What work had been you doing beforehand?
I labored within the humanitarian sector, primarily in Yemen, Iraq, and Gaza, inside a Weapon Contamination Unit.
My function targeted on addressing the affect of explosive weapons utilized in armed battle and supporting efforts to make affected areas secure once more so communities may return and rebuild.
This concerned documenting injury, mapping hazardous areas, coordinating assessments, and serving to make sure that clearance operations may transfer ahead.
I wasn’t the technical specialist defusing bombs. As an alternative, I labored on enabling the technical work to occur – ensuring initiatives could possibly be accredited, funded, coordinated, and carried out in complicated political and operational environments.
The work required adaptability, diplomacy, contextual consciousness, and the flexibility to maneuver issues ahead even when situations had been continuously shifting.
It’s tough to totally seize what working in lively or post-conflict settings actually seems to be like. However the expertise builds a uniquely transferable talent set – strategic coordination, stakeholder administration, fast decision-making, and resilience – developed in a number of the most complicated environments on the planet.
What are you doing now?
I presently work at a start-up incubator, the place I help the CEO in a Chief of Employees capability.
Though I shifted industries, I noticed that generalist roles exist in every single place: positions the place your worth lies in connecting dots, supporting operations, and enabling others to carry out at their finest.
As Chief of Employees, I don’t handle a group immediately or personal a particular funds line. As an alternative, my function cuts throughout capabilities. I’m concerned in day-to-day operations, strategic discussions, and cross-team coordination.
I get publicity to completely different enterprise streams, observe decision-making processes up shut, and assist translate technique into execution.
One among my important motivations for making this transfer was to strengthen my core talent set and study from sturdy operators in a brand new atmosphere. In my earlier roles, I used to be given vital accountability early on and sometimes needed to make high-stakes choices shortly.
Now, I worth the chance to step right into a studying section once more – observing skilled leaders, understanding how they navigate complexity, handle development, and make structured choices at scale.
This function has sharpened my listening abilities, my capability to anticipate wants, and my understanding of how giant operations operate from the within. It’s much less about being the one driving each consequence, and extra about creating readability, alignment, and momentum behind the scenes.
In some ways, it seems like a continuation of my earlier profession: nonetheless working in complexity, nonetheless coordinating throughout stakeholders, however now targeted on constructing and scaling relatively than stabilizing and rebuilding.
Why did you modify?
I needed to intentionally improve my talent set and broaden my profile.
After years within the humanitarian sector, I felt it was vital to place myself as somebody who is flexible – somebody who can transfer throughout sectors, adapt to completely different environments, and stay related in a quickly altering world.
I didn’t need to be seen as confined to 1 discipline, however relatively as an expert who can function in complexity, no matter context.
The tempo of technological development, shifting financial fashions, and new methods of working are reshaping industries globally. I needed to be nearer to these adjustments – to grasp them from the within relatively than observe them from a distance.
Innovation is an enchanting area. Within the start-up world particularly, you’re continuously uncovered to new concepts, rising applied sciences, bold founders, and daring experimentation.
It’s fast-moving, energetic, and future-oriented. There’s a way of momentum and risk that feels very completely different from crisis-driven environments.
Being surrounded by folks constructing new merchandise, testing new fashions, and difficult assumptions pushes you intellectually. It forces you to suppose otherwise. And that variety of thought – being round technologists, operators, traders, and founders – is one thing I worth deeply.
In the end, the shift wasn’t about leaving one thing behind. It was about increasing my perspective, strengthening my adaptability, and putting myself on the intersection of change.
How did you select your new profession?
I selected my new profession as a result of I felt prepared for a shift towards one thing extra forward-looking and growth-oriented.
After years working in conflict-affected environments, I needed to immerse myself in an area that focuses on constructing – on new concepts, new applied sciences, and new prospects.
I used to be drawn to an atmosphere the place innovation strikes shortly, the place experimentation is inspired, and the place the long run is one thing you actively form.
That’s what fascinated me concerning the start-up world. New corporations are continuously being created. New applied sciences are rising. New traits are forming in actual time. It’s an area pushed by creativity, ambition, and momentum.
Earlier than this transition, I had little or no publicity to this sector. However exactly as a result of it was unfamiliar, it felt energizing. I needed to study a totally new talent set, perceive how innovation ecosystems operate, and be nearer to technological and societal shifts which are shaping the following decade.
