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Back in 2017, I was looking to pivot away from consulting, which I had done for two summers and two years.
Unlike other consultants you might have heard from, I actually enjoyed consulting. I loved meeting new people, traveling to different cities, and “delivering value”, but over time, the glamour started to fade away. I wanted to try something else, and I told myself I could always come back if I wanted.
It was the golden era for tech, where you could apply cold to a job and actually get a response back.
The first job I applied to was an operations role at Lyft. I hadn’t interviewed since my summer internship three years prior, and while I did some prep, I definitely went into the interview winging it.
Safe to say the interview went horribly. The interviewer asked questions I was totally unprepared for. Honestly, I blacked out the details and by the time I left the building, I knew I totally bombed it. There was a pit in my stomach knowing that I didn’t deliver (if you’ve had an interview go poorly, you know how this feels).
Looking back, it’s not like I couldn’t do the job. Many of us are highly capable people who can figure out most things, but I couldn’t deliver my points in a clear way and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.
Delivery builds trust. It signals to whoever is across from you: she's got this.
In a world where AI can now generate polished answers in seconds, the ability to communicate with conviction and clarity—in real time, as a human—is becoming more valuable, especially if you're making a career pivot. You're asking someone to take a chance on you for a role outside your obvious lane. The way you show up in that conversation is often the only data point they have.
How I’m practicing delivery
Three areas I'm actively working on and all three are relevant if you're navigating a pivot or building something new on the side: