Advertise on podcast: Happen To Your Career - Meaningful Work, Career Change, Career Design, & Job Search

Ask most professionals what salary they're targeting for their next career change and the answer comes from the paycheck they already have. That is how people settle before the search even starts. This episode breaks down how to set a salary target by working backward from the life you want to build, and why your income goal should come from your future instead of your current situation. What You'll Learn: Why the three most common answers to "what salary are you targeting?" all lead to settling, and what they have in common The difference between circumstantial decisions and intentional ones, and why your current salary is the wrong anchor The four-step process for reverse engineering an income goal from the life you want, starting with "someday" instead of a fixed timeline A live walkthrough using AI to estimate lifestyle costs, factor in inflation and taxes, and set income milestones for next year, five years out, and beyond How a real client defined an extraordinary life around caring for her parents and what that meant for her income target Our book, Happen To Your Career: An Unconventional Approach To Career Change and Meaningful Work, is now available on audiobook! Visit  happentoyourcareer.com/audible to order it now! Visit happentoyourcareer.com/book for more information or buy the print or ebook here! Want to chat with our team about your unique situation? Schedule a conversation Free Resources What career fits you? Join our free 8 Day Mini Course to figure it out! Career Change Guide - Learn how high-performers discover their ideal career and find meaningful, well-paid work without starting over. Related Episodes Changing Careers (When You Don't Know Your Next Job Title) (Spotify / Apple Podcasts) How to Figure Out What You Really Want (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

There is a conversation you have been putting off. You know exactly which one. The one with your boss about leaving. The one with your spouse about needing something different. The one about what you are actually worth. Most people treat these conversations as optional, but in this episode, you will understand why their important and you'll hear the exact words three real people used to navigate difficult career conversations and what changed on the other side. What You'll Learn: How Holly told her boss she was leaving after 20 years in law — without a speech, without a plan, and without burning a single bridge — and what she said in that first ten minutes that made all the difference Why most people wait until they have a finished plan before involving their partner in a career change decision and why that approach is what makes the conversation harder than it needs to be The single most powerful question to ask in any salary negotiation according to negotiation expert Kwame Christian, and why it works when everything else feels too aggressive or too passive Kwame's three-step Compassionate Curiosity Framework for navigating any difficult conversation — with your boss, your partner, or yourself — and why step one happens before you ever open your mouth Why the biggest negotiation mistake is not recognizing when the negotiation is already happening Our book, Happen To Your Career: An Unconventional Approach To Career Change and Meaningful Work, is now available on audiobook! Visit  happentoyourcareer.com/audible to order it now! Visit happentoyourcareer.com/book for more information or buy the print or ebook here! Want to chat with our team about your unique situation? Schedule a conversation   Free Resources What career fits you? Join our free 8 Day Mini Course to figure it out! Career Change Guide - Learn how high-performers discover their ideal career and find meaningful, well-paid work without starting over.   Related Episodes How to Figure Out What You Really Want (Spotify / Apple Podcasts) Should I Quit My Job? How to Know It's Time (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

Laura liked her company. She just had no idea what to do next inside it. The posted internal roles were not what she wanted, and she could not find what she was looking for by browsing a job board. So she did something most people never think to try. She identified a problem the company had not solved yet, built a case for a role around fixing it, and proposed a job that did not exist. They said yes and four years later she did it again. If you have been assuming you need to leave to find work that fits, this episode will make you reconsider. What You'll Learn: Why the internal job board is not the universe of available options and where the real opportunities inside your organization actually live How Laura identified an unsolved problem, built a business case around it, and proposed a role that had never existed before she walked in with the idea The difference between networking for a job and genuine curiosity-driven conversations that surface invisible opportunities and build the relationships that make internal moves possible Why proposing a solution to a problem that people care about is dramatically more effective than asking your manager to help you find something new How Laura did this not once but twice and why that is not a sign something went wrong the first time but exactly how intentional career design is supposed to work Our book, Happen To Your Career: An Unconventional Approach To Career Change and Meaningful Work, is now available on audiobook! Visit  happentoyourcareer.com/audible to order it now! Visit happentoyourcareer.com/book for more information or buy the print or ebook here! Want to chat with our team about your unique situation? Schedule a conversation Free Resources What career fits you? Join our free 8 Day Mini Course to figure it out! Career Change Guide - Learn how high-performers discover their ideal career and find meaningful, well-paid work without starting over. Related Episodes Figuring Out Your Perfect Career Match (Spotify / Apple Podcasts) Discover Your Strengths to Find Your Ideal Career (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

