WOMEN IN TECH BLOG SERIES: NAVIGATING THE TRANSITION FROM GOVERNMENT TO PRIVATE SECTOR

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Written By: Kristen Hajduk, Senior Account Executive for the DoD and Intelligence Community, MicroStrategy

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Kristen a Senior Account Executive for the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community at MicroStrategy, the industry lead for enterprise analytics.  Previously, Kristen led Federal Partnerships for Golden, a web3 company disrupting and decentralizing all open-source intelligence on the publicly available internet.  

Prior to joining Golden, Kristen was the Director of Operations for the National Security Innovation Network in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. Kristen led a global team that catalyzed communities of startups and innovators to solve national security challenges identified by deployed service members.

Kristen advised a range of Department of Defense senior leaders in special operations, national security strategies, force development and capability acquisitions. During this time, Kristen led the creation of Section 1202 legislation, which gave SOCOM Congressional funding to support Irregular Warfare activities in eastern Europe, helped draft the Irregular Warfare Annex to the 2018 National Defense Strategy, and led SOLIC’s efforts to open all SOCOM military occupational specialties to women.  

Kristen is an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Center for New American Security, the National Security Institute, the German Marshall Fund, and the Truman National  Security Project. Kristen received her Master of Public Policy degree in National Security Policy from the University of Chicago.

In today’s work environment, most will not just change jobs, but change industries on average 5-7 times in their career. This means it is becoming increasingly common for individuals to shift back and forth between government and private sector roles.

After a 15-year career in the federal government, I too made a transition to the private sector.  And since there are no commonly known guidelines to help with this transition, from time-to-time friends and colleagues ask for advice and guidance.  Each person’s career choices are personal, so the exact path I chose may not be best for others.  So instead, I share with them the questions I asked myself to help me decide which kinds of jobs and roles would be most fulfilling for me:

  1. What motivates you in your work? What value do you get from your past and/or current roles that you would like to maintain in your future work?
  2. What kind of daily activities do you enjoy doing? External-facing or internal-facing? Group work or individual work? Long-term, open-ended projects or daily, repeatable tasks?
  3. What kind of size company would you like to work for? Would you like the freedom and self-direction required in a small company or do you prefer the structure of a larger company?
  4. What kind of work/life balance would you like to have? In office, remote, or hybrid?
  5. What job or role would you like to have after this one? Let’s say this new company works out, what promotional opportunities are available at that company? If things don’t work out, what would you like to do next?

The vast freedom of choice that comes with a career in the private sector can be as liberating as it is overwhelming. And while your answers to the questions above will be different than mine, hopefully they help set you on the path to a new and exciting chapter in your career.