About the author

Luis Rodriguez Baptista

Luis Baptista is an engineer, a former marketer at P&G, a former corporate CEO, an entrepreneur, an advisor, a startup board member, and a professor at IE Business School. He found his life’s mission during the pandemic when a friend’s final message - expressing peace at having fulfilled his purpose - ignited his journey to defining his own: helping others find meaning through work.

This revelation transformed Luis from a successful executive into a passionate advocate for purposeful career change. A serial career pivoter with seven successful transitions across three continents, Luis has moved seamlessly between corporate leadership (P&G, ATT, Chicco), entrepreneurship (launching Cinnabon in Europe), and strategic advising (guiding companies like Zeiss, Samsung, Telefónica, Carlyle portfolio, Dubai Holding across 30+ countries).

This journey has provided him with unique insights into the
universal challenges that professionals face when seeking more fulfilling work. With an MBA from Kellogg and a background in engineering, Luis brings analytical rigor to the profoundly human process of career transformation. His teaching at IE Business School and Coursera programs has guided over 150,000 students, while his publications in Harvard Business Review and Deusto explore how individuals and organisations successfully navigate change.

Currently developing UrPivot, dubbed “the Duolingo of Career Pivoting”, Luis is crafting a modern toolbox that incorporates behavioural science, storytelling, and gamification. His board positions with EMM and Multi-Platform Content align with his mission to assist 1 million people in finding fulfilling careers by 2030.

Multilingual, multicultural, and always learning, Luis turns complex career decisions into clear pathways forward, demonstrating that career pivots are journeys toward growth and fulfilment

Additional authors

Juliana N. Pereira

Juliana N. Pereira is a trusted voice on career transitions, community leadership, and values-driven transformation. With a professional journey that spans six major career pivots across diverse industries, including fashion, education, technology, and company size, from entrepreneurship to global corporations. Juliana doesn’t just write about reinvention — she lives it.

Juliana Naranjo Pereira

Born in New York and raised between the U.S., Colombia, and Portugal, she grew up as a third culture kid with a deep understanding of identity, adaptability, and cross-cultural connection. Her professional path has taken her from New York’s competitive advertising world at BBDO and Lowe Worldwide, to senior brand roles at Gucci, P&G, Tiffany&Co., and Burberry, to leading global marketing for a tech company in Spain.

Along the way, she has also launched an entrepreneurial beauty and wellness venture and built the Campus Life department at IE University, fostering belonging for 10,000+ international students from 147 countries.

Her insights have been featured in Harvard Business Review Deusto, where she’s authored three articles exploring career change, inclusive leadership, and building trust during uncertainty. She also delivered a TEDx talk titled
“Rethinking the Meaning of Work”, offering a personal lens on how identity and purpose evolve through change.

Juliana’s professional network includes thought leaders from UNICEF, KPMG, Google, Chief, MIT Technology Review, Telefónica, Microsoft, and EY, many of whom she is interviewing for this book. Her unique ability to connect across sectors and disciplines has made her a bridge between global brands, social impact initiatives, and purpose-driven professionals navigating change.
Currently a Board Member of UNICEF Spain and advisor to multiple organizations, Juliana is passionate about designing spaces — physical, digital, and emotional — where people feel empowered to grow, contribute, and redefine success on their own terms.

This book is the culmination of her own lived experience, her work with thousands of professionals in transition, and her belief that career pivots aren’t breakdowns — they’re breakthroughs.

linkedin.com/in/juliananaranjopereira

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INTRODUCTION: THE JOURNEY OF CAREER PIVOTING.

THE PIVOT JOURNEY BEGINS.

"I'm desperately unhappy, desperately bored, and I can't see a solution within my current career path. If I left tomorrow, within a week, nobody would care. I don't do anything of any value, and that to me is really hard."

These aren't the words of someone who just needs a better job—they're from Hannah, a 35-year-old professional who, like so many we've interviewed, feels her career "happened to her rather than her happening to it." Her story mirrors what we've heard hundreds of times during our three-year global research journey: careers that once made sense now feel like prisons, with each passing day sapping more life energy than they return.

