After 25 years in leadership roles at tech giants like Yahoo, Google, and Facebook, Jennifer Dulski has now found her path as the founder and CEO of Rising Team, a platform designed to help managers develop their teams. But Dulski attributes her success not only to her promotions, but also to the strategic career setbacks she faced along the way.
In an interview with Business Insider, Dulski spoke about her unconventional career moves. Immediately after graduating from business school in 1999, she took a lower-paying marketing job at Yahoo despite having better-paying offers from other companies. Her decision, she explained, was motivated by her desire to work in both technology and business.
Accepting a demotion to advance to management
Her first significant career change came when she decided to move from marketing to a general management role at Yahoo, even though it meant a demotion to a position two levels below her previous position.
People didn’t understand her decision, but Dulski knew she wanted to run a business. The step back was worth it because it eventually allowed her to run multiple companies.
Within just 18 months, her decision paid off. She was promoted and eventually given responsibility for six business units at Yahoo.
After nearly nine years at Yahoo, Dulski made another unconventional move: She left her executive position and joined Dealmap, a small startup specializing in local deals and coupons. Many people wondered why she left her executive position for a smaller company, but her risk paid off when Google acquired Dealmap and she continued working at Google.
