Redirecting.work

period, naming it partly after the 43rd parallel and partly as a promise to herself that she would use those years to figure out what came next. Even then, she was already feeling the limits of work that no longer matched her deepest interests. She knew she was finishing one phase of her career.

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Over time, that realization sharpened. She’d spent years building credibility as an analyst and business leader, but her heart was no longer in analyst work. She found herself increasingly drawn to strategy, especially the kind of work that helps organizations align around what matters most. By 2023, she knew she was done with the analyst chapter and was exploring how to exit Aspect 43.

 

After her youngest child graduated from high school, she took three weeks alone in Italy, largely off the grid, to think through the larger life change she had promised herself.

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Then SAP called. Her role there, SVP of Innovation and Transformation, gave her a chance to test something important. She stepped into a major executive job, reporting to the president and working across corporate strategy, product strategy, innovation, and special initiatives. She helped drive major work quickly, including the SmartRecruiters acquisition and broader strategic work around the future of SuccessFactors. She accomplished what she’d been brought in to do.

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But the role also clarified something else. The executive life she thought she might want turned out not to be the life she actually wanted. The global travel, the pace, and the distance from family was not a fit. Sarah loves to travel, but not full-time. More than that, she realized that even with grown children, she still wanted to be rooted in family and community. The restructure at SAP became the forcing event that allowed her to choose more honestly.

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When she knew the exit was coming, Sarah booked a solo cruise and used the time to cocoon. Alone with a whiteboard and the ocean, she asked herself a set of questions that now anchor her transition:

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• What do I really love to do?

• What am I good at that I do not enjoy doing?

• What am I good at and also enjoy doing?

• What am I not as good at, but still enjoy?

• What do I not like at all and never want to do again?

• What do I want the next half of my life to be?

 

Those questions led her back to earlier plans she’d once set aside. She pulled out a business plan she’d written in 2007 and revised in 2011. In many ways, her transition has been less about inventing something entirely new than resurrecting a direction already identified.

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Current Direction

Today, Sarah is building around work she genuinely loves. She’s doing strategic advisory work focused on alignment, especially where product, market, and organizational execution break down. She’s developed a Market Strategy Validation assessment based on a long-standing belief that many companies are not looking at the right things, and that alignment often appears strong at the top while falling apart below the director level. Her perspective is cross-functional, market-facing, and grounded in years of sitting in product, marketing, strategy, sales, and executive roles. Her strategic advisory work is also focused on merger and acquisitions and with portfolios to improve success.

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At the same time, she’s building a passion project with larger ambitions which reflects her strategic instincts and her desire to build community, especially for the next generation.

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This is where Sarah’s story also feels like a pivot still in progress. She believes it may take six to twenty-four months for this next stage to fully take shape. She’s realistic about the financial pressure. As a single mother and sole income earner who built everything without a safety net, she’s clear that this pivot cannot come at the expense of her future. That honesty gives her story weight. So does her growing awareness that this season is not only about reinventing work, but also community, identity, and what life looks like when she’s no longer “mom first.”

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Advice to Others Redirecting

Her advice to others in a forced pivot is hard-won and direct. 

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Consider the restructure a blessing, even if it doesn't feel like one at first. 

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Take inventory of what you enjoy and what you don’t. 

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Do the emotional and preparatory work before rushing into interviews. Learn how work is changing. Be clear about what you want. 

 

Ask for help. But don’t let other people define the level or title you want next. 

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In the end, she believes, the person you most need to satisfy is yourself when you put your head on the pillow at night.

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