Build your career
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Abel
The Netherlands
Picto FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early)
FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early)
Abel
The Netherlands
Strategic Sail to FIRE Freedom
Abel‘s voyage to Financial Independence and Retire Early (FIRE) is marked by meticulous planning. He pursued a business education, eventually becoming a CFO. Abel and his wife embraced frugality, saving one salary while gradually growing their income. With strategic goals and an Executive MBA at INSEAD, Abel transitioned to a location-independent portfolio career, achieving FIRE. Now contemplating a fully retired life on a boat, Abel imparts essential lessons on starting early, disciplined planning, and enjoying the journey to financial freedom. Read more
Anand
India
Picto Boardroom to Classroom
Boardroom to Classroom
Anand
India
CHRO, Chief Learning Officer, Sales & Marketing executive Adjunct Professor, Strategy and Leadership, IMT Ghaziabad
Anand, a self-confessed “hobby teacher” by the age of eleven, definitely showed all the signs of ending up in academia early on, even though by now, he looks for balance in his work. During his college years, Anand was the president of the India Youth Brigade, where he worked with teachers and leaders to serve the underprivileged through education, while studying for a BSc in Physics and Maths. He then went on to gain a computer science certification, in the early eighties, becoming one of the early entrants into the nascent Indian IT boom. Several years began of highly prestigious national and international companies’ training schemes and rapid progress, mixing IT with strategy, marketing and account management, thus he became early on an accomplished “all-rounder”. Read more
Celso
Brazil
Picto Becoming a Coder
Becoming a Coder
Celso
Brazil
Finance management in large corporations Product Manager, Data at Mammoth Medi
Growing up in Brazil, Celso liked to dismantle game consoles to see how they worked. He came to the United States as an exchange student during his senior year of high school and never left. Though he was originally enrolled in a computer sciences programme at university, he switched to business after less than a year. After he graduated, J.P. Morgan soon head hunted him as a treasury expert. Since online banking was taking off at the time, his interest in IT was valuable and he went on to work for Disney and Wells Fargo. While he earned a very generous salary, he felt “miserable” doing “mind-numbing” work. When Wells Fargo imploded around 2016, Celso decided to take a leave of absence for some breathing space. Read more
Laila
The Philippines
Picto Corporate High-Flyer to Artisan
Corporate High-Flyer to Artisan
Laila
The Philippines
Investment banker Co-Founder, Guerrilla Dining Concepts
Hailing from the Philippines, Laila was always a foodie. But in her comfortable family environment, only maids cooked for a living. So she became a successful banker, first at JP Morgan, then Deutsche Bank. Eventually she was offered a finance position in Dubai. She travelled often and frequently took solace in the food joints on her trips. Soon she wondered why she did not just go into the food industry. She took a year off, reckoning that she was still young and could always go back to finance. During that time, Laila visited Europe, hatching a strategy and saving as much money as she could. Settling on the city of San Sebastián in Spain, she began knocking on doors in search of an apprenticeship. Read more

Professionals face many critical crossroads in their careers, sometimes unpredictable, sometimes more expected, but for which they were often not truly prepared.

This book discusses many such career transitions – from leaving a corporation to joining a non-profit, evolving from athlete to executive, or returning to a former employer.

Using the stories of 50 leaders interviewed all over the world, the authors describe what provokes the change, the challenges it creates, how the individual is surviving the transition, and what effective leaders do to navigate and grow from it.

The book offers a simple, easy-to-use framework to help make the most of any uncharted transition.

To thrive, you have to follow a four-stage process of Exploring, Experimenting,
Engaging and Expanding. Drawing on examples of a wide range of companies, Disrupt Your Career also provides recommendations to help organizations better acquire, develop and retain talent.

With both compelling stories and rigorous research, Disrupt Your Career serves as a call to exploit novel ways to approach careers and presents practical advice to help both individuals and organizations better prepare, manage, and make the most of career changes – ultimately leading to more fulfilling careers.

This book brings a fresh approach – based on the stories of a diverse and colorful range of career changers – that will inspire many to explore similar moves. It also provides excellent thinking for organizations, where there is still an enormous need for improved approaches to career management.

Herminia Ibarra
Charles Handy Professor of Organizational Behavior at London Business School

How often have you wondered if those that leave your organization are doing so for the right reasons? What would you give to know more, and lose less? Disrupt Your Career holds one of the keys to this increasing challenge for leaders, and outlines a series of insights and processes that can lead to better career comfort for individuals and enhanced, more effective career management for organizations. Tirard and Harbour-Lyell tell the stories that illustrate the career transitions with simplicity and empathy, and make it obvious that we can all learn from them.

Åsa Landén Ericsson
CEO of Cygate, Board Member of Grant Thornton Sweden, Formpipe and Rhenman & Partners

For a leader in any substantial organization, one major preoccupation beyond attracting the very best people is also keeping them stimulated, challenged and fulfilled. This book provides invaluable insight, research and strategies for improvement in both talent strategy and career management. The stories are inspiring and authentic, indicating new paths to follow, and innovative approaches to managing career paths for both companies and individuals.

Jean-Claude Le Grand
Senior VP Talent Development and Chief Diversity Officer, L’Oréal

An essential, soul-saving guide for anyone navigating a non-traditional career path, including most women. And for the companies smart enough to attract them – and creative enough to benefit from their adaptive skills.

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox
CEO of 20-first and author of Seven Steps to Leading a Gender-Balanced Business

Disrupt Your Career makes a significant contribution towards the career challenge, by illustrating various uncharted transitions with compelling and insightful stories. The frameworks are strikingly simple, and the book provides invaluable options and strategies for organizations and individuals alike.

Gianpiero Petriglieri
Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD

Career disruption will happen to everyone – and most of us are ill prepared. This captivating book shows how to understand career transitions and gives fascinating and practical ideas about how best to navigate. A must read for anyone embarking on a life change.

Lynda Gratton
Professor of Management Practice at London Business School

Whether you are an individual pondering a big change, or forced into transition by yet another downsizing, or you are leading an organization and hoping to stem the early attrition of your people, there is something here for you. The stories are compelling, and the frameworks for action simple and solid.

Per Heggenes
CEO, The IKEA Foundation

…combines insights drawn from stories of successful career changers with rigorous research and practical ideas that can be put to immediate use. The book beautifully demonstrates that career reinvention is not only possible, but should be embraced in today’s VUCA world.

Kevin Cashman
Senior Partner, CEO & Executive Development, Korn Ferry and bestselling author

Antoine Tirard is a talent management advisor and the founder of NexTalent. He is the former head of talent management of Novartis and LVMH.

Claire Harbour is a coach and global talent expert, the founder of Culture Pearl and a speaker, consultant and writer about all things to do with optimizing talent across borders.

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