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Happen To Your Career


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

How to Make a Career Change in Your 40s: Midlife Crisis or Midlife Clarity?

Fri, 22 May 2026
Making a career change in your 40s can feel like a midlife crisis. After two decades in a career that no longer fits, the temptation is to assume something is wrong with you. What looks like a midlife crisis from the inside is often something different. It's the start of a successful midlife career change, the moment of clarity that comes from twenty years of doing the work and finally knowing what you want next. This episode breaks down how to make a career change at 40 without starting over, what's quietly keeping high performers stuck for another decade, and how to use your twenty years of experience as the asset it actually is.
What you'll learn:
  • Why most career change advice for people in their 40s misses the actual obstacles entirely
  • The Identity Trap that makes midlife career change feel impossible after twenty years in one industry
  • The Responsibility Myth that keeps high performers stuck in their 40s for another decade
  • Why your twenty years of experience makes career change at 40 an asset, not an obstacle
  • Real stories from four people who made successful career changes in their 40s and what it actually took
  • The three-step framework for making a career change in your 40s without starting over or throwing away what you've already built

 

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. Designing Career Experiments and Testing New Careers (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

Why You Don't Actually Want Early Retirement: How to Make a Career Change at 40, 50, or 60 That Brings Real Career Alignment

Thu, 21 May 2026

Susan came to us with one goal: find something she could tolerate for the next seven years before she could finally retire and start living. Two weeks later, she wasn't retiring anymore, because she had finally found work that fit.

In this episode, we break down why so many high performers in their 40s, 50s, and 60s mistake "I want to retire" for "I want to stop doing this." There's a specific psychological reason it happens, and there's a way to fix it that doesn't require waiting for retirement at all. 

 

What you'll learn:

  • Why most people counting down to retirement aren't done with work, they just can't picture what else is possible
  • The availability heuristic and how it traps high performers in jobs they've outgrown
  • Three "systematic exposure" experiments that rewire what feels possible: the Goldilocks Conversation, the small side experiment, and the targeted course immersion
  • Why being over 40 is the best time to change careers, and how the experience you've built becomes the asset that makes it work
  • How Susan went from planning to retire in seven years to finding work she didn't want to retire from at all

 

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. Should I Quit My Job? How to Know It's Time (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)
  2. Discover Your Strengths to Find Your Ideal Career (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

Career Advice for Busy Professionals: How to Make a Career Change When You're Exhausted and Have No Time

Tue, 19 May 2026

Between a job that demands 10+ hours a day, a family that needs you the moment you walk through the door, and a never-ending list of obligations, finding the space to even think about what you want next feels impossible. But it doesn't have to be.

You asked, and we're answering.

In this special Q&A episode, we're tackling one of the most common questions we hear from people all over the world: how do you make a career change when you have zero time and energy left to give?

We'll break down exactly how real people, just like you, have made meaningful career progress without overhauling their entire schedule or waiting for the perfect moment that never seems to come.

 

What you'll learn

  • Why meaningful career change happens in the margins — and how to find those hidden pockets of time in your day
  • How one engineer working 10–11 hour days used a single lunch hour to land a new role
  • Why knowing when you do your best work is the secret to making faster progress with less effort
  • The two questions you need to ask yourself before taking any other step toward a career change
  • How to stop waiting for the "perfect" amount of time and start building real momentum today

 

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. Figuring Out Your Perfect Career Match (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)
  2. Changing Careers (When You Don't Know Your Next Job Title) (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

How to Make a Career Pivot Without Starting Over: Switch Industries, Use Transferable Skills, and Land a Better Job

Mon, 18 May 2026

Switching industries doesn't mean starting over. The skills you've built over 20+ years are transferable, and learning to translate them is the difference between feeling stuck and landing a better job in a completely new field. This episode walks through why your industry isn't where your value actually lives, how to reposition transferable skills for any new field, and the 3-step framework high performers use to make a career pivot without losing the seniority, salary, or recognition they've already earned.

 

What you'll learn

  • Why most high performers stay stuck in their current industry, and the belief that's keeping them there
  • The functional vs. industry-specific way to think about your skills (and why this shift is the unlock for any career pivot)
  • The 3-step framework for making a career pivot without starting over: taking inventory of your transferable skills, finding functional overlap in your target industry, and building your bridge story
  • Glenn's story: how a 20-year healthcare sales veteran pivoted into a Regional Director role at a values-aligned company after a life-changing diagnosis
  • Taj's story: how multiple pivots across athletics, music, and coaching prove the through-line isn't the industry — it's how you want to live
  • The reframe that changes everything about how hiring managers in a new industry see your background

 

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. Executive Burnout: Making A Midlife Career Change (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

Stop Doing Work That's Draining You: How to Eliminate Tedious Tasks Before Job Dissatisfaction Turns Into Burnout

Fri, 15 May 2026

The difference between work that drains you and work that energizes you usually isn't the role. It's whether your strengths fit the environment you're using them in.

This episode walks through when your strengths actually matter for finding career fit and work you actually love, why matching your strengths to a job title is the wrong approach to career happiness, and how to identify the work environments where your unique combination of strengths will actually be valued.

You'll also hear why the right environment isn't really about the company itself, it's about whether the people around you value the strengths you bring, and why values alignment usually matters more than strengths alignment when you're starting to figure out what actually fits.

 

What you'll learn:

  • Why trying to match your strengths to a job title doesn't create career fit or job satisfaction, and what actually does
  • The two situations where strengths-based career planning is genuinely useful for finding meaningful work: spotting clear career non-fits and identifying the right work environment
  • How to tell when the people around you, not the role itself, are the real reason your work feels draining and unfulfilling
  • Why values alignment matters more than strengths alignment when you're starting a career change or career pivot
  • How to use your strengths as a filter for career fit and workplace happiness instead of a roadmap for which jobs to apply to
  • The signs your current career path isn't working and how to address job dissatisfaction before it turns into burnout

 

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. Should I Quit My Job? How to Know It's Time (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)
  2. Stuck in a Career You're Unhappy With? Fear Of Taking Risks Could Be Keeping You There (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

 

Mentioned Episode:

  1. Mid-Career Family Sabbatical: How to Design an Intentional Career Break (Without Coming Back to the Same Burnout) (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)

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