Chapter 2: Find Your Target — Choose the Right Industry and Role

“I wasted 8 months switching into ‘tech’ because I never got specific enough. What does ‘tech’ mean? That question eventually became the answer: I wanted to be in B2B SaaS, in customer success, at a company with 50–300 employees. That specificity changed everything.” — Customer Success Manager, formerly in education administration

Specificity Is Strategy

The most common error at the start of a career switch: insufficient specificity about the target.

“I want to get into tech.” “I want to do something more creative.” “I want to work with data.” These are not career targets. They’re directions — and directions don’t get you hired.

A career target has three components:

Industry: The sector you’re targeting (fintech, healthcare, B2B SaaS, gaming, clean energy, etc.)
Function: What you’ll be doing (product management, marketing, software engineering, sales, operations, etc.)
Role level and company type: Senior IC or manager? Startup or enterprise? Early-stage or late-stage?

The more specific you are, the easier everything else becomes: the positioning, the networking, the narrative, the job search. Specificity is not limiting — it’s enabling.

The Target Selection Framework

Step 1: Energy Inventory

Where have you done your best work? What problems have you found genuinely interesting — not just “tolerable” or “well-compensated”? What have you done that felt like something you’d do even if it were harder?

This is not about passion (which is overrated and often discovered after you’ve done something for a while). It’s about energy: what work leaves you more energized rather than more depleted?

Write down:

3 work experiences where you were fully engaged and doing your best
3 skills or activities you find genuinely interesting
3 problems in the world you’d like to work on

Step 2: Skills Inventory (Preview of Chapter 3)

What are you actually good at? Not what your resume says — what do you do that others find difficult or unusual?

Note these skills at this stage. You’ll audit them in depth in Chapter 3.

Step 3: Market Research

The intersection of what you enjoy and what pays well is your target zone. Market research is how you find it.

For each candidate industry/function:

What’s the job market like? (Growing, shrinking, stable?)
What’s the compensation range for roles you’d be targeting?
What do the career paths look like? (IC track, management track, consultant track)
What types of companies hire for this function in this industry?
What does “10 years in this role” look like?

Sources for market research:

LinkedIn (search for people with 5–10 years in the target role; study their career paths)
Bureau of Labor Statistics for US market data
Glassdoor and Levels.fyi for compensation
Industry-specific subreddits and forums (often the most honest)
Job postings for the target role — read 20–30 of them carefully

Step 4: Accessibility Analysis

Not all entry points into a target industry are equally accessible for career switchers. Some roles have structural barriers (specific credentials, years of experience in the field) that make them nearly impossible to enter without starting over. Others actively welcome transferable experience.

Higher accessibility for career switchers:

Customer-facing roles that value business acumen and communication (customer success, account management, sales)
Operations and program management roles
Marketing roles (especially content, product marketing, partnerships)
Strategy and business development roles
Entry-level product management (APM programs often designed for switchers)

Lower accessibility for career switchers without specific credentials:

Technical engineering roles (unless you’re doing a coding bootcamp)
Clinical or licensed professions (medicine, law, accounting)
Research roles in scientific fields
Quantitative finance roles

The bridge role strategy: Identify the highest-accessible role that gets your foot in the door of the target industry, even if it’s not your ultimate destination. A year of customer success at a healthcare tech company is an excellent stepping stone to product management there — even if it’s not the direct path.

The Target Validation Test

Before committing to a target, validate it through three tests:

Test 1: The 10-Person Test

Find 10 LinkedIn profiles of people who are 5–10 years ahead of you on the target path. Look at their career trajectories. Their day-to-day lives (from their posts and articles). Their compensation estimates (Glassdoor, Levels.fyi, LinkedIn Salary). Their locations and lifestyles.

Is this where you want to be in 10 years? If yes: proceed. If not: revisit.

Test 2: The Informational Interview Test

Before committing to the switch, have 3 informational interviews with people who do the target role today. Ask them: “What’s the best part of this role? What’s the hardest? What would you do differently if starting over?”

These conversations often surface things you didn’t know — good and bad. Sometimes they confirm your target. Sometimes they redirect it. Either outcome is valuable before you invest 6 months in a switch.

(Chapter 7 covers how to get these interviews.)

Test 3: The “Day in the Life” Test

Read, watch, or talk about what the daily work of the target role actually is. Not the aspirational version — the actual day-to-day.

Product managers spend a lot of time in meetings, writing requirements, and navigating stakeholder disagreements. Data scientists spend a lot of time cleaning data and writing SQL, not building machine learning models. Sales professionals have rejection-heavy days and quota pressure.

Does the actual job — not the exciting narrative about it — still appeal to you?

Common Target Industries and What Transfers Well

Technology / B2B SaaS

What transfers well: Any business function with measurable outcomes (finance → operations, consulting → strategy, teaching → L&D or customer success) Best entry points: Customer success, sales, product operations, technical program management

Healthcare Tech

What transfers well: Clinical experience (to product or customer success), operations, regulatory or legal backgrounds Best entry points: Customer success with clinical accounts, product roles in EMR/health IT

Clean Energy / Climate Tech

What transfers well: Engineering, project management, finance, policy Best entry points: Project development, carbon markets, infrastructure finance

Financial Technology

What transfers well: Finance, banking, payments experience; engineering; product Best entry points: Operations, compliance, product management, sales

Marketing / Creative Agencies

What transfers well: Communication skills, project management, analytical thinking, industry-specific knowledge Best entry points: Account management, project management, content strategy

Chapter Summary

A career target requires three components: industry, function, and role level/company type
The Target Selection Framework: energy inventory → skills inventory → market research → accessibility analysis
Validate your target with the 10-Person Test, 3 Informational Interviews, and the Day-in-the-Life Test
Use the bridge role strategy: identify the highest-accessible entry point even if it’s not your ultimate destination
Know your accessibility — some roles are far more career-switcher friendly than others

Action Item

This week: conduct your energy inventory and market research on your top 2 target industries/functions. Identify 10 LinkedIn profiles in each target path. Study them.

Then schedule 1 informational interview with someone in each target role. Use the request framework from Chapter 7 (spoiler: you can start before you read it — just ask for 20 minutes to learn about their role).

Next: Chapter 3 — The Transferable Skills Audit: What You Already Bring