How I Transitioned Into Climate After Consulting—Lessons from the Pivot

You're restless and ready to change careers. Except the path ahead seems incredibly daunting and uncertain. How I navigated my pivot.

Photo by Javier Allegue Barros / Unsplash

TL;DR: In any career transition, you shouldn't be starting from scratch. Ask yourself – what unique experience are you bringing? For me, my consulting toolkit at Bain served as my foundation. On top of this, I built a portfolio of climate-specific insights that eventually helped me find my Chief of Staff role at WindBorne Systems, a climate tech startup on a mission to mitigate the most dangerous effects of climate change: extreme weather and weather uncertainty.

Table of Contents (my rough pathway)

My existential crisis at Bain three years in; knowing when and how to leave
Ready to pivot: staring into the large abyss of 'climate'
Test and iterate: a summer in VC, three climate theses, and a LinkedIn EasyApply

My existential crisis at Bain

Picture this: another late-night deck review. The same dread crept in as I stared blankly at my screen. If you've ever felt that irritating undercurrent and wondered – Is this worth it? Am I on the right path? – well, you get the picture.

While I was inspired by many of my co-workers, truthfully, I wasn't excited about any of the long-term career paths in consulting. My colleagues were climbing a ladder I no longer wanted to be on.

Three years in: Decision time
By year three in consulting, it was clear that I was ready for a change (and so happened also to be a natural transition period in the consulting career path). I had a few options:

Complete an MBA on sponsorship: Bain would pay for it, but I’d have to return for the same length of time.
Do an MBA on my own dime: More freedom, but more financial risk.
Leave Bain and figure it out myself: The boldest, scariest option.

I chose option 2. Was an MBA worth it? For me, yes, as I wanted to make two major pivots in my career; a geographical pivot and an industry pivot. I decided that the MBA gave me the best chance for this pivot.

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Whether at Bain or any other employer, if you find yourself ready to leave but struggling to do so... you likely have the "golden handcuffs". Only you can decide if that risk of leaving is worth it. It may feel riskier and less financially secure, but I felt I had more to gain by leaving than staying.

You're Ready to Pivot – Now What?

Step 1: Set your compass and build your knowledge
First, set a general direction. Without it, the process can feel overwhelming. That direction was climate for me... but what exactly is "climate"? Project Drawdown provides a helpful breakdown to help narrow down which areas you want to tackle.

Breakdown of climate solutions to help narrow down which areas you want to tackle

My go-to resources for climate

Newsletters and blogs

CTVC newsletter – a goldmine for climate tech insights and funding news. Data-driven and digestible information packaged in beautiful charts and visuals, CTVC also has a great job board also became my gateway to many climate startups
Deanna Zhang's blog – data-driven and nerdy, Deanna Zhang, the author of this blog brings her finance background and expertly dissects the climate industry with numbers.
Nan Ransohoff's blog – one of the leading voices in the carbon removal market. Nan Ransohoff offers a wealth of insights on climate as a whole, as well as deep dives into the carbon removal industry. Highly recommend her post "A Mental Model for Combating Climate Change"
Project Drawdown – a non-profit that breaks down the climate industry into digestible actions and assesses the feasibility and impact of each item.
Pitchbook (i.e. explore the subscriptions your employer or school may offer) – one of the most comprehensive databases of startups, venture capital firms and the deals that happen between them. While at Yale, I subscribed to the Climate Tech reports (released every quarter), created my lists of companies to follow, and hopped on calls with Pitchbook analysts to chat through the insights (thank you John MacDonagh for all your insight and patience).

Podcasts and Books

MyClimateJourney podcast and its Slack channel. The Slack channel requires a subscription fee of ~$100/yr but when you're exploring different pathways, you want access to as many experts as possible. During recruiting, I often reached out to experts in the community and highly recommend this investment.
How to Avoid a Climate Crisis by Bill Gates – a succinct breakdown of climate change that's accessible to readers of all backgrounds, I found it a concise overview of the challenge at hand.

Find your intersection then iterate

In any role, your job is the intersection of an industry and function. Ask yourself whether you are:

An expert in the industry. This requires subject matter expertise. For example, in climate, you could be an expert in renewable energy, EVs, carbon removal, building emissions, etc.
An expert in the function. Do you have a background in finance, software engineering, or marketing? This shapes the specific job you can do within the company.

Note: not all jobs fall into these generalizations. For example, in consulting you get to explore many different industries, but the function typically is consistent as you are the "strategy" expert.

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Career transitions don’t mean starting over. I turned my consulting foundation into a stepping stone for a meaningful role in climate – my area of expertise was the 'strategy' function. Consultants are often branded as well-rounded, capable problem-solvers.

I was nervous to pick a specific industry at first – a classic dilemma for most consultants. We're experts at keeping as many pathways open for as long as possible.

This is why I first focused on climate tech venture capital (VC). I wanted exposure to different climate industries and felt jumping directly into an operator role (at a startup) was something I wasn't confident in yet.

During my summer at DBL Partners, one of the first impact VCs in the industry, I:

Sat in on over 50+ pitches and got exposure to a plethora of different startups across investment stages (typically Seed to Series B) and industries (EVs and batteries, health-tech, sustainable food & ag, clean energy. etc.).
Supported our portfolio companies including working closely with an air quality dedicated startup

At the time, we were investing out of their $600M Fund IV. DBL’s scope, reputation, and access to capital enabled incredible breadth to drive change across a multitude of sectors. I couldn't have asked for a better jump into the climate space or supportive team.

