Former Fb Exec Says ‘J-Curve’ Profession Path Pays Off

At 25 years previous, Molly Graham was thriving in Fb’s HR division when a senior government urged her to switch out of her secure position and assist construct a cell phone as a substitute.

She took the chance — and it might have derailed her profession.

However Graham, who later turned a C-suite government at a few of America’s largest corporations and philanthropies, now views that dangerous wager as some of the essential strikes she ever made.

“It simply felt like falling off a cliff,” Graham, now the founding father of Glue Membership, mentioned in a latest interview on Lenny Rachitsky’s podcast. “Taking dangers, accepting the horrible fall and that have of falling has been greater than value it.”

Graham described the expertise as a part of what she calls the “J-curve” — a profession trajectory the place a dangerous transfer results in an preliminary drop earlier than ultimately producing outsized good points. Visually, she describes it as standing on a ledge, stepping off, sinking briefly, after which rising far increased than the place you began — identical to the form of the letter J.

The idea, which she has additionally written about in her Classes Substack, challenges the concept of a gentle profession ladder that steadily strikes up and to the fitting.

As a substitute of climbing rung by rung with promotions each two to 5 years, Graham argues that a number of the most useful skilled development comes from leaping into roles you are not prepared for and surviving any setbacks.

Graham’s personal J-curve started when billionaire investor and “All-in” podcast host Chamath Palihapitiya, then Fb’s vice chairman of development, recruited her to assist develop a smartphone, encouraging her to make the transfer by sketching out the J-shaped trajectory on a whiteboard.

He introduced her on regardless of her having no expertise in product improvement, dropping her into rooms crammed with engineers and telephone specialists with deep subject material experience. She recalled feeling like an “fool” for a lot of her first six months.

At her midyear overview, Palihapitiya delivered what Graham known as the worst efficiency analysis she had ever acquired. However the brand new expertise ultimately expanded her experience.

“Slowly, I bear in mind I had been doing all these journeys to Taiwan as a result of we have been really engaged on {hardware} and I, in some unspecified time in the future, got here again from Taiwan and I like drew on a whiteboard for him the structure of a cell phone, making an attempt to elucidate to him sort of like why one thing he needed to do was not attainable,” Graham mentioned. “And I so vividly bear in mind strolling out of that assembly being like, ‘Oh like I really know issues.’ And slowly then over the next three years I turned an knowledgeable in cellular.”

Palihapitiya didn’t reply to Enterprise Insider’s request for remark.

“The telephone itself was a large failure — an enormous, expensive failure for Fb,” Graham instructed Rachitsky on the podcast. “However it was not a failure for me.”

She credit the expertise with educating her that she might function far outdoors her consolation zone — a lesson that later helped her tackle senior management roles, together with serving as COO of Quip, which Salesforce acquired for $750 million, and overseeing operations on the $7.4 billion Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

The J-curve, Graham mentioned, is very frequent at fast-moving corporations like Meta, Alphabet, Nvidia, and SpaceX, the place leaders worth staff who’re prepared to take massive dangers early and be taught shortly. In these environments, proving adaptability can matter greater than checking each qualification field.

Not everybody supported Graham’s choice on the time. She mentioned Fb COO Sheryl Sandberg, then the quantity two on the tech big, suggested towards the transfer — as did her father.

“When wiser, extra skilled folks questioned the job supply, it positively made me pause,” Graham instructed Enterprise Insider in a follow-up e-mail. “However my intestine felt actually strongly that I wanted to take the chance.”

That intuition, she mentioned, in the end helped her uncover what sort of work she did not wish to do, and the place her strengths lay. She did not wish to sift by means of mock ups of {hardware} design and argue a couple of button’s placement. As a substitute, she sharpened her administration abilities and ready to assist lead massive organizations.

“The rather more enjoyable careers are like leaping off cliffs,” Graham instructed Rachitsky. “They will take you to locations that you just by no means might have imagined.”