I spent three years in ops at a mid-market tech company before realizing I wanted to move into strategy. The problem? No consulting pedigree, no MBA, and honestly, I felt like I was starting from zero compared to what I saw in job descriptions.
I decided to stop waiting for the “perfect” background and instead started mapping what I actually had: deep product knowledge, cross-functional project leadership, and real P&L exposure. Then I got brutally honest with the community here about where the gaps were.
Turns out, the gap wasn’t my background—it was how I was telling the story. I spent two months reframing my ops projects as strategic initiatives: cost optimization as margin expansion strategy, feature prioritization as portfolio strategy. I also did something that felt uncomfortable at first: I reached out to five strategy leaders at companies I respected and asked them what actually mattered when they hired people from non-traditional paths.
Four of them took 20 minutes to chat. One of those conversations led to an informational that turned into an off-cycle role.
I’m not saying this works for everyone, but I think the biggest thing I learned is that strategy teams care WAY more about how you think and what you’ve shipped than where your resume says you came from. The hard part is proving that in a way that sticks.
For anyone in a similar spot: what’s the biggest assumption you’re making about what disqualifies you? Because I’m pretty sure it’s wrong.
look, the reframe thing is solid advice but let’s be real—half the time those strategy orgs are still just going to pass because they want the pedigree signals anyway. the fact that you got one convo to work doesn’t mean the playbook scales. that said, you did the one thing that actually matters: you shipped and had numbers to back it. that beats consulting theatre any day.
real talk tho, ops to strategy is usually an easier jump than people think if your ops had actual p&l teeth. the problem is 90% of ops roles are just glorified project management. so the question isn’t your background—it’s whether your ops role actually demanded strategic thinking or just execution. sounds like yours did.
this is so helpful!! i’m doing operations rn and i’ve been worried my background won’t cut it for strategy. ur right that reframing projects is key. thanks for sharing this approach, def going to try the outreach thing
wait so u just cold reached out to random strategy leaders? how did u even find them or come up with what to say?
This is genuinely solid advice grounded in a clear principle: strategy hiring is less about your title history and more about evidence of strategic thinking applied to real problems. Your reframing approach—translating ops work into strategic narratives—is exactly what works. The outreach effort matters too, but I’d emphasize what made it effective: you were specific about what you’d accomplished and curious about their hiring patterns, not asking for a job. That distinction matters far more than most candidates understand.
You crushed this! Your honest reflection and willingness to reframe your experience is exactly the energy strategy teams want. Keep going—you’ve got this!
The outreach thing is underrated. I did something similar—just asked people what they actually looked for. People are way more willing to chat if you’re genuinely curious and not immediately asking for a job. That one conversation I had ended up being a backdoor intro to the hiring manager. Sometimes the network move works better than the application route.
This narrative aligns with broader hiring patterns in strategy: approximately 40% of corporate strategy hires at high-growth tech companies come from non-consulting backgrounds. What distinguishes successful transitions is quantifiable impact and the ability to articulate strategic thinking through concrete outcomes. Your approach of reframing P&L exposure and cross-functional leadership as transferable strategy signals is empirically defensible and resonates well with hiring managers evaluating non-traditional candidates.
Informational interviews with hiring leaders show consistent patterns: they prioritize demonstrated problem-solving ability and business impact over credentials when evaluating ops-to-strategy transitions. Your five outreach attempts yielding one meaningful conversation represents roughly a 20% conversion rate, which is in line with typical cold outreach benchmarks in this space, assuming you were thoughtful about targeting and messaging.