Most career change stories end with someone leaving everything behind and starting over. Alanna's doesn't. She came back from her honeymoon certain she needed to change everything about her career. After two years, a baby, three volunteer boards, consulting work, and a run for legislative office, she found what she was looking for without ever leaving the organization she was already in. If you have been assuming a big exit is the only way to find work that actually fits, this episode is going to change how you think about that. What You'll Learn: Why the assumption that you need to leave your job to find meaningful work is often wrong and what to do before you make any major move What the basket approach to building career clarity looks like in practice and why experimenting broadly is more effective than searching for one perfect answer How proximity to impact works as a career requirement and why the same role can feel meaningful or empty depending entirely on how close you are to seeing the results of your work Why pausing a career change during a major life transition can be one of the most strategic decisions you make and how to use that time intentionally What it looks like to recombine existing pieces of your life into something that finally fits rather than burning everything down and starting from scratch Our book, Happen To Your Career: An Unconventional Approach To Career Change and Meaningful Work, is now available on audiobook! Visit  happentoyourcareer.com/audible to order it now! Visit happentoyourcareer.com/book for more information or buy the print or ebook here! Want to chat with our team about your unique situation? Schedule a conversation Free Resources What career fits you? Join our free 8 Day Mini Course to figure it out! Career Change Guide - Learn how high-performers discover their ideal career and find meaningful, well-paid work without starting over. Related Episodes Should I Quit My Job? How to Know It's Time (Spotify / Apple Podcasts) Designing Career Experiments and Testing New Careers (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

Stephanie was at application 91 with her work visa ticking down in London after a layoff. So she did what most people do when a job search starts to feel like a race against the clock — she applied to absolutely everything. She sent 54 more applications before something specific shifted in how she was approaching the search. Eight days after that shift, she had two offers. The real question is what changed between application 91 and application 145, and why applying to more jobs was the thing making her search worse. What You'll Learn: Why applying to more jobs when a search stalls feels logical and why the data consistently shows it produces significantly worse results What cognitive load is, how context switching between different role types and industries tanks interview performance, and why narrowing your focus fixes it How Stephanie went from 91 applications with zero offers to two offers in eight days by changing one thing about her approach without changing anything on her resume Why a visa requirement or any other constraint in your search is not a limitation to apologize for and how reframing it as a requirement changes everything about how you show up The one exercise to do this week with your last 10 to 20 applications that will show you exactly where your search is losing effectiveness Our book, Happen To Your Career: An Unconventional Approach To Career Change and Meaningful Work, is now available on audiobook! Visit  happentoyourcareer.com/audible to order it now! Visit happentoyourcareer.com/book for more information or buy the print or ebook here! Want to chat with our team about your unique situation? Schedule a conversation Free Resources What career fits you? Join our free 8 Day Mini Course to figure it out! Career Change Guide - Learn how high-performers discover their ideal career and find meaningful, well-paid work without starting over. Related Episodes An Overthinker's Guide To Making Better Career Decisions (Spotify /Apple Podcasts) Changing Careers (When You Don't Know Your Next Job Title) (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

