Lessons Learned From Changing Lanes

Sean and Paul bring in Jessica Pontious, a compensation leader who spent a decade inside one company. Jess explains what actually changed when she started advising organizations across industries, sizes, and countries. The conversation covers why she left a large in-house rewards role, the fears that kept her from making the move sooner, which of those fears turned out to be unfounded, and what she wishes she had known about how much of comp knowledge transfers between industries. It also gets practical about how an outside advisor starts a new engagement, how to work with the person who built the program you were hired to examine, and why company size is a poor predictor of how well resourced a comp team is. Useful if you are weighing a move from in-house to advisory work, or if you are trying to understand how consultants approach a comp problem.

Chapters 02:17 – How a compensation career starts by accident
10:55 – Why leave a stable in-house rewards role
12:36 – The fears that come with switching to advisory work
14:00 – Handling imposter syndrome after one industry
16:01 – Why different backgrounds produce better advice
18:25 – What stays the same about comp everywhere
21:06 – Where to start with a brand new client
24:18 – Diagnosing the problem instead of selling a method
29:40 – The part of in-house work that does not transfer
33:42 – Why comp team size does not track company size
45:04 – One thing worth fixing about how HR shows up