Opera to CTO | Sarah Polan
Sarah Polan (Field CTO, Principal Director) completed a major career reinvention from opera singer to IT leadership. Early on, Sarah leveraged a bootcamp and built a bridge into IT by delivering a Novel Project beyond the initial scope of her role.
Sarah powered forward when she realized her structured mindset from classical music could translate to writing code.
Step by step, Sarah added competencies in DevSecOps, management and organizational leadership, including a CTO program from MIT.
She became Credible, Capable and Visible in her new field, excelling at Red Hat, HashiCorp and ABN AMRO bank.
Follow her work: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-polan/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-polan/]
Sarah has two daughters in middle school and is passionate about increasing access to skills and knowledge with organizations like NewTechKids [https://newtechkids.com/en/].
Hear Sarah speak with Deborah Carter: https://www.hashicorp.com/ko/blog/women-in-tech-podcast-transforming-tech-education [https://www.hashicorp.com/ko/blog/women-in-tech-podcast-transforming-tech-education]
3 Takeaways (NotebookLM):
Acknowledge the emotional aspect of career change. Sarah's decision to retire from opera after 5 years, despite extensive studies and it being a passion, involved a significant emotional process. She describes it as a "major career pivot" where the previous career was her identity. Making the decision to walk away or change life so drastically involves a "certain amount of grieving" and understanding that you have to let it go, which is not easy.
Identify transferable skills and seek practical application opportunities.... Sarah realised her love for problem-solving could be applied in different contexts, whether business or life problems. She also found a connection between classical music training (patterns, strict rules) and computer code (bits of code, similar mental process), which helped her understand how her skills could be leveraged. She then leveraged a "novel project" at her HR job, which required language skills but also presented an opportunity to solve a data entry problem using VBA and then exploring Python, which made her "hungry to learn more" and was a "catalyst" for her career shift into IT.
Develop human skills and understand organisational dynamics. Excelling in senior leadership roles, particularly in a Field CTO position, involves understanding the business dials (topline, bottomline, sales operations). Crucially, it also involves understanding how people play into building robust systems (sociotechnical engineering). This includes understanding team dynamics, such as the impact of team size on trust and agility.
Furthermore, personal values like integrity, trust (which is bilateral), and kindness are essential for leadership. Sarah believes human skills (like talking to people, manners) are going to be increasingly important for navigating the future of work, potentially more so than purely technical skills. Seeking multiple mentors (technical, people, business) can be critical for navigating this complex landscape.
