When the World Stopped, I Moved

Four years ago, I made a decision that changed everything. I left higher education for tech.

Today, I want to tell you why, and why it might matter for you too.

I was in undergrad, eager to graduate and finally make a livable wage doing, something. I had no clue what that something was.

Around that time, I started getting random offers from recruiters for jobs I'd never heard of. At the time, I took it as a good sign that I wouldn't be broke after graduation.

The real shift happened in a conversation with the Vice President of Student Affairs. I was heavily involved in campus activities, and one day he pulled me aside and said something that stuck with me: "You know you can get paid to do this, right?"

I looked at him confused. How?

His answer was simple: Get a master's degree and enter higher education professionally.

That moment taught me something crucial: skills are portable.

What I'd learned through being an RA, success coach, program director, and student success paraprofessional could be repackaged, reframed, and moved into a career.

All it took was intentional alignment, connecting what I did, what I learned, and where I wanted to go.

Fast forward to graduation.

I earned my Master's degree in Higher Education Policy and Student Affairs, I landed my first professional position at my alma mater, it all felt natural. I understood the environment, the people, the systems, and hit the ground running.

I facilitated faculty support sessions, presented at faculty symposiums, served on university-wide initiatives, I was excelling.

But there was always a lingering question: What comes next and how do I move up from here?

So I did what anyone would do, I networked.

The answers I got back from colleagues and mentors were vague. Excluding the faculty track, everyone seemed uncertain about what advancement looked like in higher education.

That same feeling of obscurity I had in undergrad came rushing back. I was climbing, but I couldn't see the top of the ladder.

Then 2020 arrived, and everything changed.

Campuses closed, teaching and learning patterns shifted. Higher education, an industry built on stability, started to crack in real time. I had been paying attention to the underlying pressures long before 2020.

In grad school, we talked about the enrollment cliff, watched demographic shifts tighten year after year, and saw high school graduation rates declining. These weren't new problems, but the pandemic turned cracks into craters. Suddenly, everyone could see what had been quietly breaking for years.

Here's what I reflected on in that moment: Was I building skills tied to an industry, or skills that could travel with me?

In higher education, my value was tied to a specific ecosystem. If that ecosystem collapsed or shifted, where did I go? What could I take with me?

That question became the engine for my next move.

While the world was still figuring itself out, I initiated the transition from higher education into tech.

It wasn't comfortable, but it was intentional. I did the same work I had done in undergrad with the VP of Student Affairs: Intentional alignment, connecting what I did, what I learned, and where I wanted to go.

Once I had answers, I connected with the right people, gathered the right information, and found the right opportunity.

Before I jumped, I made three commitments to myself:

At the time, the unknown felt like the biggest risk.

Looking back now, I realize staying still would have been the real risk.

In February 2022, five months into my search, I landed my first Customer Success Specialist role at a company focused on co-curricular badging. It was the best move I could have made at that time.

Working in a fast-paced environment, collaborating across teams on both technical and customer-facing workflows, I learned and gained invaluable skills in my first year.

It worked, my skills translated! The value I built in a separate industry actually transferred.

Then I hit another inflection point, I needed to understand my trajectory. So, I did the exercise again.

Skill mapping, analysis, and intentional next steps enabled me to move to an LMS company in higher education tech.

I didn't just want to change industries, I wanted to build portable leverage.

This is what I was missing in higher education, skills that weren't tied to a single place, role, or organization.

In Customer Success, I built:

Customer Success sits at the intersection of strategy, relationships, technology, and revenue.

Most importantly: the skills transfer everywhere.

When I first transitioned, I focused on three things:

1. Building relationships with people who'd done it before

Mentorship is a necessity. I talked to people who had made similar moves, asked what surprised them, what they would do differently, and what skills actually mattered. These conversations were my roadmap.

2. Raising my hand to solve problems, even when I wasn't ready

Early on, I said yes to things that scared me. I volunteered for projects outside my comfort zone. I didn't have all the answers, but I showed up anyway. That willingness to be uncomfortable accelerated my growth faster than anything else.

3. Studying the craft and applying it in real time

I read about customer success, listened to podcasts, took notes during calls, and more. I didn't wait until I felt ready to apply what I was learning, I started immediately. The industry moves fast; if you wait until you're prepared, you'll fall behind.

That foundation of relationships, action, and continuous learning allowed me to grow into the work I do today.

The message is simple: When you transition, the work begins immediately. Don't sit on your hands.

Crises don't just disrupt industries, but they reveal where things are going.

Everyone in higher education knew about those demographic shifts and the enrollment cliff, but no one predicted the world would shut down and accelerate those trends immediately.

The pandemic didn't create the crisis in higher ed, it exposed it.

Higher education didn't collapse, it evolved and became more reliant on technology. For people like me, it became clear that versatility matters more than loyalty to a single sector.

I'm watching the signals again, the same way I watched them in 2020:

The environment will keep changing, are your skills moving with it?

When the world stopped in 2020, I moved. Four years later, it's still the best decision I've made.

I'm not saying everyone should leave higher education, but:

If you're in higher ed and thinking about a similar transition, I've been there and I understand the uncertainty. I know what it feels like to leave something stable for something unknown.

I'm always open to connecting and sharing what I've learned along the way.