49: Moving Coasts, Switching Industries, and Staying Competitive Outside Your Comfort Zone: How to Navigate Multiple Career Moves at Once, ft. Drew Sutton

Today’s episode is such a special one for me! I invited my boyfriend, Drew Sutton, to share his career story and the major changes he’s made in only a few short years. In 2019, I made the decision to move to California, which presented the opportunity for Drew to consider finding a new role out west, too. Through a series of very intentional strategies, in 2020, Drew was able to transition from a small finance firm in Atlanta, Georgia to a highly competitive sales role for Mulesoft/Salesforce in San Francisco, California. Navigating three pivots all at once took a lot of preparation and confidence but (as Drew found out) wasn’t impossible. In today’s episode, I wanted to bring Drew on to walk through the exact steps he took to make these moves and launch a new career, just in case any of you are looking to switch up your career paths in major ways as well.

Our conversation breaks down his story into three distinct pivots:

1) Pivoting industries from finance to sale— why was sales the right move for him, and how did he bridge gaps in his resume to land the role without prior experience?

2) Pivoting from a small firm to a major corporation— what are the pros and cons of both types of companies, and how did he position his smaller-brand experience as competitive for a company like Salesforce?

3) Pivoting from Georgia to California— real talk: how did he feel about moving across the country, what has he learned since, and what advice would he share with anyone else looking to make unfamiliar moves to follow something they believe in?

If you’re interested in a major career change, but lacking the confidence to own that such a change is *possible*, this episode is for YOU.

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Mentioned in today’s episode:

Passages Ep. 39 with Emily Sermons

Mulesoft Careers

The Local, Atlanta, GA

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Stay connected:

Connect with Drew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drew-sutton/

More about The Passages Project: https://www.thepassagesproject.com/

Follow The Passages Project on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepassagesproject/