The decision to switch from one industry to another isn’t easy. It could be discouraging when you consider the difficulties surrounding starting in an industry without experience. However, the fact that a decision is difficult isn’t a sufficient reason not to make it. Instead, the best way to do this is to devise a plan. What other practical way to develop your transition plan than learning what has worked for those who have currently made the switch in the past? There’s a lot to learn from Chris Yong, who started in the IT industry but is now building a thriving business as an entrepreneur.

Chris Yong, CEO and co-founder of Local Threads, is a savvy commercial and marketing strategist with about 16 years of marketing and management experience working with blue-chip companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM. He is an expert at managing teams in diverse cultures and had a rich career as a marketing strategist before deciding to switch to entrepreneurship. During his time as a commercial and marketing strategist, his experience working at these blue-chip companies came in handy when he worked as a part of the team that led the turnaround of a large multinational electronics and furniture retail chain store losing millions. The turnaround team successfully cleaned the balance sheet of the company, helping the company break even in the second year.

Chris Yong now leads an Australian eCommerce fashion start-up, Local Threads which is the largest marketplace for ethical fashion from Australia’s best independent brands.

Undoubtedly, he has transferable skills from his past roles, which would go a long way in helping him deliver on his positions in his own company. 

Tips for Switching Careers 

One of the essential tips for anyone who wants to switch careers is to have a high level of self-awareness. It’s what led Chris Yong to co-founding Local Threads, after all. To be self-aware is to understand yourself fully well. It’s to recognize your strengths so you can build on them and know the areas where you fall short so you can improve on them. Being self-aware helps you make better decisions and also makes you a more effective leader. Having a high level of self-awareness helped Chris Yong succeed in his corporate career and helped him transition to becoming an entrepreneur.  

According to Chris Yong, one of the significant challenges he has faced in his life was switching from the IT line, where he spent about 16 years, to the eCommerce industry. However, as a self-aware person, he understands his strength and is fully aware of what’s needed to succeed in his new role. In addition to his high level of self-awareness, constant self-reflection has also made the switch relatively easier. According to him, “the three key elements that make someone successful are self-awareness, self-reflection and having a clear value system.” Thus, a key element in a successful industry or career switch perhaps lies in one being a lot more reflective in one’s abilities, strengths and weaknesses; and to be able to draw some deeper learnings from that as a continuous commitment to self-development

Dilution of Roles and Its Implications 

The challenges of personal success in a corporate life today – Chris Yong thinks that the world has become an increasingly complex place to succeed in, especially with globalisation, social media, a big shift to the availability of data (mainly big data) and the availability of information due to the Internet.  Competitiveness at the company and personal level has just escalated to new levels in the last one decade.  Being clear about one’s value systems and priorities in life is not only so important, but critical for one’s success, since one’s value system will ultimately define what success is.