How I Got Here: Chief Operating Officer at an Innovative Healthcare Start Up

What can you do if your career goes off the plan?

There’s something reassuring about just having a plan in place. If you know you’re headed in a particular direction, shrinking the distance between there and where you are today feels like progress. Unfortunately what felt like progress can turn to anxiety if you learn through your journey that your original end goal is the opposite of where you ultimately want to be.

Our latest episode highlights what you can do if you find yourself in a similar scenario. Caitlin Reiche, COO at Buoy Health, shares how she used some core guiding convictions (like working for a mission oriented organization) to help redirect her path when she found herself doubting her original career goal coming out of college.

Caitlin Reiche was attracted to the linear, clear cut career path. After she graduated from college, she pursued what she felt was the natural next step for someone interested in psychology — she worked in a hospital as a clinical psychologist. However, she soon felt a growing sense that this seemingly logical journey she had embarked on didn't actually make sense for her.

That's when Caitlin stopped thinking about her career as a planned path. Instead, she asked: "how can I make this more exciting for myself?". While staying true to her north star of working for a mission oriented organization, Caitlin took some detours within that realm. Rather than optimizing for some specific long term goal, she went searching for roles that she was excited about in the moment. 

Ultimately, her approach paid off and she's in her dream job today as Chief Operating Officer at Buoy Health. Listen to our full interview with Caitlin here.

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Changes to a career plan aren’t always internally caused. Many times there are extenuating circumstances that require us to take a role that isn’t “part of the plan.” Dorie Clark who outlines four strategies in a great HBR article that helps guide those who need to take back control of their career arc:

“For almost every professional, there are times when your career path deviates from what you might have hoped — for instance, a layoff, reassignment, relocation, or the need to take time off for health issues or caregiving. The pandemic, of course, has compounded the situation, especially for working parents, who may be facing multiple stressors at once.”

Full article here on HBR (reply to this email if you can’t access and we’ll send along).

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