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

Laura McClernon, a mid-career professional and career coach who planned a year-long family RV sabbatical, shares her decade-long design process. She covers why a family sabbatical can spark identity work, the psychology and logistics behind planning it, how to avoid the common fade-out after returning, and how to redesign the future to make the break truly transformative.

They unpack quiet burnout in 2026 and how it often looks like boreout — high performance with lost internal motivation. You’ll hear the three forces driving disengagement and how boreout can morph into full burnout. Practical diagnostics help you tell whether to change conditions or change work. The conversation shows how to build an ideal career profile and use signature strengths to find satisfying work.

They unpack why only 4% of 2026 job postings are labeled fully remote and where the other remote roles hide. Three types of remote job seekers and three proven roads to high-paying remote work get explained. Practical tactics include negotiating flexibility, targeting remote-first companies through relationships, and building portable skills for hidden opportunities.

They unpack hidden costs of staying in the wrong career, from chronic exhaustion and health impacts to long-term financial and identity consequences. They expose how salary and perks can become trapping "golden handcuffs." They explain why reactive exits often lead to the same mistake and introduce an Ideal Career Profile focused on strengths and values to choose differently.

A rapid guide to what to do in the first 48 hours after a layoff. Why pausing beats panicking and how action bias derails job searches. The three common missteps that stretch searches and steal pay. How to treat a layoff as leverage, negotiate severance, and stabilize immediately. Choosing a job-search strategy based on runway, emotional state, and goals.

A guide to job searching in 2026 that highlights why being specific beats blasting out resumes. Tips on using AI as a drafting tool while keeping your authentic voice. A practical method for building an Ideal Career Profile to focus your efforts. Advice on relationship-driven outreach and doing less work that yields more offers.

Career change after 30 years? Career change at 50+? Mid-career pivot? If any of those describe where you are right now, this episode is for you. Monika Herdlick spent 30 years as a flight test engineer and Army Reserve helicopter pilot. By every external measure, she was winning — federal service, world travel, flexibility, a strong paycheck. But the work had quietly stopped fitting, and she didn't know how to leave the good job she'd outgrown. What Monika did next is the part of every career change story people don't talk about: months of quiet, uncomfortable work — networking conversations, career experiments, sitting in the in-between space without a plan. The result? She was hired as Director of Programs and Partnerships at a growing defense company for a role she never applied for. Part-time by design. With room to finish her yoga instructor certification and keep bees. In this episode, you'll learn: How to know it's time to leave a good job after 30 years How to make a career change at 50+ without starting over How to get hired without applying through strategic networking Why clarity comes from action, not the other way around How to build a mid-career pivot that actually fits your life If you're considering a career change after 30 years in the same field, this conversation will show you what's possible. 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) Should I Quit My Job? How to Know It's Time (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

If your job search isn't working, the problem isn't your resume. It's 4 specific job search mistakes most people make without realizing: the wrong mindset, the wrong order, the wrong criteria, and the wrong mode. In this episode, we break down each mistake — including how one of our clients went from submitting hundreds of applications and 4 months of silence to 2 offers in 8 days, why referrals produce 69% interview rates vs. 8% for cold applications, and how to stop sending applications into a void and start getting hired into work that fits. What you'll learn The 4 job search mistakes killing your chances of getting hired Why "just apply to more jobs" is the worst job search advice How to flip your job search from outside-in to inside-out Why relational job searching beats transactional applications by 8x How to get hired into work that actually fits, not just another job If your job search isn't working, you're stuck in endless applications, getting ghosted, or tempted to settle for the wrong role — this episode is your playbook for fixing what's wrong with your job search and getting hired into work that actually fits. 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) Changing Careers (When You Don't Know Your Next Job Title) (Spotify / Apple Podcasts) Get the audiobook here for free (limited time only!) - https://happentoyourcareer.com/audiobook

A practical playbook for job hunting in a brutal 2026 market. It covers why traditional applications fail and why clarity about your ideal role matters first. Learn why conversations and referrals beat mass applying and how to design a career path instead of defaulting into one. Practical tactics for making each application and connection count.

After 13 years as a federal employee, Kara Cochran was laid off with five months of runway, no direction, no industry experience outside federal service, and a job search timeline half as long as the average. This is how she made a career change after a layoff, switched industries fast, and landed a senior Chief of Staff role she never applied for. What you'll learn How Kara used an ideal career profile to go from "I don't know what I'm looking for" after a federal government career change to landing a chief of staff role she originally told herself nobody would ever hire her for — and the ChatGPT job search move that gave her a starting point she never expected Why every dead end Kara hit while navigating a career change after layoff — exploring nonprofits, clean energy, and management consulting — was actually sharpening what she really wanted the whole time, and how getting radically honest about her non-negotiables transformed her search from scattered to focused The unexpected strategy Kara used to land a senior role with no network and zero cold applications — how letting her work speak for her in a low pressure context turned a throwaway comment into a dinner with senior leadership and created a chief of staff role that did not exist before she walked in the door 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) Executive Burnout: Making A Midlife Career Change (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)