The Harsh Reality of Career Pivots for Black Women

Right now, more than 300,000 Black women in the U.S. are out of work, a staggering figure that highlights the fragile state of career mobility and stability. While economic downturns and corporate restructuring affect all professionals, Black women, especially those in executive leadership, face unique and disproportionate challenges.

Career pivots are hard for any executive, but for Black women, the barriers are steeper. Despite breaking through corporate ceilings and securing top leadership roles, many Black women sometimes find it difficult to shift into new industries, functions, or leadership spaces.

The challenge isn’t a lack of talent or ambition. It is a mix of systemic bias, overlooked networks, and personal sacrifices that make pivots more complex. Yet, with the right strategies, Black women executives can transform career transitions into powerful opportunities for reinvention and leadership.

The challenge isn’t a lack of talent or ambition. It’s a mix of systemic bias, underrepresented networks, and personal sacrifices that make pivots more complex. Yet, with the right strategies, and the kind of targeted coaching I offer through my VISIBLE Executive Career Pivot Group Program™ Black women can transform career transitions into powerful opportunities for reinvention and leadership.

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Understanding Career Pivots for Black Women Executives

What a Career Pivot Really Means

For Black women, a career pivot isn’t just about changing roles. It may be about redefining leadership in industries where representation is small. A pivot may mean moving from corporate leadership to entrepreneurship, entering the nonprofit space, or shifting to high-growth industries like tech or healthcare innovation.

How Their Transitions Differ

Similar to early-career professionals, Black women leaders face a dual challenge: carrying decades of hard-earned credibility into a new field while still contending with persistent race and gender bias. Now, these transitions come with the added weight of fearing lost ground and the fear of needing to prove yourself yet again.

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Why Black Women Executives Struggle with Career Pivots

Lack of Recognition for Transferable Skills

Leadership, strategic planning, and crisis management are highly transferable skills. Yet Black women often overlook these strengths due to bias in how their leadership potential is perceived. The VISIBLE Executive Career Pivot Group Program™ was designed to resolve this challenge, by equipping Black women with tools to reframe and showcase their skills in ways that resonate across industries.

Fear of Losing Status and Identity

For Black women who worked twice as hard to earn leadership roles, the thought of “starting over” in a pivot feels like erasure. Many fear losing both visibility and influence.

Failure to Rebuild Professional Networks

Executive networks can be dominated by circles where Black women remain underrepresented. Without intentional rebuilding, opportunities for pivots stay limited. When we get complacent, we risk neglecting to maintain our power base. Which leaves us disconnected from the very relationships that fuel visibility, sponsorship, and access to new opportunities.

Leading in Survival Mode Limits Adaptation to New Technologies and Trends

For many Black women executives, years of leading in survival mode, navigating bias, limited sponsorship, and the constant pressure to prove themselves, can leave little bandwidth to stay ahead of emerging technologies and industry trends. As a result, they feel like they’re “behind,” even when their leadership skills are strong, making pivots into future-focused industries even more difficult.

Taking the Wrong-Fit Job

One of the most common derailments I see is when Black women, under pressure to stay visible, accept roles that don’t align with their long-term goals. On the surface, these jobs seem like the right one, but lack professional fit, cultural fit or growth potential, which leads to frustration and burnout. In the VISIBLE Executive Career Pivot Group Program™, I use the tools that help clients uncover their natural strengths, decision-making style, and work preferences so they choose the best roles to pursue. This way, they stop wasting time interviewing for the wrong jobs. Instead, they land positions where they can thrive, not just survive, roles that align with their leadership identity and long-term aspirations.

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The Psychological Barriers of Career Change

Ego and the Executive Mindset

After decades of fighting bias to reach executive status, asking for sponsorship or retraining can still feel intimidating best. It’s also frustrating for the many Black women who struggle to find a sponsor.

Impostor Syndrome, Amplified

Black women frequently experience impostor syndrome compounded by systemic exclusion. Even as proven leaders, pivots can trigger questions like, “Will I be taken seriously here?”

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When Pivots Become Setbacks for Black Women

After George Floyd’s death, many Black women pivoted into or were hired for high-profile DEI roles as companies rushed to demonstrate their commitment to equity. While these positions offered visibility, they often pigeonholed leaders rather than expanded their influence. Now, in today’s shifting political climate, corporations have pulled back or reneged on their DEI commitments. Leaving tens of thousands of Black women without jobs and with career pivots that feel more like setbacks than opportunities for growth. 

Through the VISIBLE Executive Career Pivot Group Program™, I empower Black women to break out of these limiting cycles, discover roles that truly fit their leadership strengths, and step into their next best career move with renewed financial security and long-term stability.

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Strategies to Successfully Pivot as a Black Woman Executive

Identifying Transferable Leadership Skills

Black women must advocate for the breadth of their expertise, beyond the narrow boxes organizations often put them in. The VISIBLE Executive Career Pivot Group Program™ helps leaders reframe accomplishments into universally valued strengths like strategic vision, people management, and crisis navigation, making their skills undeniable in new industries.