What if the three words you use to introduce yourself at every networking event, every family gathering, every first conversation — "I am a" — are the very thing keeping you trapped in a career that no longer fits? Karen spent 30 years building an impressive career in higher education. She was wildly successful by every external measure. And she was completely burning out in ways she could not name until life forced her to stop and rethink everything she thought she knew about what career success was supposed to look like. What You'll Learn: Why the most successful people often struggle the most with career change and what the identity trap looks like for high achievers who have built decades of momentum in one direction The shift from asking "what job will express who I am" to "what does my life actually need right now" and why that question changes everything about the decision How Karen went from dean of students to student development coach, what most people would call a step down, and why she describes her current life as the healthiest she has ever been What life design actually means in practice and how the Ideal Career Profile helps you define what you need at your next role beyond what sounds impressive on paper Why past success does not obligate you to future misery and how to honor what you have built while choosing something that fits who you are becoming Our book, Happen To Your Career: An Unconventional Approach To Career Change and Meaningful Work, is now available on audiobook! Visit  happentoyourcareer.com/audible to order it now! Visit happentoyourcareer.com/book for more information or buy the print or ebook here! Want to chat with our team about your unique situation? Schedule a conversation Free Resources What career fits you? Join our free 8 Day Mini Course to figure it out! Career Change Guide - Learn how high-performers discover their ideal career and find meaningful, well-paid work without starting over. Related Episodes Figuring Out Your Perfect Career Match (Spotify / Apple Podcasts) Stuck in a Career You're Unhappy With? Fear Of Taking Risks Could Be Keeping You There (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

The best remote roles, the ones with real compensation, real flexibility, and real ownership, were never posted on a job board. They are being filled right now through relationships and conversations that started long before any job description existed. If you have been applying to remote jobs consistently and getting nowhere, the problem is not your resume or your experience or the market. It is the assumption that the remote job search works the same way every other job search does. This episode is about what actually works instead. What You'll Learn: Why filtering job boards by remote and applying consistently is one of the least effective strategies for landing a high-quality remote role in 2026 How Rachel applied seriously for four months without a single offer and started getting traction within three weeks by changing one thing about her approach What a target companies list is, how to build one without job boards, and why it changes who you are competing against entirely Why leading with remote as your pitch is the mistake most candidates make and what to lead with instead to get organizations genuinely interested How the best remote careers get filled before anything is ever posted and how to position yourself inside those conversations Our book, Happen To Your Career: An Unconventional Approach To Career Change and Meaningful Work, is now available on audiobook! Visit  happentoyourcareer.com/audible to order it now! Visit happentoyourcareer.com/book for more information or buy the print or ebook here! Want to chat with our team about your unique situation? Schedule a conversation Free Resources What career fits you? Join our free 8 Day Mini Course to figure it out! Career Change Guide - Learn how high-performers discover their ideal career and find meaningful, well-paid work without starting over. Related Episodes Figuring Out Your Perfect Career Match (Spotify / Apple Podcasts) Discover Your Strengths to Find Your Ideal Career (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

Holly Dixon spent 20 years in the legal field, never once argued a case, and walked away without a single job lined up. She is still happening to her career and figuring out what comes next. Most career change episodes on this show share a complete story from start to finish. This one does not. This episode is the messy middle — the experiments that did not work, the grief nobody warned her about, the identity crisis that came from letting go of 20 years of who she thought she was, and what she has learned about living in uncertainty on purpose while still moving forward. What You'll Learn: Why the experimenting is not the detour on the way to clarity and how every experiment Holly ran gave her specific, useful information she could not have gotten any other way What happens to your identity when you walk away from a 20-year career and why grieving who you used to be is not a sign something is wrong How Holly co-created a four-month exit plan with her boss instead of giving two weeks notice and why that approach set everyone up for success including herself Why the survival instinct that tells you to just pick something and get back to work can be one of the biggest obstacles to actually finding what fits What living in uncertainty on purpose looks like in practice and how it becomes a skill you can build rather than a personality trait you either have or you do not Our book, Happen To Your Career: An Unconventional Approach To Career Change and Meaningful Work, is now available on audiobook! Visit  happentoyourcareer.com/audible to order it now! Visit happentoyourcareer.com/book for more information or buy the print or ebook here! Want to chat with our team about your unique situation? Schedule a conversation Free Resources What career fits you? Join our free 8 Day Mini Course to figure it out! Career Change Guide - Learn how high-performers discover their ideal career and find meaningful, well-paid work without starting over. Related Episodes Six Career Experiments To Help You Discover Your Ideal New Role (Spotify / Apple Podcasts) Should I Quit My Job? How to Know It's Time (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

