303: Worried About Losing Your Job? Three Tips to Navigate Career Insecurity

Do you feel like something’s off at work?

Maybe you’ve been left out of meetings, your responsibilities are shrinking, or you're questioning if AI might eventually replace your role.

You're not alone and you're not powerless.

In this episode of The Mid-Career GPS Podcast, career coach John Neral tackles the rising wave of career insecurity among mid-level professionals. Whether your company is reorganizing, you’ve received a “we need to talk” message, or you're just uneasy in this market, this episode helps you shift from fear to focus.

You’ll learn three practical strategies to regain control of your career—and your confidence—before someone else does.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to spot real warning signs your job may be at risk (and how to avoid overreacting)
• The truth about fear vs. facts and why your feelings might not reflect reality
• How to inventory your professional value with metrics, achievements, and colleague testimonials
• Why your LinkedIn profile and resume must reflect your next move, not your last one
• How to create a “career insurance policy” through intentional networking and skills assessment
• The one powerful networking question that opens unexpected doors: “Who else should I be speaking to?”
• How to reframe job insecurity as an opportunity to pivot into something better aligned with your potential

Next Steps for Mid-Career Professionals:

👉 Visit johnneral.com to explore free resources, digital guides, and the Mid-Career GPS Membership Community for coaching and support. Learn more about joining the membership: johnneral.com/membership

Chapters

• 0:00 Career Insecurity Introduction
• 1:10 Signs Your Job Might Be At Risk
• 3:30 Strategy 1: Inventory Your Value
• 6:59 Strategy 2: Strengthen Your Mid-Career GPS
• 8:50 Strategy 3: Build Your Career Insurance Policy
• 14:27 Reframing Insecurity As Opportunity
• 15:47 Episode Closing and Resources

Transcript

John Neral: 0:00

Have you ever had that pit in your stomach, feeling walking into a meeting and wondering if your job might be on the line? I did, and I remember how awful it felt. All of a sudden, you're filled with fear, anxiety, worry and maybe even a little bit of shame, because who wants to lose their job? Job In this job market? It is understandable if you are feeling as though your job whether you work for the government, be it at the local, state or federal level, a nonprofit or a corporation is at risk. Well, by the end of this episode, I will give you three practical strategies or tips to help you manage your career in insecurity and how you can show up more confidently and more assured that, whatever happens, you have the tools necessary to keep building your mid-career GPS. Let's get started.

John Neral: 1:10

Hello, my friends, this is the Mid-Career GPS Podcast and I'm your host, John Neral. I help mid-career professionals like you find a career they love, or love the one they have, using my proven four-step formula. Before we get into today's episode, do you know I have a community? We get into today's episode. Do you know I have a community. The Mid-Career GPS Membership Community is your place to get the support, guidance, information and coaching you need to help you navigate whatever is next for you and your career in this job market. I launched this community a few months ago and it continues to grow, and I'd love for you to learn more about it and be a part of it. So to do so, all you need to do is go to my website, johnnerrellcom, click on the membership tab at the top, and there you'll learn all the information about the community and how I can help you, including whether you want to join by the month or by the year. Visit johnneral. com/membership for more information.

John Neral: 2:10

Today's topic is all about what is causing your career insecurity and, as we start off the second half of 2025, let's acknowledge that this job market has not been easy so far. Maybe you got that quote unquote fork in the road email. Maybe your company has gone through some type of organizational restructuring. Maybe you're concerned about being laid off, or your company is talking about budget cuts, or maybe you're concerned that AI may replace your role or redefine what skills you need to be having. You are not alone. This is an understandable concern for so many mid-career professionals, and the fear or worry here is valid and, yes, it is a sign of the times.

John Neral: 3:03

So often we can get caught in what's called anticipatory grief. It's mourning a loss that hasn't happened yet, and if you're worried or concerned that you may be losing your job, that anticipatory grief is real. So how can you tell if your job is actually at risk? Well, here's the thing that I've seen in my career. I've seen it through the people I've worked with, friends of mine who have gone through all of this.

