Envisioning Your Next Chapter: Where Do You Want to Go?
On June 24, 2025, Pivot with Purpose hosted its first event that is formally part of our Seminar Series. This session was the first of two featuring Jenny Blake as the key speaker and kicked-off our first session theme: Developing Your Career Path in the Post-USAID World.
Laura Sheehan, Walsh School of Foreign Service, joined Blake in this interactive session. Both speakers highlighted the profound shifts taking place in the international development industry, and how that has forced many professionals in the space to look elsewhere for employment. Such a major change forces us to envision a new chapter in our careers, which can be daunting or even frightening.
Though this process may be intimidating, there are ways you can meet this challenge.
Specifically, drafting a methodical plan to move forward, and one that you can cycle through continuously as part of your career strategy, is vital to anyone’s efforts to pivot to a new career
To tackle this challenge effectively, Blake offered a 4-stage pivot method process to help you through your career transition and to guide your thinking around what next steps are best for you to take. They are listed below:
- Plant by identifying existing strengths, interests, and experiences to double-down on, and define your six-month vision: what does success look like by the end of this year?
- Scan for resonant related skills, people and projects.
- Reduce risk by piloting through small experiments to help you determine potential through the three E’s: enjoyment, expertise, and expansion.
- Launch with confidence in a new direction.
Despite the challenges that lie ahead, making a career pivot is far from impossible. As Blake emphasized during her presentation, pivoting is both a mindset and a skillset, and you can get better at both.
Other Previous Sessions
Please feel free to browse our other previous sessions to access summaries, video content, and more information about our other events!