I decided to spend two spontaneous days in Geneva–my very first home in Switzerland, where I spent the first ten of my 34 years here.

The last time I visited was in 2021, and I hadn’t realised how much I had missed the city and my Geneva friends.

☀️ My husband and I went on a little trip down memory lane.

We visited my old apartment building on Rue Gutenberg.

Passed by the City Hall where I became a proud Swiss citizen and Genevan 25 years ago, and a few more spots where friends and I used to hang out during my high-school and university years.

Of course, we also went to the lake and saw the Jet d’Eau.

And I was thrilled to immortalise our mouette trip across the lake with a Japanese tourist dressed as an elephant 🐘😂.

Despite the last-minute notice, I also managed to meet two long-time, very dear friends whom I’ve known for nearly 30 years. They were my very first university friends in this amazing city.

☘️ And then there were the new encounters.

Like Michel, a 70-something Genevan who had visited Egypt in 1978 and still remembered it with great fondness. We got to speak about the beauty of my home country and hometown, as well as his wife’s beautiful handmade earrings, which she was selling at the one-and-only Plainpalais flea market.

My dad and I used to visit that market every single Saturday, so it was lovely to be back.

And of course, I had to buy a pair of earrings from Michel—’cause I clearly don’t have enough. 🙈

I also had the best mocha maison ☕️ at Corde Coffee in Coutance, thanks to two very entertaining and wonderfully friendly baristas. Not to mention one of the most divine octopus dishes at Medusa, a Greek restaurant near the Nations.

🇨🇭I love Geneva’s versatility.

Its amazingly international crowd, with people from every corner of the world; the ethnic foods; the chaos; and the unmistakable Romandie vibe.

I didn’t expect to feel so nostalgic being back—but I did.

🪴 It made me think of how we can feel when we leave a job, a team or a professional chapter that has been part of us for a long time.

Even when we are ready for what comes next, we may still miss the people, the routines, the version of ourselves and sense of belonging we are leaving behind.

In fact, I had a session on that exact topic with a client the day before I left for Geneva. Funny, isn’t it? The reason I left Geneva back then was to begin a new professional chapter in Basel.

Missing something doesn’t have to mean we made the wrong choice. It can simply mean that it mattered…

For me, it was all the memories I attach to this city: my younger years as a student, and the many firsts I experienced here—including my very first job and apartment.

🌻 If you’ve never been to Geneva, do visit. It’s a great city.

And if you do, make sure you stop by Corde and Medusa. You won’t regret it.

As I write this, my heart is full as I look forward to my next visit.

With love,
Dina 🫶🏽

Resources:

• Medusa restaurant in Geneva.

• Corde coffee shop in Geneva.
• We also enjoyed a lovely lunch at Indian Bites—equally highly recommended.

You cannot think your way into a new career or into complete career certainty.

You have to try possible directions on.

Pros-and-cons lists have their place, as does reflection. But they are not enough.

They can help you identify what matters: your values, strengths, needs, non-negotiables.

But they cannot tell you what it would actually be like to do the work.

☘️ For that, you need small, safe-to-try experiments:
❧ a conversation with someone in the filed;
❧ a day of shadowing;
❧ a short project;
❧ a brief course;
❧ a volunteer or freelance assignment.

Often, clients come to me thinking that to change careers they have to hand in their notice and take some dramatic leap into the unknown.

You don’t.

But you do need to gather evidence beyond your thoughts.

You cannot fully know whether a new direction fits from inside your head. You have to try it on. And a small experiment can show you what energises you, what drains you, what surprises you—and whether the reality of a direction matches the idea of it.

The question is not: What is the perfect next move?

It’s:

📌 What is one small experiment that could teach me something useful?

With love,
Dina 🫶🏽

Image: Me with picture-book author and illustrator, Dan Santat at the SCBWI Children’s Books Conference in Los Angeles in 2015. I was trying on the world of picture-book writing—a small experiment that eventually led to the publication of my own picture book, “God’s Love Letter: Creation”, in 2022.

