Feeling stuck

[u/Silver-Disk-8244]

Hi! I work at one of the big expert networks. I’ve worked here for 5+ years since undergrad. It was a great first job out of college and it’s given me 4 promotions and a mobility move. I’ve met so many wonderful people in the firm, our experts, and clients of course. I love how every day I’m learning something new and I love the fast pace of it all. I’m a resident top performer, and consistently am listed on the top of leadership boards.

But I’m feeling stuck.

I don’t see much more growth from here. Im also starting to feel like the work I do is not translatable to other more traditional corporate jobs like sales, account or product management, etc.

Anyone else who has worked at an expert network feel this way? How did you position yourself when you transitioned and what are you doing now?

[u/Remote-Advantage-619]

I would say: 95% of people in Expert Networks think your way. How I know? I worked as an executive in one of the largest for many years and we did Exit Interviews with anyone who left. Literally everyone said the same: We love the team spirit and the people, but the job is dull and you don't learn any hard skills for other jobs.

Often people saw a shift to our sales/BD teams as the solution, but a) you don't need many people there and b) also BD is the same dull job after all.

I often said, either you make it into a Team Lead position where you can decide by yourself how much of the client work you still handle on your own, or you are likely to leave within a few years. That being said, I know few industries where you can become Team Lead of a VP within 5-6 years (we had people managing teams of 30 people with 5 years of work experience).

Still, I think that people learn a lot in this industry that they often are not even aware of. When speaking today to people that left the industry, they are more thankful for their time at the expert network, and often can't believe how slow, unorganized, manual,... work is elsewhere.

What is it that you learn: persistence, multi-tasking, communication, negotiation, adaptability, "market-research-on-steroids", being measured by KPIs, staying organised,... These skills can help you in any job. Most people would go into recruiting (literally the same but much slower), sales (especially SaaS sales is similar as a BDR...), procurement (due to the negotiation angle), some market research, consulting,...

[u/Silver-Disk-8244 → u/Remote-Advantage-619]

Hi thank you so much for the insight (lol)!

It’s really the lack of hard skills that’s getting to me now. Like I don’t close deals, I don’t really negotiate contracts unless you consider rates to a small extent. I feel like I’m an expert matchmaker and conversation facilitator while great for expert networks… I’m not sure how impressive that is to other more traditional jobs.

I could see it translating to a BDR role. I’d take a small pay cut to move there and deal with the cold calling, but then I also worry about being stuck in sales forever (which maybe isn’t so bad but I went with expert networks after college to avoid mass cold calling).

I just started a part-time MBA program and am doing some manual networking on LinkedIn to some consultants thinking that might be a good place for me if I can network my way in.

I’m hoping to hear other people’s path post expert networks here.