In some ways, it felt like shifting from rebuilding what was damaged to serving to construct what’s subsequent.
I additionally felt that the start-up world was numerous and allowed for my earlier experiences to slot in.
What do you miss and what do not you miss?
I miss the journey and the extremely tight-knit communities that type in humanitarian settings.
Once you work in intense, high-pressure environments, bonds are constructed shortly and deeply. There’s one thing distinctive about sharing difficult moments with a small group – that sense of objective, urgency, and collective resilience is difficult to duplicate.
What I don’t miss, nonetheless, is the recurring sense of lack of readability that may include working in conflict-affected settings. The shortage of management, the unpredictability, and the political constraints can typically create a sense of stagnation, even once you’re working extremely laborious.
Progress usually is determined by elements utterly exterior your affect. In my present function, I expertise a special type of momentum. The buildings are clearer.
The levers of decision-making are extra accessible. When there’s an issue, you’ll be able to normally determine the place to intervene and transfer it ahead. The suggestions loop is shorter.
There’s one thing very satisfying about working towards tangible milestones and with the ability to “tick off” achievements usually. The duties could also be smaller in scope, however they’re concrete and measurable. That each day sense of progress feels energizing.
How did you go about making the shift?
I took a leaving bundle from my earlier employer, which gave me a couple of months of economic runway.
For me, having that buffer was vital. Profession transitions take time, and I knew I wanted the area to discover with out panicking or speeding into the mistaken alternative.
The shift wasn’t speedy, it took about six months of on-and-off looking. Extra than simply making use of for roles, it was a interval of reconnecting. I reached out to former colleagues, buddies, household buddies, earlier managers, and attended networking occasions.
I had many conversations merely to grasp new industries, check my assumptions, and learn the way my expertise may translate.
What helped most was endurance. Transitions can really feel unsure, particularly once you’re shifting right into a sector that’s new to you. Staying constant, being open, and trusting the method made all of the distinction.
What was essentially the most tough factor about altering?
The toughest half was not internalising the low response charge.
Once you transition into a brand new discipline, particularly one the place you don’t but have a longtime observe file, it’s a must to get comfy ranging from zero once more. Meaning reaching out to folks, asking for conversations, and placing your self in conditions the place you won’t hear again.
At occasions, it felt similar to the interval proper after college, after I was desperately searching for internships and asking anybody I knew for introductions, together with older siblings of buddies. That very same humility is required once more.
The truth is: persons are extraordinarily busy. In my present function, I see firsthand that my boss receives greater than 20 LinkedIn messages a day. Everyone seems to be chasing restricted alternatives. Everyone seems to be making an attempt to get visibility.
And it’s at all times simpler for decision-makers to go along with somebody they already know or who comes via a trusted connection. That’s why relationships matter a lot. Most alternatives transfer via networks. Individuals know folks. Conversations result in different conversations.
However constructing these connections takes persistence. You must knock on many doorways earlier than one opens. The transition examined my resilience greater than my functionality. It required endurance, humility, and the flexibility to separate my self-worth from the silence in my inbox.
What assets would you advocate to others?
There are extremely highly effective AI instruments obtainable immediately that may genuinely help profession transitions.
Platforms like Boardy (on LinkedIn), for instance, act as clever connectors and you may communicate with them, ask for inspiration, request introductions, and even obtain structured steerage.
I discovered instruments like this extraordinarily useful in understanding what’s really on the market and the way completely different industries are structured.
It’s also possible to use AI extra broadly and strategically. With instruments like ChatGPT, you’ll be able to share your background, the cities you’re focusing on, your pursuits, and the type of affect you need to have and obtain tailor-made ideas on corporations, industries, and even solely new profession paths you might not have thought of.
You may describe your earlier expertise and ask the way it may translate into completely different sectors. In some ways, know-how is decreasing the barrier to exploration. Entry to info, networks, and strategic considering is not restricted to who you already know.
We’re in an period the place conventional profession playbooks are being rewritten. Industries are evolving shortly, roles are being redefined, and new ones are rising altogether.
For those who’re keen to interact with these new instruments and trip the wave of change, you immediately have much more prospects to place your self inside an ever-changing job market.
The secret’s to remain curious and also you now have know-how that may completely help you very deliberately.
What classes may you’re taking from Maya’s story to make use of in your personal profession change? Tell us within the feedback beneath.