Exploring a career beyond Human Resources
It took me two years away from Human Resources (HR) to realise it was still my home.
I don’t regret those two years. Without them, I would always have wondered: “What if?”
Last week, I shared how a humanitarian training helped me realise that area wasn’t for me.
But I had another dream still to explore: Human Rights.
So, I ran another experiment. Then another.
🌱 Newsletters and online forums. Loved it.
🌱 A summer diploma in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, including attending the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. Amazing.
🌱 Six months in Serbia, leading an HR project while participating in the organisation’s Human Rights initiatives. A once-in-a-lifetime experience.
☀️ Each experiment helped me take the next step. ☀️
My husband wasn’t keen on a life of moving between field missions, so I focused on Geneva-based jobs.
An unexpected opportunity at the UN
I applied for an internship at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Everyone I knew said I wouldn’t get in without connections.
I got two calls.
The first came while I was on holiday. By the time I heard the voicemail on Saturday, the Friday deadline had passed. I called on Monday. They’d offered it to someone else.
I was gutted. Convinced I’d blown it.
Then, a few days later, another unit called: the NGO Liaison Office.
I said yes immediately.
🌱 Had I answered the first call, I would have ended up in a “back-office” role. Instead, I found myself right in the middle of the action.
☀️ Sometimes, God or the universe, whatever your belief, helps us a little. We just don’t recognise it right away. ☀️
An unpaid internship became a paid consultancy—and a year and a half that taught me so much.
I helped facilitate NGOs’ participation in the newly established Human Rights Council so their voices could be heard.
I met inspiring rapporteurs and activists, including people risking their lives to speak out.
I loved the cause, the work, and the people.
But by the end, I also knew:
🌱 I needed more stability than temporary contracts offered.
🌱 The political sensitivities—and the constant care over what I said, how and to whom—took more energy than I wanted to give them.
🌱 Staying in Switzerland, I could see a way to make the more direct, immediate contribution I was looking for through HR.
Human Resources was still my home. I just needed a different area within it.
📌 You can’t think yourself through a career transition.
Those two years gave me clarity, unforgettable experiences, and relationships I still cherish today.
The experiments let me test the “what if” and choose my next step with a clearer understanding of what mattered to me.
What happened next is for next week. 😊
☀️ If you’re in pharma trying to figure out your next career step, I’ve been there myself. Today, I help people explore that question—not by rushing towards an answer, but by finding ways to test what might fit. ☀️
Explore career coaching for Pharma professionals.
With love,
Dina 🫶🏽
Previous related posts:
- Step 1: Why I resigned from my C&B role at Novartis or When a good job is no longer the right job
- Step 2: The importance of running mini-experiments or How I discovered my dream job was not for me
- The above post is Step 3
- Next week, I’ll share more about Step 4 🙂
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