there. Not even close.

• Your assumptions are constantly challenged. Constructively, but directly. So you better have solid backing, either with data or very sound logic.

• You witness a future that will never exist at scale. You get exposed to things of which 90% will not make it to the real world. But you do get to witness / work on it for a relatively brief moment in time and that's pretty cool.

🔆 If you're thinking about a career pivot, know this: the core skills that make you great at work are absolutely transferrable across industries.

You don't need to start over.. and it's not scary.

What you do need is to find the gaps. Find the 10% that's different and figure out how to close them. The more creative the better.

Start with job posts. Let AI help you scan a few and compare it with your resume. Talk to people in the other industry. See how you can address and close the gaps.

Spot the patterns.

Fill the gaps.

And go for it. 🚀