Every year, millions of professionals send out hundreds of applications, get almost nowhere, and decide the problem is their resume. It's not.

Referrals make up just 7% of applicants but account for 40% of hires, and the gap between those two numbers comes down to one thing: conversations.

In this episode, two professionals who had no plan, no clear direction, and no obvious path forward used test drive conversations to find meaningful work and career change success when nothing else was moving.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• Why test drive conversations work when job applications don't, and the data behind why referrals account for 40% of hires while most people trying to change careers never tap into them
• How Shreya used informational interviews to go from stuck in the wrong career to landing a role she loves, and what her career change success story teaches anyone who doesn't know what they want yet
• The Social Goldilocks Method for career networking that Travis used to break into the toys and games industry from a completely unrelated background, and how to use the same approach to find meaningful work in any field
• What test drive conversations are actually teaching you about yourself, the career clarity and signature strengths you can only uncover by talking to real people, and why no amount of job searching online can replicate it

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

1. Designing Career Experiments and Testing New Careers (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)
2. Six Career Experiments To Help You Discover Your Ideal New Role (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

Scott Ingham spent 18 years in pharmaceutical sales before deciding to make a career change after 50. When he told people, the response was almost uniform: "You're crazy."

That pushback wasn't useful advice. It was projection of other people's fears dressed up as concern. It's also one of five beliefs that keep professionals over 50 stuck in roles they've already outgrown.

According to data, 85% of employers now hire based on skills, not credentials. 53% have dropped degree requirements entirely. The average new hire today is 42 years old. And 80% of career changers report they're glad they made the move with the most common regret being how long they waited.

If one of these five beliefs has been running quietly in the background of a decision you haven't made yet, this episode is worth your time.

What you'll learn

• Why the pushback you get from people around you when considering a career change after 50 isn't advice — and what it actually is
• What skills-based hiring really means for professionals with 20+ years of experience and why the market timing right now may be better than it's ever been
• The hidden cost of staying in a role that no longer fits and why the financial math of not changing rarely holds up

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

1. Six Career Experiments To Help You Discover Your Ideal New Role (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)
2. An Overthinker's Guide To Making Better Career Decisions (Spotify /Apple Podcasts)

Hayley Lowe had a textbook career pivot from her communications degree and agency life to a senior leadership role at a company like Expedia. Everything was going according to plan until burnout, infertility, a pandemic, and one very wrong Fortune 500 job forced her to rebuild from scratch.

What she found on the other side wasn't a posted role. It was one she designed herself.
Through coaching, she built an Ideal Career Profile that made it obvious why her last job had been wrong and exactly what right would look like.

In this episode, Hayley shares what it took to trust her gut sooner, how she negotiated a role that didn't exist yet, and what work finally feels like when it's built around who you actually are.

What you'll learn

• What happens when you take a job that looks right on paper and know it's wrong on Day 1 and what to do about it fast
• How Hayley used her Ideal Career Profile to reverse-engineer a Chief of Staff role at a company she already trusted
• Why the best career opportunities are rarely posted — and how to position yourself to co-create the role you actually want

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

1. Executive Burnout: Making A Midlife Career Change (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)
2. Stuck in a Career You're Unhappy With? Fear Of Taking Risks Could Be Keeping You There (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

If you've taken time away from your career and you're wondering how to come back without explaining the gap or apologizing for your time off, this episode is for you.

Caroline spent 17 years at one of the Big Four firms before hitting full-on burnout. After years of being passed over for promotions and navigating a system that forced competition over collaboration, she woke up one day and thought, "I can't do this anymore."

She resigned. Took two years away. Moved countries. Completely reset her life. Then she had to figure out how to come back. This wasn't a standard return-to-work story.

Caroline used a strengths assessment to identify her transferable value, named exactly what she wanted instead of apologizing for the gap, turned down the first offer that didn't fit, and ended up with a role at a mid-size entrepreneurial company working three days a week, 24 hours split across her schedule.

This episode unpacks how to return to work after burnout and a career break, why your transferable skills matter more than your job titles, and how Caroline negotiated her way into flexible part-time work that fit both her home life and her work life.

What you'll learn:

• How to translate years of corporate experience into a compelling value proposition after a career break
• Why year 8, 13, or 18 at the same company often becomes a breaking point (and how to spot it before you hit it)
• How to use a strengths assessment to rebuild confidence and articulate your transferable skills
• Why stating exactly what you want works better than apologizing for your time away
• How to negotiate flexible part-time work even when the first offer doesn't fit

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

1. Designing Career Experiments and Testing New Careers (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)
2. Discover Your Strengths to Find Your Ideal Career (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

If your career looks successful on paper but feels off inside, you're not alone. Many mid-career professionals reach a point where the work that used to fit no longer does. Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak's story is one path forward: a portfolio career that combined her biotech expertise with her animal welfare interests.

Breanne had a career that looked solid from the outside. Biotech R&D, then regulatory work submitting new technologies to the FDA. Director-level. Real success.

Inside, the fit was changing. The work was drifting.She started looking at R&D and regulatory roles she was qualified for. Nothing gave her any excitement. That's when she found HTYC's free 8-day mini course and joined the Career Change Bootcamp.

She built one 5-year career plan with her manager and a separate one with her career coach. The two plans were so different. The energy in each was so different. She knew it was time to leave.

What followed wasn't a traditional job search. It was 20 conversations with strangers, a series of career experiments, and surprising feedback from people who'd only met her for an hour. Her coach introduced the idea of a portfolio career: multiple types of work, multiple interests, all under one umbrella. Breanne built a consulting business that combined her biotech expertise with the animal welfare work she'd always wanted to do.

What you'll learn:

• The 5-year career plan exercise that reveals when your current path no longer fits
• How to use Social Goldilocks conversations to get strangers to see what you can't about yourself
• What a portfolio career actually looks like (and why one full-time job isn't always the right structure)
• How to translate decades of industry experience into consulting work
• Why "successful on paper" is the hardest career trap to leave

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

1. Changing Careers (When You Don't Know Your Next Job Title) (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)
2. How to Figure Out What You Really Want (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

• Why sending more applications when you're scared often makes your job search harder, not easier
• The cognitive load cost that's draining your interview performance behind the scenes
• How to shift from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset in your job search
• Stephanie's exact criteria framework that took her from 145 applications to 2 offers in 8 days
• The identity shift from applicant trying to earn a yes to candidate with standards

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

1. Six Career Experiments To Help You Discover Your Ideal New Role (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)
2. Figuring Out Your Perfect Career Match (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

Mentioned Episode:

1. Episode 612 - Stephanie Drumright (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)