Does this resonate with you?

Perhaps you wake up each morning with a knot in your stomach, wondering, "Is this all there is?" Maybe you've found yourself staring at your computer screen, feeling that uncomfortable blend of boredom and anxiety that comes from knowing you're capable of so much more. Or you might be like Nadir, another of our interviewees, who told us: "I find myself walking further down a road into more responsibility, with more money comes more organization... I'm just stuck on this road."

We understand. And not in the superficial way that most career books claim to. We truly understand because we've spent years immersed in the raw, unfiltered stories of people just like you.

What has surprised us most isn't that people want to change—it's how similar their emotional journeys are, regardless of industry, geography, or background. Whether they're in marketing or medicine, tech or teaching, the pattern is strikingly consistent:

First comes the growing sense of misalignment—that uncomfortable feeling that you're in the wrong place, using the wrong skills, serving the wrong purpose.

Then comes the paralysis—knowing change is necessary but feeling overwhelmed by the logistics, the finances, the unknown.

Next is the quiet suffering—showing up day after day, your frustration building as you see your life energy being gradually depleted.

And finally, the breaking point—that moment when staying becomes more painful than the uncertainty of leaving.

Our research, involving interviews with both successful pivoters and leading experts across fields including behavioural psychology, neuroscience, and organizational development, has revealed something profound: these obstacles, while real, are not insurmountable. More importantly, they're not unique to you. You aren't "broken" for feeling this way. You aren't "ungrateful" for wanting more. And you absolutely aren't "stuck" forever.

Consider this book your comprehensive guidebook for the career pivot journey. And make no mistake—it is a journey, complete with paths to explore, skills to master, obstacles to overcome, and treasures to discover along the way. But perhaps most importantly, it's a journey where the process itself—not just the destination—holds transformative power. By framing your pivot as an expedition, we help you break down what seems overwhelming into manageable, even meaningful, steps forward.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

Miguel's pivot journey begins with an unexpected roadblock. After dedicating years to studying nuclear physics and preparing for an academic career, world politics intervened. His department closed overnight, and his carefully plotted route vanished with it. While others might have turned back, Miguel spotted an emerging path—Microsoft had just released the first version of Excel, and he recognized that teaching these new digital tools could be valuable. This insight led him from academic disappointment to a position at Cisco, which eventually took him to Singapore and later Europe with Amazon Web Services.

"There is a risk in pivoting," Miguel told us, "but what's the risk of not pivoting? Don't underestimate the cost of standing still." His story illustrates a crucial lesson that behavioural science confirms: humans often overestimate the risk of change while underestimating the risk of maintaining the status quo. In journey terms, Miguel understood that staying in the same place indefinitely can be more dangerous than moving forward.

Robin's story reveals another facet of the pivot journey. As a successful judicial officer at the peak of his career, he had, by conventional standards, "arrived" at his professional destination. Yet he found himself wondering: "Is this it? Do I want to stay in this place for the rest of my life?" A seed of change was planted, but it took a serious health crisis—a brain tumour—to accelerate his timeline. After recovery, Robin sold his business and pivoted to executive coaching, entering a territory so crowded that the number of coaches in the Netherlands had more than tripled in just a few years. Rather than seeing this as a barrier, Robin treated it as a challenge to forge his own unique path.

"Don't search for happiness," Robin advised. "Strive to find purpose. That will always be your North Star." In journey terms, this is the compass that guides travellers forward even when the path becomes difficult to see.

For Valeria, multiple pivots shaped her professional expedition. From restaurant owner to education, from the UK to Spain, each transition required her to rediscover and redefine herself. "Follow your intuition. Listen to your inner voice," she shared. "Don't label yourself or let others label you. There is so much more behind the word; lawyer, writer, actor..." Valeria's perspective aligns with research showing that people who view their abilities as developable rather than fixed are more likely to embrace challenging terrains and persist through difficult passages.

These stories are just three among hundreds, each unique yet connected by common threads. They illustrate that while the path may look different for everyone, the fundamental challenges—and the principles for overcoming them—remain remarkably consistent.