VC gave me a broad understanding of the climate landscape, but I wasn't quite in the driver's seat. Investors, like consultants, still don't quite have the same skin in the game. With this mindset, I doubled down on three climate theses in YR2 of my MBA.

Carbon Accounting
Carbon Removal
Weather & Climate Intelligence

In a follow-up blog, I'll dive deeper into how I evaluated each and eventually landed on Weather & Climate Intelligence. But I dedicated the equivalent of several months to each topic to hone in on my conviction. For example, I completed an independent study with Professor Song Ma on the carbon accounting industry, joined a carbon removal think tank in Canada, Carbon Removal Canada, and interviewed (persistently pinged) many experts in each field.

Expand below for a quick teaser as to my evaluation of each.

Narrowing down to one climate focus

Carbon Accounting: no defensible market differentiation, overcrowded, and unstable

Super hot in the early 2020s – driven by the ESG boom and voluntary corporate climate commitments. However, it quickly turned into the Wild West. There was no real source of truth, the government standards weren't moving quickly enough and the industry lacked a credible body to validate claims.
By 2023, the anti-ESG movement started to gain momentum, and by 2025, a lot of voluntary corporate interest has pulled-back. Carbon accounting tools became a "nice-to-have" rather than a "must-have".
The market was already saturated with carbon accounting software solutions, and I didn't see a clear path to making a meaningful impact. Ultimately, I believed that government regulation – not private sector innovation–would be the biggest driver here, and that wasn't a space I wanted to operate in.

Carbon Removal: too early, too capital-intensive

CDR tech, buyer demand, and government support were all in their infancy.
Most solutions required high capex = long lead times to real outcomes.
I knew I wanted to enter a solution I could drive impact in within <5 years. Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) was very early in its technology adoption curve, I needed a longer timeline.
There are a lot of different CDR solutions (DAC, biomass, carbon mineralization, ocean-based, etc.). And rather than only one best fit, I strongly believe we need all of these solutions at scale. But this made me more hesitant to pick a startup out of the gate to make a bet.

Weather & Climate Intelligence: clear market need, proven technology risk but still market opportunity for a leader, commercial and government demand.

Weather & Climate Intelligence represented the perfect in-between for me – more mature than CDR but not overcrowded like carbon accounting.
Not just a compliance-driven market. Extreme weather events are only increasing, driving demand from both commercial and government sectors.
Tech risk existed but given the industry combined both hardware and software solutions, it gave players a wide opportunity to differentiate themselves. I'll share later why I strongly believe in WindBorne's hypothesis of advancing weather through balloon-collected data (in-situ observations).

Landing at WindBorne Systems

If you asked me where I'd end up a few years ago, working at a balloon company in California wouldn't have been on my mind. The exact interview process for WindBorne was also quite chaotic – I used the LinkedIn EasyApply feature. Yes, those things can lead somewhere! But to be clear, there was a grueling 8+ interview process following.

And while I stumbled across the Chief of Staff job posting for WindBorne, I had been setting myself up for this opportunity. I joined as one of the first few non-technical hires on the team and attribute my consulting background and all the climate research I gathered during my MBA to helping me differentiate myself in the interview and the day-to-day in my role.

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Here's a tip to help stand out during interviews:
Prepare a few slides that capture key information about the startup (e.g., market map, product page, and a general summary of key points). This shows your interest, and how you think, and often leads to a great discussion. If you're not engaged in this research process, you probably won't be excited about working there full-time, so use this as a litmus for yourself as well.

All to say, things are always clearer in hindsight, but a year and a half since joining WindBorne, I'm incredibly proud to be part of this team of Loonies. I think there's undoubtedly skepticism in the 'generalist' business skillset. But I wouldn't be where I am today without my consulting experiences or the leap I took with my MBA.

Key takeaways:

Consume knowledge hungrily, but have a direction. At Bain, we called this your 'Answer First' and to avoid 'boiling the ocean'. Apply that same thinking to how you pursue open-ended endeavors in life.
Hone a few theses and test them. Speak to experts, write your thoughts down, and join organizations in these industries. This is a crucial part of narrowing down your funnel.
Refine your story. Think about what you bring from previous roles. Coupled with your new-found direction and knowledge, sharpen your elevator pitch and identify your unique value.
Prepare with focus. Recruiting can feel like starting down a never-ending tunnel (now imagine that while on a timeline of an expiring visa!). Define a few quick things you can do (e.g., go-to slides, a database of insights, etc.) to set up a great first impression and allow yourself to dive deeply into a topic.
Stay curious and adaptable. Career transitions are rarely a straight path. Be open to unexpected opportunities, don't underestimate LinkedIn EasyApply, and use each experience to refine your understanding to land your dream job.

What would you be most interested to read next?

Help me choose a topic or share your suggestion!

My day-to-day at WindBorne Systems as Chief of Staff (and recently also Business Strategy)
How I evaluated three climate opportunities (carbon removal, carbon accounting, and weather & climate intelligence)
Your suggestion – comment or send me a dm!