Building a Future-Ready Personal Brand

A visible brand, backed by thought leadership, speaking engagements, and community impact, helps overcome industry bias. Through programs like VISIBLE, executives learn to position themselves as credible voices in spaces where representation has historically been lacking.

Leveraging Mentors, Sponsors, and Advisory Boards

Unlike mentors alone, sponsors advocate behind closed doors. A critical factor in securing pivot opportunities for Black women leaders.

Avoiding the Wrong-Fit Job

Patience is critical. Rather than accepting the first offer for visibility’s sake, Black women  must take the time to understand their own values, vision, and transferable skills. By aligning these with the right opportunities, they can identify roles that truly fit their strengths, support long-term growth, and provide the stability they deserve. This is exactly what I help my clients do in my coaching programs. Giving them the clarity and confidence to pursue roles that are the right fit, not just the next fit.

✨ Ready to make your next career pivot with clarity and confidence?
In the VISIBLE Executive Career Pivot Group Program™, I guide a small group of Black women to uncover their strengths, align with the right opportunities, and land roles that truly fit. If you’re interested, complete the interest form here: https://bit.ly/visible_group ✍🏾

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Redefining Pivots for Black Women 

Black women don’t fail at pivots because they lack skill or ambition. They fail because the playing field is uneven, the networks are narrow, and the pressure to accept the wrong-fit role is high. But failure isn’t final. With patience, sponsorship, and intentional alignment, Black women can redefine pivots as opportunities to build influence across industries. Not only can they survive the transition, they can set the standard for what authentic leadership looks like in new spaces.

👉🏾 Ready to take control of your next pivot? The VISIBLE Executive Career Pivot Group Program™ is designed to help you land roles that truly fit your leadership identity and long-term goals. Complete the interest form here to get started: https://bit.ly/visible_group.

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FAQs About Career Pivots for Black Women Executives

Q1: Why do Black women executives face unique struggles with pivots?

Because systemic bias, underrepresentation, and lack of sponsorship amplify the challenges of transition. Too often, Black women are steered into roles, like DEI positions after George Floyd’s death, that carry visibility but limit influence. When those roles disappear, the setback is greater. In my coaching programs, I help clients reframe their skills and experiences so they can pivot into roles that truly expand their leadership and security.

Q2: How can Black women identify transferable skills?

It starts with clarity. Black women must understand their values, vision, and transferable strengths, like leadership, crisis management, and strategic planning, and position them in ways that resonate across industries. In the VISIBLE Executive Career Pivot Group Program™, I use proven coaching tools to help clients uncover and showcase these strengths so they stand out in competitive job markets. So you don’t waste time agreeing to the wrong job.

Q3: What role does networking play in their pivots?

It’s essential. When we get complacent, we neglect to maintain or rebuild our power base, leaving us disconnected from the relationships that fuel visibility and opportunity. I coach clients how to rebuild strong, future-focused networks that open doors to industries where they can thrive.

Q4: Do Black women often settle for wrong-fit jobs during pivots?

Yes, especially under pressure to stay visible or avoid career gaps. These jobs may look impressive but lack cultural fit or growth opportunities. My coaching ensures clients don’t waste time interviewing for roles that don’t align. Instead, they find positions that match their leadership identity and long-term aspirations.

Q5: Can entrepreneurship be a successful pivot?

Absolutely. Many Black women executives thrive by building their own ventures, controlling their narratives, and creating equity. I work with clients to explore entrepreneurship as one of several strong pathways to financial security and career fulfillment.

Q6: What’s the biggest success factor in a career pivot?

Patience and alignment. The most successful pivots happen when Black women resist the pressure to take the first available offer and instead focus on roles that align with their skills, values, and long-term goals. My coaching programs provide the tools, strategies, and accountability to make that alignment possible, so clients can thrive, not just survive.

Q7: What should Black women do if they were laid off from a DEI role?

The recent pullback from corporate DEI commitments has left tens of thousands of Black women without jobs, especially those who pivoted into DEI roles after George Floyd’s death. If you’ve been affected, the key is not to see this as an ending but as a turning point. In the VISIBLE Executive Career Pivot Group Program™, I help clients reframe their DEI experience as evidence of leadership, influence, and change management. Skills that are highly valuable across industries. From there, we focus on identifying roles that align with their long-term vision, values, and financial security, ensuring they step into their next best role with confidence.

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I’m a certified executive coach and an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC) for Twanna Carter Professional & Personal Coaching, LLC. I flubbed my first career transition from the military so badly, it took me the next 10+ years to build my confidence and  recover. I know what it feels like to struggle with imposter syndrome and uncertainty about my leadership skills in the workplace. It’s why I am dedicated to empowering Black women. Helping them navigate career challenges and uncertainty by providing them with the tools and strategies they need to be successful. Schedule a V.I.P. Roadmap session today.

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