WE'VE BEEN THERE.

"My career takes a lot more energy out of me than other people's jobs take out of them. I feel like my life energy is getting sapped by a small percentage every single day that I go in."

"Since having my child, I've realized I need to do something that makes me happy so I can be a better mom. I don't want my son growing up seeing me desperately unhappy in a career I never should have chosen."

"My confidence has taken a knock. I feel underutilized by my company. They don't really know what to do with me. I'm a square peg in a round hole."

These confessions from our interviews aren't just data points in our research—they're the raw emotional reality that millions face each day. We understand because we've been there too. And we've dedicated ourselves to finding answers, not just through our own experiences, but by seeking out the world's foremost experts on every aspect of career transitions.

We've sat with leading psychologists like Dr. Carol Dweck, whose groundbreaking work on growth mindset has transformed our understanding of how we adapt to change. We've explored the science of motivation with Daniel Pink, learning how autonomy, mastery, and purpose drive meaningful work. We've delved into the financial realities of pivoting with experts like Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, who has helped thousands create sustainable "pivot funds" to safely bridge the financial gap.

But perhaps most importantly, we've interviewed hundreds of people who once sat exactly where you're sitting now—feeling drained, disconnected, and desperate for change. People who would later tell us that the most profound revelation wasn't finding their "perfect job," but discovering that the journey itself transformed them in ways they never anticipated.

As one successful pivoter told us: "I finally realized things don't happen 'to you'—they happen 'for you'. Every frustrating dead-end job was actually preparing me for what came next, though I couldn't see it at the time."

JULIANA’S JOURNEY

I know firsthand the daunting mix of excitement and fear that comes with deciding to pivot your career. Over the past 20 years, I've navigated several significant career shifts—each one marked by moments of uncertainty, self-doubt, and questions like, Can I really travel this path? Do I have the tools I need? What if I lose my way?
From working in multinational corporations to leading strategic initiatives in diverse industries, I've experienced the exhilaration of discovering new professional landscapes and the disorientation of not knowing which direction to take. At one point, I found myself overwhelmed by fears: the risk of financial instability, whether I had the credibility to venture into a new field, or how to chart my course in completely unfamiliar territory. Sound familiar?

But what I've learned through my own career pivot journeys is that these challenges are not roadblocks. They're waypoints. Every step of the way, I've acquired new tools, built connections with fellow travellers, and discovered innovative ways to navigate successfully, even in uncharted waters. And now, we want to help you do the same!

I've walked the uncertain, exciting, and sometimes terrifying paths of career pivoting more than once in my life. To be exact, and depending on what type of pivot we are talking about (we will get to that later) I have completed seven successful journeys; I have a few more expeditions in me. From starting at the agency I dreamed of—BBDO in advertising—out of college, to moving abroad and finding myself in fashion PR with prestigious clients such as Gucci, Burberry, and Tiffany & Co. in a country where I didn't have any contacts and much less experience in the industry (that would be a triple pivot), to launching my own ventures in the wellness/beauty arena, falling (literally) into academia/education and community building at a top Business School, and post-COVID thinking the future was in being a global CMO of a tech consultancy.

What I've come to understand through both my personal experience and our extensive research is that the most profound career transitions begin with a simple but revolutionary act: giving yourself permission to explore. This permission isn't just about looking at job listings or updating your resume—it's about allowing yourself to acknowledge that you deserve more, that your dissatisfaction is valid, and that your desire for meaningful work isn't selfish or unrealistic.

When I think about all my career pivots, it seems like multiple journeys, some I have had to say goodbye to, others I fled from, others filled me with purpose and meaning, but each and every one challenged me to grow, adapt, and rediscover my path. Born in New York and shaped by cultures from Colombia, Portugal, and the U.S., I learned early on the value of adaptability. Feeling from nowhere and everywhere is a big part of who I am and how I came to embrace the part of me that seeks new horizons and belonging.

