Happen To Your Career - Meaningful Work, Career Change, Career Design, & Job Search

After 20 years in tech, Caity lost her curiosity for her own profession, researched her next career for months, and got nowhere until she tested one idea by talking to people in the field. If your curiosity at work is gone and a career change is on the table, here is how to test an idea before you commit.
What You'll Learn:
Why months of Googling, books, and advice from friends did not get Caity closer to her next career
How she used her strengths, including maximizer, to find the thread running through 20 years of roles
How she tested a travel agent career by talking to people brand new to the field and people 30 years in
Why ruling out a career brought relief instead of disappointment
Where she ended up, organizational psychology and change management, and where to hear the full story in episode 582
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
Designing Career Experiments and Testing New Careers (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)
Six Career Experiments To Help You Discover Your Ideal New Role (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

After about 20 years in HR, with a great manager and a good company, Moira Quinlan was too tired to volunteer for projects she loved and decided she had picked the wrong career.
Then her strengths results, AI, and her coach all told her the same surprising thing: You're exactly where you're supposed to be.
If you're asking whether you need a career change when nothing seems wrong, this episode shows you how to find out what is actually draining your energy, and why Moira left her job, but kept her career.
What You'll Learn:
Why the first reaction to losing energy at work is "I picked the wrong career," and why that conclusion is often premature
How to separate the parts of your work that give you energy from the parts that quietly drain it
How Moira used CliftonStrengths and AI to explore career options, plus the questions she asked to push past the generic answers
Why knowing your "why" changes how the same job feels, and the difference between falling into a role and choosing it
Why career decisions should be holistic, including family, commute, finances, and your employer's stage, and how that led Moira to launch her own coaching and consulting practice
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)
Designing Career Experiments and Testing New Careers (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

After more than a decade of trying to leave law, Adam finally landed a job offer that looked perfect, and it fell apart the moment he started asking questions. If you are in the middle of a career change setback, this episode explains why that moment felt like the end and why it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to him.
What You'll Learn:
Why a job offer that falls apart can be the clearest signal that a role was never the right fit
How Adam's strategic and observational strengths made him a natural writer, and what his negotiation revealed about the startup
How an Ideal Career Profile, with minimums and ideals, turns a job offer negotiation into useful information
Why nearly every successful career changer hits a wall, and why a setback that feels like it costs four months might save four years
Where Adam ended up after more than a decade of trying to leave law, and where to hear his full story in episode 437
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)
Mentioned Episode:
Career Change For Lawyers Who Feel Stuck (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

Susan is 61, doesn't need the money, and just took on more work. From the outside it looks like a mistake, but she understood something most people miss about what makes a working life fulfilling. If you are weighing retirement, a career change over 50, or what comes next, this episode will change how you think about your next season of work.
What You'll Learn:
Why going back to work after you have earned your way out can be a deliberate choice, not a step backward
The seasons of a working life, and why obligations shape them more than age does
Why capacity, meaning how much you carry compared to what you have to carry it with, matters more than the size of your load
How two people with the same mortgage and the same kids can face the same season in completely opposite ways
The question to ask yourself now so your circumstances stop picking your next season for you
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)
Six Career Experiments To Help You Discover Your Ideal New Role (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

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)