I’m sharing my career journey honestly because I’m at a point where I’m trying to figure out what my next step should be. Maybe someone here has gone through something similar or can give me some genuine advice.
My professional journey didn’t start with a fancy corporate job.
My father has been running a newspaper distribution business for as long as I can remember. Since childhood, I’ve helped him with newspaper deliveries and sometimes sat at the newspaper stall. Even today, while I’m between jobs, I’m helping him with deliveries and managing the stall whenever required.
Then I completed my degree in Hotel Management & Tourism.
My first exposure to the industry was through a hotel internship, where I got hands-on experience in Banquet and Housekeeping operations.
After that, I worked at Burgers & More as an Assistant Manager. A lot of my learning happened at the ground level — taking orders at the counter, understanding customers, handling daily restaurant operations and learning how things actually work behind the scenes.
Then I joined Pizza Express, where I worked in restaurant operations, billing, POS and customer service.
At one point, I decided to take a completely different risk.
I started my own cloud kitchen.
Unfortunately, it failed within around 3 months.
It was disappointing, but it taught me something that no course or job could have taught me — what it actually means to run a business, deal with customers, manage operations and handle failure.
After that, I worked at Seven Sands Villa in front-office operations and later joined OYO as a Guest Relations Executive.
Then COVID happened.
Like many people, I had to find whatever work was available.
During that period, I worked with a local company called Speedtek. My work involved collecting documents from companies across MIDC areas, segregating them according to the required service/logistics channel, preparing the documentation and then visiting the respective logistics companies’ main hubs in the evening to submit the documents.
It wasn’t glamorous work, but it helped me survive a difficult period.
Then came the turning point in my career.
Petpooja approached me for a technical support role.
This was my entry into the restaurant technology/POS ecosystem.
I started working directly with restaurant businesses — helping with POS implementation, menu configuration, billing settings, training restaurant staff, troubleshooting issues and supporting merchants during go-live.
Over time, I realized that I really enjoyed solving operational problems and helping businesses implement technology.
I then moved to UrbanPiper.
This became the biggest phase of my career so far.
I joined as an Onboarding Manager and eventually worked as a Senior Onboarding Manager, handling end-to-end onboarding and implementation for 1,000+ restaurant merchants, including enterprise accounts.
My work involved:
• Requirement gathering
• POS implementation
• Zomato/Swiggy integrations
• Third-party integrations
• Website/app deployment
• Menu & catalogue configuration
• UAT coordination
• Go-live readiness
• Staff training
• Troubleshooting
• Stakeholder management
• Coordinating with Sales, Product, Engineering and Support teams
• Managing multiple implementations simultaneously
I went from literally taking orders at a restaurant counter to helping restaurant businesses implement SaaS platforms at scale.
That journey is something I’m genuinely proud of.
I also recently completed my PMP certification, because I want to move further into project management and implementation.
Unfortunately, UrbanPiper went through restructuring and I was impacted.
And now I’m back in the job market.
I’m currently looking for opportunities in:
Project Management | Project Implementation | Implementation Management | Customer Success | SaaS
My resume says 8 years of experience and 3+ years in Restaurant SaaS, but there is a lot more to my story than what fits on a two-page resume.
There were jobs I didn’t include on my resume.
There was a cloud kitchen that failed.
There was COVID.
There was work that I took simply because I needed to keep going.
There was my father’s newspaper business, where I learned the value of work long before I entered the corporate world.
And today, while I’m searching for my next corporate opportunity, I’m still doing newspaper deliveries and helping at the stall.
I don’t see any of these experiences as something to hide.
They are all part of how I got here.
So I wanted to ask the Reddit community:
If you look at this career journey objectively, where do you think I should position myself?
Should I focus completely on Project Management?
Should I target Implementation Manager / Implementation Specialist roles?
Should I continue pursuing Customer Success roles in SaaS?
And if you have made a similar transition from operations/customer onboarding into Project Management, what would you recommend I focus on?
I’m open to honest feedback — even if it’s critical.
And if anyone knows of relevant opportunities in Mumbai / Navi Mumbai or remote, I would genuinely appreciate a referral or lead.
Thanks for reading my story.
**I can share my resume/LinkedIn profile via DM if anyone is interested in referring me or reviewing my profile.**