I know what it feels like to wake up and think, "Where do I even begin?" I know the mental exhaustion that comes from forcing yourself to show up day after day to work that drains rather than energizes you. I understand the fear that maybe this is just what adult life is supposed to be—that perhaps expecting more is naive or entitled. And I recognize the paralysis that comes when you know you need a clear, sequential action plan but can't even identify what the first step should be.

These aren't just challenges—they're the emotional toll of staying too long in the wrong career. And they affect everything: your relationships, your health, your sense of self. As one of our interviewees put it: "I need to make this change so I can be a better parent. I don't want my child growing up seeing me desperately unhappy."
The journey ahead won't always be easy, but it will be worth it. And you won't be traveling alone. Together, we'll reach destinations you may not even be able to imagine yet—not just professionally, but in how you feel about yourself and your place in the world.

THE PIVOT EXPEDITION: HOW THIS BOOK WORKS.
Think of this book as your atlas for the career pivot journey, with each chapter representing a different region you'll explore. Just as no one expects you to scale Mount Everest on your first hiking trip, we don't expect you to transform your career overnight. Instead, we'll guide you through progressively more challenging terrains, each building upon the skills and insights gained from the one before.

Terrain 1: Surveying the Landscape (Why Career Pivoting Matters).
Before any great expedition begins, you need to understand the territory. In this section, we'll explore why career pivoting has become not just common but essential in today's professional landscape. You'll discover the currents shaping work, the field reports that reveal you're far from alone in seeking new paths, and the distinction between passively drifting and actively navigating.

Terrain 2: Understanding Your Travel Style (Is This for You?).
Every traveller has their own approach to exploration. Here, you'll identify your pivot persona by understanding your motivations, fears, and the unique challenges you'll need to navigate. Through real stories of successful pivoters, you'll begin to see yourself in their journeys and recognize the patterns that lead to fulfilling destinations.

Terrain 3: Mastering Navigation Skills (The 4-Step Framework).
Now it's time to learn essential navigation techniques. Our research-backed framework—Discover, Define, Shape, Test—provides the fundamental tools you'll use throughout your pivot journey. Each step builds upon the last, creating a progression that feels natural and achievable rather than overwhelming.

Terrain 4: Packing Your Essentials (How to Prepare).
No explorer sets out without the right gear. In this section, you'll prepare for your journey by assessing and strengthening eight critical resources: financial readiness, support systems, time allocation, emotional resilience, growth mindset, networking capabilities, personal brand, and self-awareness.

Terrain 5: The Summit View (Key Takeaways).
Every journey has moments of arrival, but in the career pivot expedition, reaching one summit often reveals new peaks to explore. We'll help you integrate all you've learned and prepare for continued exploration with actionable next steps.
Throughout your journey, you'll encounter:

• Trail Markers: Short exercises that help you check your bearings and apply key concepts.
  
• Skill-Building Camps: Activities designed to strengthen specific pivot capabilities.
  
• Journey Logs: Tools to document how far you've come.
  
• Obstacle Crossing Techniques: Methods for overcoming the major barriers that stop most pivoters.
  
• Mile Markers: Ways to acknowledge and celebrate your progress.
  

Remember, on the journey of career pivoting, there are no dead ends—only opportunities to reassess your map, adjust your compass, and find new paths forward. The most successful pivoters we interviewed weren't necessarily the most talented or the luckiest; they were the most persistent, the most strategic, and the most willing to treat detours as opportunities for discovery rather than failures.

YOUR FIRST ESSENTIAL TOOL: THE PIVOT MINDSET.
Before we dive into the specific strategies and frameworks that will guide your pivot, we want to equip you with your first and most valuable tool: the Pivot Mindset. Our research revealed that while terrains, vehicles, and destinations varied widely among successful pivoters, they all shared certain mental attributes that dramatically increased their chances of reaching their goals.

The Pivot Mindset consists of five interconnected perspectives that you can begin cultivating right now:

1. "Navigation is a skill I can develop, not a talent I either have or don't." Behavioural science has proven that people who believe abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work (a growth mindset) travel further than those who believe their talents are fixed traits.
   
2. "I am not starting my journey from nowhere; I bring valuable provisions from previous expeditions." Successful pivoters recognize that even dramatic career changes utilize transferable skills, experiences, and connections from previous roles.
   