Jackie gained 40 pounds in four months. Her nervous system was off. She was dealing with depression, a toxic workplace, a failing relationship, and a job that had stopped feeling like her, all at the same time. Most people in that situation wait for things to calm down before making a move. Jackie did the opposite. She changed her career, left her relationship, and relocated simultaneously. This episode is about how she did it, what made it possible, and what she found on the other side. What You'll Learn: How a toxic workplace triggered a physical and mental health collapse and what finally made Jackie recognize it was time to stop pushing through Why Jackie walked away from a leadership track everyone expected her to take and what that decision revealed about what she actually needed from work What it looks like to navigate a career change, a divorce, and a relocation at the same time without losing your footing entirely How Jackie landed two job offers simultaneously for the first time in her career and the values-based framework she used to choose between them Why the weight came off, the energy came back, and the depression lifted once she aligned her work and life with what actually fit her   Our book, Happen To Your Career: An Unconventional Approach To Career Change and Meaningful Work, is now available on audiobook! Visit  happentoyourcareer.com/audible to order it now!  Visit happentoyourcareer.com/book for more information or buy the print or ebook here! Want to chat with our team about your unique situation? Schedule a conversation   Free Resources What career fits you? Join our free 8 Day Mini Course to figure it out! Career Change Guide - Learn how high-performers discover their ideal career and find meaningful, well-paid work without starting over. Related Episodes Should I Quit My Job? How to Know It's Time (Spotify / Apple Podcasts) How to Figure Out What You Really Want (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

For most high performers, it looks like showing up on time, delivering results, and holding everything together, while feeling nothing about any of it. New research shows 83% of corporate professionals are experiencing burnout right now, with women in senior leadership burning out at nearly double the rate of men. But the version driving those numbers is one most people have never learned to recognize, because from the outside, it looks like a perfectly stable career. In this episode, we'll break down what career burnout actually looks like for high performers in 2026, the three forces quietly driving disconnection at work, and why the single most important thing you can do before making any career move is correctly name what you are actually dealing with. Because the version that keeps most people stuck is the quiet kind. The kind that survives by staying unnamed. What You'll Learn: Why the most common version of career burnout in 2026 does not look like suffering from the outside and why that is exactly what makes it so hard to catch The three forces quietly driving burnout for high performers right now and why pushing through harder is making each of them worse Why burnout and boreout feel identical from the inside but come from completely different causes and require completely different solutions Why correctly naming what you are experiencing is the single most important step and what changes the moment you do How Lisa spent seven years in a role that looked stable and flexible from the outside while slowly going numb inside it and what finally broke the cycle Our book, Happen To Your Career: An Unconventional Approach To Career Change and Meaningful Work, is now available on audiobook! Visit  happentoyourcareer.com/audible to order it now! Visit happentoyourcareer.com/book for more information or buy the print or ebook here! Want to chat with our team about your unique situation? Schedule a conversation Free Resources What career fits you? Join our free 8 Day Mini Course to figure it out! Career Change Guide - Learn how high-performers discover their ideal career and find meaningful, well-paid work without starting over. Related Episodes Executive Burnout: Making A Midlife Career Change (Spotify / Apple Podcasts) Should I Quit My Job? How to Know It's Time (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

