How Shantan moved from engineering leadership into a Client Partner role over a year-long search

Shantan was a Director of Software and Platform Engineering at Cognizant. He wanted to move to the commercial side and own a P&L. He landed a Client Partner role at Infosys serving banking and financial services customers, and it took about a year.

A career change is a harder search than a career step

Most of these stories are a leader moving to a similar role at a better company. This is not that. Moving from engineering delivery into a client-facing P&L role means the resume has to argue a case rather than list a record, and that took real iteration.

“It took a while because we went back and forth for you to understand what I'm doing, and then framing things, and then building a resume. We did what, 10 or 12 versions of the resume as well, before nailing down what kind of positioning worked.”

Ten to twelve versions is the honest number for repositioning across functions. It is also why a year is the right timeline to expect for this kind of move rather than a sign something went wrong.

He turned offers down, and some of it hurt

“I had very open conversations. I had to say no to some of those offers. Some of course were a little heartbreaking, because I went through multiple rounds of interviews and then it didn't work out.”

What he was optimising for

“Of course I was in sales, I was managing P&L. I'll be managing a large P&L. As the P&L grows, I'll grow.”

The role was chosen for where it leads rather than what it pays today, which is the same logic Amit applies in his own case study: take the seat that closes a gap on your record.

“I think in the future it also opens multiple other avenues for me.”

The search in numbers

• About a year, for a cross-functional move rather than a lateral one
• 10 to 12 resume versions before the positioning worked
• Client Partner, Banking and Financial Services at Infosys
• Level: Director. Function: Engineering