John Neral: 3:35

There are red flags that start to show up, and immediately. You may not be aware that this is happening. You may not be aware that this is happening. So, for example, you may be seeing a decrease in your responsibilities or visibility. Maybe, all of a sudden, you're quote unquote not that busy. Maybe you're left out of the loop on key decisions or meetings. Maybe your boss has changed their behavior toward you. Maybe they're not as friendly or cordial or they're a little short in their communication. Maybe your work is coming under increased scrutiny or nitpicking. Or maybe you're hearing about budget cuts or you are seeing leadership leave your organization. If any or all of these things are happening to you, I want to offer you here that there is a huge difference between fear and facts, and so, in looking at these potential red flags, this is an opportunity for you to practice some proactive awareness without panicking and I know that is hard right.

John Neral: 4:53

I am someone who is a bit of a worrier, so when I was going through that and seeing the changes happening in various places where I worked, all of a sudden I would feel my mind race and go oh my gosh, how am I going to make my bills? How much money do I have in savings? Do I need to tap into a loan, or do I need to ask my family for a loan, or whatever might happen? It's so understandable that your mind can race, so let's quiet that down. If you are feeling insecure about your job or about your career, what can you do about it? Well, I promised you at the top of the episode I was going to offer you three strategies.

John Neral: 5:32

Here's number one Inventory your value. By that I mean I want you to start generating a list of your wins, results and achievements. These need to be tangible. So if you've listened to past episodes, especially ones that talk about your performance review, I often suggest scheduling a 30-minute monthly meeting with yourself to do exactly this Capture the data, capture the results, identify the achievements, where you can get testimonials from your colleagues. This could be on LinkedIn, it could be something informal, but you want to be able to check in with your colleagues here to say look, what am I doing really well right now? What do you think I might be able to do a little bit better? Where should I be stepping out of my comfort zone? Have that conversation with them about your value? If you don't have a work bestie or a critical friend at work who can have that conversation with you, get one. The idea behind all of this is to find ways to increase your confidence, increase your confidence in knowing that you bring value to your organization, and there is a need for that.

John Neral: 6:56

Strategy number two is all about strengthening your mid-career GPS. Your mid-career GPS is based on how you prepare, position and promote who you are and what you do, so you can show up to find the career you love, or love the career you have Now. There are some very simple ways you can do that. One you can strengthen your mid-career GPS by taking a good look at your LinkedIn and your resume and audit it. Make some subtle changes, Make some enhancements to both documents if you will Identify where you have some transferable skills. If you were to pivot your job in some way, shape or form, where would you go? Where would those skills be of most value in a new role? Because you can easily transfer what you've already learned into something else. But strengthening your mid-career GPS is also about getting the career clarity you need to know what exactly your next direction will be. Let's say, for example, you're a project manager and you love project management. You're not necessarily gonna pivot your career, but if your job is in jeopardy where you currently work, you then may start looking for other project management type roles, and the product or the program may not necessarily be specific, but you know what good project or program management looks like. The clearer you are about where you want to go, the easier it is for you to find that next role. It all starts with career clarity. It's one of the biggest things I help my clients get in the initial part of our work.

John Neral: 8:42

Now strategy number three is about building what I'm calling your career insurance policy. When you think about our life insurance or long-term care insurance, we make that payment on a regular basis. Your car insurance you probably pay every six months or every year. It is just something you do. Building your career insurance policy is about reconnecting with your network. Reach out to someone whom you haven't connected with in a while. Schedule a coffee schedule, a lunch schedule, a virtual chat, whatever it may be but reconnecting with your network, especially as a mid-career professional At that mid-level so we're talking between manager, senior director, maybe even at the VP level, depending on your organization reconnecting with your network is about keeping them informed about what's going on and, more importantly, you being aware of what's going on with them. Networking is that two-way street, back and forth. You give value first, they give value in return.

