Divya Dewan's Triple Career Pivot After Cambridge MBA

The moment things shifted

Divya Dewan completed her MBA at Cambridge Judge Business School in 2022 with a clear objective: to move forward in a way that would test her across multiple dimensions at once. She wanted to pivot not just her industry, but also her function and her geography. It was an ambitious recalibration—the kind that requires both clarity about where you're heading and acceptance of the uncertainty that comes with leaving established ground.

The challenge was immediate and tangible. She was entering a new field without the safety net of prior connections or relevant experience in that sector. There were no former colleagues to call, no shared history with hiring managers, no track record in the space she wanted to enter. It was, in many ways, a clean slate—which offered freedom, but also meant she would need to build credibility from scratch.

What they tried

Dewan identified her target role and the company where she wanted to work. Rather than submit applications into the void or rely on traditional recruitment channels, she chose a more deliberate approach: she engaged in what she calls "ideation chats."

These conversations were not casual networking in the conventional sense. Instead, they were structured interactions designed to understand what the company actually needed—the problems it was trying to solve, the gaps in its capabilities, the direction it was moving. By focusing on the organisation's perspective rather than her own credentials, she shifted the dynamic from "here's why I'm qualified" to "here's how I might be useful to you."

This required a different kind of preparation than a typical interview. It meant researching not just the company's public-facing strategy, but thinking through the real operational challenges it might face. It meant asking questions that demonstrated she had thought seriously about their world, not just her own career aspirations.

What worked, what didn't

The ideation chat approach worked. Dewan secured a role as Practice Leader, Career Development & Mobility at LHH in London. The position represented the kind of significant pivot she had set out to achieve—a new industry, a new function, a new geography.

What made this possible was not a network she already possessed, but rather a method that created value in the conversation itself. By approaching potential employers as someone genuinely interested in understanding their needs, she opened a door that credentials alone might not have. The strategy acknowledged a simple truth: companies are more likely to hire someone who has demonstrated they understand the business than someone who has simply demonstrated they want the job.

The approach also required her to be comfortable with a degree of vulnerability. She was not entering this space as an expert with years of experience to reference. She was entering it as someone who had done her homework and was genuinely curious about the work. That authenticity appears to have been part of what made the conversations productive.

What they'd tell someone else

When reflecting on her experience, Dewan was direct about what the process demanded.

Be bold. Career Pivots are not for the faint-hearted.

This is not motivational rhetoric. It is a practical observation. A triple pivot—across industry, function, and geography simultaneously—requires commitment to the discomfort of not yet belonging. It requires accepting that you will not have the easiest answers to the question "Why should we hire you?"

What Dewan's experience suggests is that the answer to that question can be found not in your past, but in your understanding of their future. When you enter a conversation about a role or company without the assumption that your background speaks for itself, you create space to demonstrate something else: the ability to think clearly about what matters to them, and the willingness to engage seriously with their world.

The ideation chat method is not a shortcut. It requires genuine preparation and genuine curiosity. But for someone facing a significant career pivot without the advantage of existing connections, it offers a concrete alternative to hoping that someone will take a chance on you. Instead, you create the conditions where taking a chance on you becomes a sensible business decision.