A step back on paper. 17 years of possibilities.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve shared how one humanitarian course with the Irish Defebce Forces, six months in Serbia, and a year and a half at the UN made me realise HR was my home—just not Compensation & Benefits.
The answer came through a role I was, on paper, overqualified for.
A smaller title. A wider field to explore.
🌱 While at the UN in Geneva, I spotted an HR Analyst vacancy at Roche in Basel.
I can still picture myself sitting in m tiny Geneva studio, looking at the vacancy and wondering whether I should really “give up” the UN dream and go back to the corporate world.
From Head of C&B for Eurasia to HR Analyst? A considerable pay cut and, to many, a step backwards.
But the role offered something I wanted: experience across HR in a global function—recruitment, talent management, business partnering, succession planning, and more.
So I applied.
A bunch of interviews & a case study followed.
“She’s overqualified. She won’t stay.”
I later learned that my future manager, his manager, and a team member (who became a friend) advocated for hiring me.
The HR manager was against it: I was overqualified; I’d be taking a considerable pay cut; I’m unlikely to stay.
Understandable concerns. But I had already put them on the table in my interviews with the leadership.
They would get an experienced professional to help with operational projects. I would broaden my HR experience. I committed to two years, hoping to then grow into a larger role within Roche.
My ambition hadn’t disappeared. This was my stepping stone, and I was transparent about it. No hidden agendas. No games.
I got the job.
🌱 Less than a year later, a new Global Head of HR arrived, and my position was eliminated. So much for the two-year plan. 😉
I was offered the chance to manage an HR IT rollout project for local HR.
“What a patchwork CV.”
The hiring manager said: “What a patchwork CV!”
I initially smiled—until I realised that, in her world, patchwork meant messy. No red thread. A gentle nudge to focus my career towards a clear goal.
🌱 Only, in my world, patchwork is an asset. More importantly, it’s who I am: an insatiable mind with a rainbow of interests. Why should I settle for one single upward career path?
She hired me anyway.
That project opened up another 16 years at Roche, spanning local and global HR roles, including heading Diversity & Inclusion for Basel/Kaiseraugst.
My patchwork has never let me down. It’s helped me deliver in ambiguous roles I had to shape and navigate re-orgs.
And today, it helps me run an executive and career coaching practice, helping clients clarify their aspirations, experiment with possible “future selves”, stay motivated in what is bound to be a bumpy ride, and find the courage to take their next steps and have the conversations they need to have.
It makes me a better coach.
☀️ What’s the point of this story? ☀️
When I left Novartis, I followed an intuition. I didn’t have a complete picture of where it would lead.
I experimented. I learned what suited me and what didn’t. Eventually, I found my way back to HR—and into parts of it I hadn’t experienced before.
Along the way, I’ve made, what to some may seem difficult to understand or insane to others. But to me, they made total sense: sometimes we need to step back to step forward.
Career paths don’t have to be one-way streets. Sometimes we change direction, reverse, do U-turns, or pull over to rethink our route. 😊
I couldn’t have mapped out those seventeen years at Roche. I saw an opportunity to learn, contribute, and explore. That was enough to take the next step.
Sometimes, a smaller title opens up a much wider field.
📌 Have you ever made a career move that raised a few eyebrows—but made perfect sense to you?
📌 What might your next career move make possible—beyond the title on your CV?
With love,
Dina 🫶🏽
Previous 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
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