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

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)

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)