3. "Obstacles are terrain features to navigate, not signals to turn back." When you view roadblocks as navigation challenges rather than impassable barriers, you activate the problem-solving centres of your brain rather than the threat-response system.
   
4. "My career path is mine to explore, not follow." The most satisfied pivoters approach their careers as personal expeditions, not predetermined tours laid out by others.
   
5. "I can take small steps now while planning longer expeditions for later." Career pivoting isn't an all-or-nothing proposition; it's a series of strategic moves that build momentum over time.
   

These perspectives might seem simple, but their impact is profound. Research in behavioural psychology shows that our beliefs shape our perceptions, which in turn determine our actions. By intentionally adopting these five viewpoints, you're already changing your journey before you take a single external step.

YOUR FIRST EXPEDITION: THE PIVOT POSSIBILITY SCAN.
Now, let's put this mindset into immediate action with your first expedition—one that will earn you your first milestone marker in your pivot journey.

Take out a blank sheet of paper (or open a new document) and create three columns:

Column 1: "What Energizes Me".
List activities, topics, environments, or interactions that consistently give you energy rather than drain it. These don't have to be work-related.

Column 2: "What I'm Good At".
List skills, capabilities, and knowledge areas where you excel or learn quickly. Include both technical and "soft" skills.

Column 3: "What The World Needs".
List problems, needs, or opportunities you see in the world (or your corner of it) that you find meaningful and worth addressing.

The magic happens where these three circles intersect. This intersection doesn't reveal your perfect pivot destination—that comes later—but it opens up the exploration territory where your most fulfilling career moves are likely to reside.
Complete this expedition before moving to the next chapter, and you'll have taken your first concrete step toward your pivot. Like any meaningful journey, each step builds upon the last, creating momentum that will carry you through even the most challenging terrains ahead.

THE JOURNEY AHEAD.
As we conclude this introduction and prepare to embark on this expedition together, we want to acknowledge something important: career pivoting isn't easy. If it were, everyone would do it at the first sign of dissatisfaction. It requires courage, persistence, creativity, and a willingness to venture beyond your comfort zone.
But here's what we know from our research and experience: it's worth it. The individuals we interviewed who successfully navigated their career pivots reported not just greater professional satisfaction, but improvements in their overall well-being, relationships, and sense of purpose. Many described their pivot not as a single professional change, but as a transformation that rippled through every aspect of their lives.

In the chapters that follow, we'll equip you with the knowledge, tools, and strategies to navigate your own pivot with confidence. We'll share stories of real people who have travelled this path before you, highlighting both their successful routes and the lessons they learned from their detours. We'll break down complex terrain into manageable trails, demystify the process of transitioning between industries or roles, and help you develop the resilience to persist when challenges arise.

Whether you're contemplating your first steps away from a career that no longer serves you, or you're a seasoned traveller looking to refine your navigation techniques, this book offers a research-backed map to guide your journey.
The path of career pivoting stretches before you. Are you ready to take that first step?

YOUR PIVOT JOURNEY TRACKER.
Before moving on to Chapter 1, take a moment to mark your starting point on the Pivot Journey Tracker below. As you work through this book, you'll return to this tracker to gauge your progress and celebrate your momentum.

BASE CAMP: Starting Point ← You are here
WAYPOINT 1: Pivot Awareness.
WAYPOINT 2: Self-Discovery.
WAYPOINT 3: Obstacle Recognition.
WAYPOINT 4: Resource Gathering.
WAYPOINT 5: Expedition Planning.
WAYPOINT 6: Route Selection.
WAYPOINT 7: Crafting the New You.
WAYPOINT 8: Field Testing.

Remember, in the journey of career pivoting, progress isn't always linear. You may advance quickly through some terrains while taking more time in others. This varied pace isn't a sign of wrong turns—it's a natural part of the complex, rewarding expedition you're undertaking.

Now, let's turn the page and begin exploring why career pivoting matters in today's rapidly evolving professional landscape, and why your decision to pick up this book might be the most important step on your career map you've taken yet.

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