Penelope Trunk

Penelope played volleyball for nine years and reached the US Professional Beach Volleyball Tour. She has since had three careers, working as an entrepreneur, professional writer, and software marketing executive, where she helped launch new businesses for Fortune 100 companies, and manage on-line marketing for a startup through its IPO.

What prompted you to change careers?

I changed careers from volleyball to software marketing when I realized that my learning curve had plateaued in volleyball. I was very good at marketing myself to sponsors. And while my tour rank remained pretty steady, my sponsors kept getting better and better.

That’s when I realized that I had more growth potential in marketing than in volleyball – it was time to move on. I picked software because I knew I could market anything, so I wanted to work in a field that was known for good salaries.

What was the biggest challenge of the career change process?

The biggest challenge is convincing myself I could really do it, and talking to people about my marketing career like I was really doing it. It took a long time for people who knew me well to see me as a marketing expert and not a volleyball player.

At first, when I’d go for interviews, I felt like a compete poser telling people I knew anything about marketing. But soon I realized that whatever I didn’t know I could learn quickly. I picked a field I was good at so I could learn it quickly.

To what degree were you able to utilise previous skills and experience in your new career? Did you need any new qualifications?

I read a lot. I gained a competitive edge in volleyball because I read more – about weight lifting, jump training, endurance, for example – than anyone else. I used that same tactic in marketing. I read a lot to make up for my lack of experience.

The most important skill I leveraged was learning something new. When I started playing beach volleyball I was not from California and all the natives had more experience on the beach than I did. I had to convince myself that I could learn something new quickly.

I had to figure out how to break into pickup games, convince coaches to work with me, and figure out when to let people know I need help and when to fake it. All these skills are important for any new career. They are skills that help you get your bearings in a totally new situation.

What advice would you offer anyone considering a career change?

Figure out what you have to leverage. Don’t start out completely new. Look back on your life at the things you have done in an outstanding way. That is where your talent is. Use that talent to make the career change, and then you have something to put on your resume for experience.

Don’t change to a career that will not be an outlet for talents you have not already shown. Each of us has a few outstanding talents - we don’t have unlimited, undiscovered talents, even though we wish we did. Work is the most interesting when we are doing it very well, learning quickly, very engaged.

These traits come from areas where we have some talent. (A good book on this idea is “Flow“.) So when you’re making a career change, be honest with yourself about where your talents lie. You’ll be happiest with your work if you cater to them.