Resources:

• Book recommendation: Working Identity, Updated Edition, With a New Preface: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career, by Heminia Ibarra. This is one of my favourite career tranistion books and a must for anyone considering a career change. 

A job can look right from the outside and still be wrong for you.

When I first moved into HR, I happened to land in Global Mobility. Later, I moved into Compensation & Benefits.

I was good at it, and kept progressing from intern to analyst to C&B manager for a Pharma affiliate.

Then my boss called me from Boston to make official the role I had already been covering for some time: Head of Compensation & Benefits for Eurasia.

☘️ I resigned.

Not because I had a bad manager, or because the company treated me poorly, or because I was burnt out. I was one of the youngest C&B managers, well paid. I had a great team, wonderful colleagues, and an excellent direct manager.

But I knew something important: I didn’t want Compensation & Benefits to become the stamp on my forehead for the rest of my career.

I no longer wanted my days to revolve around salary rounds, job architectures, and executive packages; I wanted to move laterally into Learning & Development.

☘️ Before resigning, I explored the possibility of an internal move and I was told I would need to remain in my current role for another two years first. But staying another two years would have meant becoming more deeply established in a field I already knew I wanted to leave.

So I left.

What happened next is probably for another post. But my point for now is this:

☘️ You don’t need to be in crisis for a career problem to matter.

A role can be secure, well paid, respected, and full of good people. And it can still no longer fit your aspirations, values or the direction you want your life to take.

In my case, I was clear about what I wanted. And when I realised it was not likely to happen within a reasonable period, I decided to pursue something new.

Work that fits is not only about what you’re good at. It’s also about what you want to keep becoming.

☘️ To be clear, I am NOT suggesting that you resign a “good” job from one day to the next—certainly not in the current job market.

What I am suggesting is that, if you can see the road you’re on is taking you somewhere you don’t want to go, it may be time to start exploring alternatives.

📌 What would you change if your situation were “good”, but no longer “right”?

With love,
Dina 🫶🏽

Is this you?

If you’re a mid-career professional in Pharma, have broad cross-functional experience, and your CV has already been rewritten three times without generating interviews, your next step is not necessarily a fourth rewrite. A polished document cannot compensate for an unclear direction.

☘️ I sometimes hear versions of the same concern: ‘I have a versatile background; I could do a variety of roles; I’ve applied across a wide range of jobs, and… nothing.’

And therein lies the problem.

To take a concrete example

You may have relevant experience for both Patient Advocacy and Chief of Staff roles. But the same CV should not try to make the full case for both at once.

A lack of focus dilutes your value and expertise—especially when competing in a sea of specialists whose experience looks more directly aligned to the advertised role.

☘️ The issue is not the breadth of your competencies; it’s trying to make one CV carry every possible version of your career. Because, what you’re ultimately doing, is asking a recruiter or hiring manager to work out why you’re a credible fit—work they most likely won’t have time for.

So, what do I suggest?

Instead of applying to different job families with one generic profile, use your CV to clearly demonstrate your capabilities and achievements for a defined target role.

📌 So, before rewriting it, I recommend you answer the following questions first:
* What specific role is this CV intended to support?
* Why does that role make sense as your next step?
* What makes you credible for it?
* Which experiences best show the value you would bring?

Get clear about your direction and the story you want your experience to tell first. Then, and only then, should you start your fourth rewrite.

☘️ And once you’ve rewritten it, do one final check:

“Could someone reading your CV explain, in a few sentences, what you’re aiming for, why you’re credible, and what you bring?”

And yes, this means that if you decide to target different types of roles, you’ll need a different CV for each one.

📌 Does your CV describe what you have done—or make a clear case for your next target role?

With love,
Dina 🫶🏽

P.S. Next week, I’ll be sharing more practical thoughts for those with a specialist CV.