Scott had a great leadership team, great clients, great culture, and great brands. He also had burnout so deep it was following him home to the dinner table. The hardest part was that there was nobody to blame and nothing obvious to point to. When the usual culprits are missing, most people do nothing. Scott did something else entirely and went from a 20-year advertising career to owning a franchise he loves in less time than he ever thought possible. What You'll Learn: Why burnout without a bad job is one of the hardest versions to catch and act on and what the signs actually look like when there is no villain in the story How outgrowing a career, not overwork or a toxic boss, can produce genuine burnout symptoms and why most people never make that connection What career experimentation actually looks like in practice including the option Scott almost dismissed entirely that ended up being the right move Why identifying your values before investigating options is the step most people skip and why skipping it is what sends people back to the same type of role with a different company name How the same signature strengths that built a 20-year corporate career translated directly into building a business from scratch Our book, Happen To Your Career: An Unconventional Approach To Career Change and Meaningful Work, is now available on audiobook! Visit  happentoyourcareer.com/audible to order it now! Visit happentoyourcareer.com/book for more information or buy the print or ebook here! Want to chat with our team about your unique situation? Schedule a conversation Free Resources What career fits you? Join our free 8 Day Mini Course to figure it out! Career Change Guide - Learn how high-performers discover their ideal career and find meaningful, well-paid work without starting over. Related Episodes Figuring Out Your Perfect Career Match (Spotify / Apple Podcasts) Should I Quit My Job? How to Know It's Time (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

Getting laid off feels like a crisis. That feeling is exactly what makes the next few moves so costly. Most professionals respond the same way after a layoff in 2026 — they treat it like a fire to put out as fast as possible, start applying everywhere, and take the first thing that comes back. They end up in a slightly different version of the same situation wondering how they got there again. We've worked with thousands of professionals through layoffs and career transitions. What we've seen consistently is that the first 48 hours after a layoff determine whether the layoff becomes a career emergency or career leverage. What You'll Learn: Why treating a layoff like a career emergency is the most expensive mistake you can make and what to do instead The four stabilization steps to take before you touch your resume, update LinkedIn, or apply anywhere Why you should not sign your severance agreement right away and what to look for first How 85% of career changers after a layoff maintain similar or better pay The framing shift that turns a layoff into the most valuable career reset you have ever had Our book, Happen To Your Career: An Unconventional Approach To Career Change and Meaningful Work, is now available on audiobook! Visit  happentoyourcareer.com/audible to order it now! Visit happentoyourcareer.com/book for more information or buy the print or ebook here! Want to chat with our team about your unique situation? Schedule a conversation Free Resources What career fits you? Join our free 8 Day Mini Course to figure it out! Career Change Guide - Learn how high-performers discover their ideal career and find meaningful, well-paid work without starting over. Related Episodes Changing Careers (When You Don't Know Your Next Job Title) (Spotify / Apple Podcasts) Six Career Experiments To Help You Discover Your Ideal New Role (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

Two identical candidates walk into the same interview with the same resume. One gets the job. The other doesn't. It has nothing to do with how well they prepared or what they know. It has everything to do with how well they leveraged human psychology. This episode breaks down the five most common interview question types that trip people up, what most candidates get wrong, and the specific frameworks that change the outcome for anyone in a career transition or senior-level search. What You'll Learn: The Past-Present-Future framework for answering "tell me about yourself" in a way that is immediately relevant and builds a bridge from your experience to exactly why you are here. How to tell the productive truth when asked why you are leaving without oversharing, lying, or giving an answer that costs you the offer Why answering "what are your strengths?" with skills is the wrong move and what to say instead to make the interviewer feel like they already know you. How the SBO storytelling method works, why behavioral questions are actually the easiest to own once you have 15 to 20 stories ready, and how to build that inventory from scratch. What changes about interviews at the senior and executive level and why clarity about what you want matters more than any answer you could give. Our book, Happen To Your Career: An Unconventional Approach To Career Change and Meaningful Work, is now available on audiobook! Visit  happentoyourcareer.com/audible to order it now! Visit happentoyourcareer.com/book for more information or buy the print or ebook here! Want to chat with our team about your unique situation? Schedule a conversation Free Resources What career fits you? Join our free 8 Day Mini Course to figure it out! Career Change Guide - Learn how high-performers discover their ideal career and find meaningful, well-paid work without starting over. Related Episodes Discover Your Strengths to Find Your Ideal Career (Spotify / Apple Podcasts) Changing Careers (When You Don't Know Your Next Job Title) (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

