I Pivoted From a High School Teacher to a Director of Innovation and Architecture: Here’s How!

Before coming to the United States, Ruby Sahay was a high school biology teacher in India. However, she knew that she wanted to broaden her horizons, so she pursued a college education in Health Sciences. But this isn’t where her career pivot story ended!

“When I started my studies, my college wanted me to do some core courses in computer science and basic programming,” Sahay tells us. “Somehow, I was enrolled in a very high-level programming class. I told my husband, who was already working in the tech industry, and he said, ‘Just take it; I’ll help you.’” 

This was the beginning of her journey into a new discipline. After taking the course, “I got excited and pursued a one-year degree in C++ object-oriented programming, which later became valuable to me in so many ways,” shares Sahay. “When I finished my courses, I landed an internship as a developer and have been working in this field ever since.”

In this way, Sahay ended up falling in love with a once unfamiliar field — computer science! 

Now, as a Director of Innovation & Architecture at Marsh McLennan, a company she’s been at for nine years, Sahay says that, “it excites me every day to make a difference.” In fact, “I think that’s how I arrived in tech transformation work — because there’s so much opportunity to innovate,” she reflects. “But I did also feel that there was stagnation in my career. Especially for women, there is often a gap for us, so we need to take a jump.”

If you need inspiration to make a career leap of your own, keep reading to find out more about Sahay’s own journey and her best tips for you!

How have you benefited from the skills and experience you’ve gained in your career journey?

I continue to challenge myself every day. I take fear as a motivation and a positive to drive me forward. I’m very persistent, and I keep pursuing my goals until I find solutions and inspiration to generate those big ideas. What I love about working in Finance is it’s all about internal experience and upskilling the people that you work with. I love getting to understand how people interact with and use our applications and technology. I use this knowledge to better understand how people think and evaluate the ‘why’ in order to build applications that resonate with the next generation. 

How did you make your career switch at Marsh McLennan?

Four years into my career at Marsh McLennan, I approached my manager to seek out more challenging work. At that time, our Chief Financial Officer, Mark McGivney, was looking to build Innovation, a Center of Excellence for Finance. This was the perfect opportunity for me to prove myself!

As a result, my manager, Chris LaPierre, Corporate Chief Information Officer, and Marsh McLennan’s Chief Accounting Officer, Stacy Mills, gave me an amazing opportunity. Under their leadership and guidance, I started my journey on the path of innovation with the vision of seeing Corporate Finance from a Fintech lens. I learned a lot while meeting with teams from other companies and working closely with the Finance leaders here. 

What is your best piece of advice for other women who are thinking about making a career pivot?

I would say to believe in yourself! Recently, I had a career setback, and it was natural to get upset about it. I knew why the outcome was different than what I had expected, and I knew what I needed to do to fix it; however, I didn’t know how to fix it. After speaking to a few people, I realized that it is not just work but relationships that matter most in a career. 

So, I would say to spread your wings, meet people, let your dreams fly and believe in your unique self (your strengths and your flaws are what make you unique!). And, you don’t have to change if you don’t want to.

Looking back on your career, what would you say has been your most valuable career mistake?

Very early on in my career, a senior leader asked me to voice my opinion on work culture. At that moment, I didn’t really think it through, and I let my emotions speak louder than my passion for my work. Later, colleagues came to me and said I was brave and did a good job. A day later, however, I reflected on what happened and concluded that I should have used a more positive and constructive tone to express myself.

After that day, I made it a point to be more objective, act like a leader, be passionate about what I believe and to not let my emotions overpower that. I now know that, to be a good leader, I must be a good listener and self-reflect every day to see what I could have done differently to create a better impact or outcome.

What are your favorite things about working at Marsh McLennan?

Over 25 years of my career, Marsh McLennan is the fourth organization I have worked for and seeing the leadership and the opportunities created for colleagues continues to inspire me. We encourage employees at every level to seek mentorship or be a mentee, and I’ve personally had mentors I’ve learned so much from. 

At Marsh McLennan, I have a feeling of commitment, belonging, trust and encouragement and that is what makes me bring my best self to work every day.

Is there anything else that you’d like to mention? 

Women have many roles in society: a daughter, wife, mother, co-worker and many more. In all these roles, we try our best. Sometimes, we fall short of our own expectations and we get disheartened. I struggle like many others, but I believe in self-reflection and in receiving feedback. Empathy, compassion and respect are the three words I lead by and believe in. 

Someone once gave me a chance and believed in me. When I got an opportunity to do the same, I built a team of talented and diverse individuals; please do the same for others, give everyone a chance.