In this episode of The STEM Career Coach, Donnie Maclary sits down with Sumesh Rahavendra, Chief Digital & Strategy Leader at Pos Malaysia, to reveal how you can stop waiting for promotion and start leading at the level you aspire to right now. You’ll discover:

• Why “thinking better” beats just “working harder.” Sumesh explains that as you climb, success depends less on effort volume and more on evolving your thought process to match your aspirational role .
• How to act into your next role today. Learn to “think, feel, say and do things at a level you aspire to, not the level you’re in”—so you build credibility before your title catches up .
• The one empty chair you must always fill. Discover the CEO lesson that “the customer pays your salary… the customer pays your bonus,” and why leaving an empty seat for the end user transforms every decision .
• The three habits of high-impact STEM leaders: curiosity → deep dive → ownership. Adopt a founder’s mindset to tackle challenges as if they were your own venture
• Global leadership & remote hiring insights. From defining your “why” to navigating time zones and cultural nuances, Sumesh shares real advice on building and empowering distributed teams .

Whether you’re an early-career engineer or a senior technologist, this candid, framework-driven conversation gives you the exact mindsets and behaviors to step into leadership, before the promotion arrives.