Amelia spent eight years as a media communications director before a layoff sent her straight into panic-applying for whatever came up. Natalie knew networking was her next move and then sat frozen for two months because it felt transactional. Laura had the numbers: referrals converted to interviews at eight times the rate of cold applications, and one of those referrals is now her boss. The split between a job search that lands a job and one that lands a career you love isn't luck, connections, or the resume, but the mindset behind it. What You'll Learn: The one mindset mistake that sets everything else in motion and why most job seekers are making it before they ever hit send on their first application What avoidance motivation is, why a layoff triggers it automatically, and how it causes smart people to land in a worse version of the same situation with a different company name Why two months of networking paralysis is more common than anyone admits and how one reframe completely changes the results you get from the people you already know Why referrals convert to interviews at more than eight times the rate of cold applications and what that means for where you should be spending your job search energy The difference between a search that lands you a job and a search that lands you a career you actually love and why the tactics are completely different Our book, Happen To Your Career: An Unconventional Approach To Career Change and Meaningful Work, is now available on audiobook! Visit  happentoyourcareer.com/audible to order it now! Visit happentoyourcareer.com/book for more information or buy the print or ebook here! Want to chat with our team about your unique situation? Schedule a conversation Free Resources What career fits you? Join our free 8 Day Mini Course to figure it out! Career Change Guide - Learn how high-performers discover their ideal career and find meaningful, well-paid work without starting over. Related Episodes Should I Quit My Job? How to Know It's Time (Spotify / Apple Podcasts) Stuck in a Career You're Unhappy With? Fear Of Taking Risks Could Be Keeping You There (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

One woman spent seven years in a role that everyone told her she should be grateful for while she was slowly falling apart inside it. Another quit fast, convinced that leaving the job would fix everything, and then spent the next two years finding out why it didn't. Neither outcome was what either of them expected. And what finally worked for both of them isn't what you would guess either. If you've been asking yourself whether you should quit your job, this episode is going to change the question entirely.   What You'll Learn: Why "should I stay or should I go?" is the wrong question and what to ask yourself instead before making any career change decision What boreout is, how it differs from burnout, and why the absence of a dramatic reason to leave is not proof that you don't have a real one What quitting reactively actually costs you and why removing the job doesn't automatically remove the problem that made you want to leave What a bridge role is, how Amanda used one to create breathing room while doing the real work of figuring out what she actually wanted, and how to build one for yourself How to have the conversation with your partner about wanting to quit in a way that builds support instead of fear and what to do if you've been skipping that conversation entirely   Our book, Happen To Your Career: An Unconventional Approach To Career Change and Meaningful Work, is now available on audiobook! Visit  happentoyourcareer.com/audible to order it now! Visit happentoyourcareer.com/book for more information or buy the print or ebook here! Want to chat with our team about your unique situation? Schedule a conversation   Free Resources What career fits you? Join our free 8 Day Mini Course to figure it out! Career Change Guide - Learn how high-performers discover their ideal career and find meaningful, well-paid work without starting over.   Related Episodes How to Figure Out What You Really Want (Spotify / Apple Podcasts) Six Career Experiments To Help You Discover Your Ideal New Role (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)   Mentioned Episode What Career Burnout in 2026 Actually Looks Like (How To Fix It And Find Career Satisfaction) (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)