John Neral: 9:51

Another thing you can do to add something to your career insurance policy is start doing informational interviews. I am seeing more and more things about this being posted on LinkedIn and social media, about people taking time to reconnect with others on an informational interview, and I firmly believe that, as amazing and powerful as AI is, we can't do an informational interview with it. You have to talk to people about it. This is your chance to practice your people skills here. Right, and ask people how did they land their current role? What do they like about their job? What are the challenges within that role? You can come up with the questions, but informational interviews are a great way to build that career insurance policy, especially when you ask this one question. So I'm gonna throw in a little bonus here in this strategy, okay? So if you're multitasking, come back to me.

John Neral: 10:50

All right, the question you wanna ask at the end of any networking conversation or informational interview is this who else should I be speaking to If you were in my shoes and you were looking to make a career pivot or find a new job and you know me? If you were me, who else should I be speaking to? Get them to connect you to somebody else? Build that credibility, build that value, that cache about expanding your network and getting to know somebody new who might just be that person to connect you with somebody or be the person to refer you for your next job. Lastly, when you're building your career insurance policy, take an honest look at your skills. If you need to get a new certification or build a new skill set somewhere, what would it be? What's the value for you? How are you going to go about doing that? But these three strategies about taking an assessment on your value, strengthening your mid-career GPS and building your career insurance policy are three wonderful tips to help you deal with any career insecurity you have.

John Neral: 12:09

Now, my friends, please know that I didn't say it was going to get rid of it. That is something for you to have to deal with and manage it. But when we worry about things, we care. When I have clients come to me and they're really nervous about going in for an interview or we're doing some kind of interview prep and they say I just wish I could calm my nerves, I'm like uh-uh, we acknowledge them. We acknowledge them. We acknowledge them and we let it be known that we care. That's fine.

John Neral: 12:52

Somewhere along the way we got thinking that being nervous was a bad thing. I don't think it is. Now. You don't want the nerves to get so far in the way that you can't put a complete sentence together or you fumble telling your story. We don't want any of that. But being nervous is okay. If you're nervous or worried about whether or not you're going to have a job in the next 30, 60, 90, 180 days, that's okay.

John Neral: 13:12

But let's come back to the one thing I always talk to you about. You are 100% responsible for your career and that means if things are changing within your organization, you find that next job. It is something that has served me very, very well throughout my career, because I've had to do that several times, and it is something I coach my clients on as well. Right, you're navigating one of the most dynamic times in your career, and one of the things that makes mid-career so dynamic is the resilience you have to have to get through it. So I want to offer you one coaching question in this episode. If we took a moment to reframe any career insecurity as an opportunity for growth, I would ask you this what if your current job isn't going away, but rather this version of your career is making room for a better one? What's next for you? How would you answer that? What if all that's happening for you right now is just clearing out all the debris and the detritus to get you to where you ultimately need to be, right next. Right, we want to acknowledge where we are, but what if it's setting you up for something even better? That's what I want you to think about at the end of this episode.

John Neral: 14:48

If you enjoyed this episode, you know someone that's going through some career insecurity. Please do me a favor share this episode with them. I would be so honored and grateful if you would do that. If you are looking for more information on how to build your mid-career GPS, I invite you to check out my website at johnnerrellcom. You can click on the resources tab for several free and low-ticket offers, including my free email newsletter community that I email twice a week with various leadership and career tips. Also, I have the membership community I'd love for you to be a part of as well and go to check that out on my website at johnnerrellcom.

John Neral: 15:28

But my friends, remember this you will build your mid-career GPS one mile or one step at a time and, more importantly than ever, how you show up matters. Make it a great rest of your day If you are traveling for the 4th of July holiday here in the US. Safe travels, be safe, be well, be kind to each other, and I will be back with you next week, Take care. Thank you for listening to the Mid-Career GPS Podcast. Make sure to follow on your favorite listening platform and, if you have a moment, I'd love to hear your comments on Apple Podcasts. Visit johnnerrellcom for more information about how I can help you build your mid-career GPS or how I can help you and your organization with your next workshop or public speaking event. Don't forget to connect with me on LinkedIn and follow me on social at John Darrell Coaching. I look forward to being back with you next week. Until then, take care and remember how we show up matters. Thank you.