Vijay Padmanabhan | Director, Strategic Response - Meta

Vijay was looking to make the transition from academia into a more directly impactful role. By refining his personal brand and tailoring his aims, he was able to land a top job in the tech sector.

THE CHALLENGE

I was a professor teaching international human rights law at a large US university and I’d made the decision that I did not want to remain in academia. I wanted to feel a direct connection between the work I was doing and outcomes. But I struggled with explaining my experience, including being in academia for seven years.

THE SOLUTION

The work that I did with Shannon was essential for me being able to successfully shift my career. We spent a significant amount of time thinking through what the types of things are I enjoy doing at work and wanted to do more of, what were those that I didn't enjoy doing, and what were the areas in which I wanted to grow. That activity really helped me narrow down the kinds of roles that I would be interested in in the private sector.

"We also worked extensively on developing a set of marketing materials, including putting together a networking document, revising my CV and developing a more robust presence on LinkedIn, all of which were critical to appearing as a credible job candidate."

And we also spent time thinking how to utilise the network that I already possessed to identify opportunities rather than applying cold for jobs, which rarely, if ever, succeeds.

I went from not being sure what I wanted to do, or how I qualified for different kinds of jobs, to having a clear idea of what kinds of roles would be of use to me, and how best to market myself.

THE RESULT

I ended up joining the policy team at Google where I spent six years working in trust and safety. More recently, I've been at Meta working in the strategic response space on executive decision making and escalation management.

All of that I owe to the fact that Shannon was so instrumental in helping me rethink how I go about how I go about identifying my skills and how I go about identifying roles that I'd like to have, as part of my career.