How to transition careers by identifying priorities, transferable skills, and building a network

Executive overview

Many professionals stay in roles that build skills but don't serve their deeper priorities — only realising this years too late. Clarity about what you want from life, not just your career, is the prerequisite to any successful transition.

Kim Rittberg's path from TV news producer to Netflix marketer to independent video consultant shows that skills compound across industries. The framework: know your priorities first, map how your skills transfer, then activate your network.

You can have a good career and still optimise for a better life — and those two things are not in conflict.

Recognising when to pivot

• Staying in a role that sharpens skills but doesn't match your core interests is common — and costly if left too long
• The signal to leave isn't always dissatisfaction; it can be a quiet realisation that the role isn't serving your deeper goals
• Volatile industries (digital media, startups) offer little job security regardless of performance — loyalty is not reciprocal
• A crisis moment — reviewing resumes from a hospital bed while in labour — can crystallise what you actually want
• Leaving a good job is valid; the question is whether the role is serving the life you want now

Skills compound across industries

• News production trained skills in short-form storytelling, deadline pressure, and communication — all directly valuable in digital and social media
• Each career phase adds a layer: booking → producing → building a video unit → marketing at Netflix → independent consulting
• Hard skills (video production, writing) and soft skills (extraversion, comfort under pressure) both transfer — treat them as equal assets
• Identify what you genuinely enjoyed in each role, not just what you were good at; that intersection is where your next move lives
• Working in a field where you're learning every day is worth something even if the field itself isn't your long-term destination

Identifying your priorities before you move

• Name what you want before you move: more money, more time, mission-driven work, flexibility — any of these is a legitimate goal
• Vague burnout is not actionable; identify the specific cause (overload, misaligned mission, lack of control) before making a change
• People with clarity about their goals weather bad days better — they can see that a single setback doesn't invalidate the path
• Gretchen Rubin's advice: don't say "I feel burnt out" — say exactly what is causing it
• Life goals and career goals are different; define your life goals first, then work backwards to career decisions

Mapping how your skills transfer

• List what you can offer that others need: specialist knowledge, coaching, strategy, production, whatever your domain is
• Consider the full range of work structures: full-time employment, consulting, part-time projects, fractional roles, coaching
• Introverts and extroverts need different models — if you hate sales, structure your work to minimise it (retainer clients, referral-only)
• 65% of moms surveyed said they would leave full-time work for entrepreneurship, consulting, or part-time work — the demand for flexible structures is real
• Companies like MomProject and FlexJobs exist specifically to connect professionals with non-traditional arrangements

Networking without the awkward room

• Networking is not a gray conference room with name tags — it is reconnecting with people you already know
• Tell people what you are doing and what you need; most of your existing network wants to help
• When reaching out, be specific: name the three concrete ways someone could help you
• Post consistently on LinkedIn about what you are working on — visibility compounds, and past contacts resurface unexpectedly
• The best time to maintain a network is before you need it; periodic low-stakes check-ins beat desperate outreach
• All of Kim's client work came through inbound referrals seeded by casual catch-ups and social media visibility

Reframing selling as service

• Reluctance to promote yourself harms the people you could help, not just your own pipeline
• Think of outreach as making your expertise available to people who need it, not asking for favours
• When meeting someone you want to learn from, skip questions Google can answer — ask what would transform their business
• Find a way to give value first: a handwritten thank-you, a referral, a signal boost on social media
• Good karma in a network is rarely one-to-one — the person you help is rarely the person who helps you back, but it compounds

Building a structure that works for you

• Working for yourself requires rebuilding the scaffolding that employment provides: community, feedback, professional identity
• Replace office social structures deliberately: lunch catch-ups, industry communities, podcast networks
• You are not just looking for clients — you are looking for referrals, collaborators, and a sense of professional progress
• A newsletter, a podcast, or consistent social posting can serve simultaneously as marketing, community-building, and accountability
• Measure success against the life goals you set, not against the career metrics of your previous role