How spotting a need and helping build a business case opened up unexpected possibilities in my career—and what you might explore in yours.
Two of my most exciting roles opened up when I saw a need and helped the manager build a business case for a role—with no expectation that I would get the job.
In one case, she secured the headcount and immediately hired me.
In the other, the role was posted internally and I applied. Having written the job description, I had a pretty good understanding of what was needed. 😉
Both opened up possibilities I couldn’t have mapped out in advance.
One brought me into an expert role in Diversity & Inclusion. Within a year, I was heading the function.
📸 Me in my D&I expert role, “holding” the mock-up of our first Roche D&I award
The other became something of a Chief of Staff role to the site’s Head of HR.
🌱 Why am I sharing this?
Because waiting for an internal vacancy doesn’t have to be your only way of exploring your next career move.
You work hard. Hope your performance speaks for itself. Check the internal job board. Wait for a suitable title to appear. Then start having conversations.
All understandable. But there are conversations you can have much earlier.
🌱 Where could your contribution make a difference?
Pay attention to where a manager is stretched, where important work keeps falling between teams, or where a capability is missing.
Then get curious:
☀️ What is this person or team struggling with?
☀️ What would improve if someone took responsibility for it?
☀️ What experience, strengths, and interests could I contribute?
☀️ Could I help them make the case for that work?
In my case, I helped turn a need into a business case and a job description. Of course, I could see myself contributing, but I was also willing to help establish the role even if someone else ultimately took it on.
Both conversations led to a job for me. And then they led to more.
🌱 Help make the case with no promise of a job
There’s no guarantee that a manager will get the headcount or the budget, that a role will be created, or that you’ll be the person hired. But unless you try, you’ll never know.
And if you’re already inside an organisation, you may be able to see possibilities that haven’t yet made it onto a job board.
📌 What need could you help your organisation see more clearly—and who could you start that conversation with?
With love,
Dina 🫶🏽
More posts in this career-exploration series:
- When a good job is no longer the right job: why I resigned from my C&B role at Novartis
- How to explore a new career without quitting your job: the value of mini-experiments
- How I got a job at the UN—and discovered that my dream career wasn’t the right fit
- A step back on paper. Seventeen years of possibilities
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