335: Mid-Career and Unsure What’s Next? Start With This One Move

Feeling stuck in your career while the job market feels crowded and unpredictable? You are not alone. Many mid-career professionals are navigating confusing signals right now. 

Job boards are flooded, promotion paths feel unclear, and AI-generated applications are making it harder than ever to stand out.

In this episode, I bring things back to one powerful idea that can help you move forward with clarity and confidence. Choose one primary strategy and commit to it. 

Whether you focus on targeted networking, job board applications, or a thoughtful combination of both, success comes from clarity, consistency, and protecting your energy while you execute.

I walk you through how to audit what is working, identify what is not, and decide what to do next. We talk about defining your next role clearly, understanding the skills and visibility required to earn it, and choosing the strategy that best supports your goals.

If you are pursuing external roles, I explain how applicant tracking systems really work, how to tailor your resume without sounding robotic, and how to compete when hundreds of candidates apply within hours. If your goal is promotion, we cover how to build the right evidence, strengthen internal relationships, and turn positive feedback into real sponsorship and advancement opportunities.

I also address how to use AI as a support tool without losing your voice, why generic cover letters fail, and how reviewing weekly job search data helps you refine your approach. 

Finally, I talk about protecting your focus, building a trusted circle of advisors, and maintaining resilience so you can stay steady even in a tough market. And if you are staying put for now, I share how to grow intentionally so you are positioned well when new opportunities emerge.

If you are ready to stop waiting for clarity and start creating it, this episode will help you take your next step with purpose.

If this conversation resonates with you, follow the podcast so you never miss an episode. Share this episode with a colleague or friend who needs clarity in their career right now, and leave a review on Apple Podcasts to help more mid-career professionals find strategies that work.

And if you are ready for your next step, I have something free to help you. Go to johnneral.com/briefing to receive my 15-minute audio

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Mid-Career Stage
• 2:04 One Simple Strategy To Regain Control
• 3:44 Audit Where You Are And Want To Be
• 5:21 Job Boards, Bots, And Fit
• 6:16 Promotion Paths And Internal Visibility
• 7:30 AI Tools Without Losing Your Voice
• 8:23 Pick One Strategy And Commit
• 10:16 Quiet The Noise And Protect Yourself
• 12:16 Be Ready When The Market Improves
• 12:32 Free Audio Briefing Invitation
• 14:06 Make It Simple, Make It Right

Transcript

John Neral: 0:05

Hello, my friends, and welcome to the Mid-Career GPS Podcast. I'm your host, John Narrell, and this is the show for mid-career professionals who feel stuck, undervalued, or unsure what's next, and know that doing more isn't the answer. Here we focus on how you show up, how you make clearer decisions, and build influence so you can find that career you love or love the one you have. This is not an easy time for mid-career professionals. I know I don't have to tell you that, but I do want to acknowledge that right now, even as we're starting the beginning of 2026, it's just not an easy time. Let's face it, you are working hard either at your job or trying to find one, and you're frustrated that all of the hard work you are putting into this is not going to get you anywhere. Ultimately, you're worried that what you actually want for your career may never happen. And this ties into all the things that mid-career professionals want on some level. We want a great job. We want a great relationship with our boss and superiors. We want to be compensated fairly and appropriately. We want to be respected. We want to have room for growth and we want to see that there is a path to retirement. So, what do you do when the job market sucks and it feels like every day is a slog trying to get what you want and you're simply unsure what to do? Well, that's where this episode comes in. Because in this episode, I'm going to give you one simple and easy trick to help you make that happen. And we're not going to overcomplicate this. So here's what I want you to do. And if you're listening to this while you're driving, save this for another time when you're not multitasking in that regard. But at some point, what I want you to do is to take out a piece of paper and a pen or open up a Google Doc or Word document somewhere on your computer, or open up the Notes app on your phone. You got plenty of options. And I want you to answer these questions. Number one, examine where you are, what's working for you in your career job search, what's not working, and what do you want to do about it? And if you need to pause the podcast for a moment, by all means go ahead and do that. But essentially, I want you to take a really hard look at what's working, what's not working, and then what's your commitment level? What do you really want to do about this? Because sometimes I'll work with people and they'll they'll talk about how they they really want to find that great job, but they're sitting back and they're kind of waiting for it to fall into their lap, or they're not prepared to do as much hard work as it may actually take for them to get it. So let's own where we are and let's take a really hard look at what's working, what's not, and what you want to do about it. Now, the second thing is I want you to examine where you want to be. When you think about that next position or the promotion, or even finding that new job because you haven't found a new job in a while. Okay, where do you want to be? So, what's that next step? How clear are you on what that next step is actually going to be? And what will it take for you to get there? The clearer and cleaner you are in identifying where you want to be next is the key to unlock all of that when this happens. All right. So I have said time and time again on the podcast, I talk about this with my private coaching clients and inside my membership. There is no wrong way for you to find a new job. You can search on job boards, you can network, you could do a combination of both on some level. But I have helped people find jobs who very simply are like, yeah, I'm not networking. I I'm an introvert, I don't like being in those situations, I'm not gonna network. Okay, fine. We can work with that. It might take you a little bit longer, it might not, but there's a game to be played when you're you're playing on the job boards. One of the things I have been looking into this year and seeing, and you might be seeing this as well, is that you go to apply for a job online, and very quickly after it's posted, there's 100, 200, 300 people have already applied. There is no denying that bots or automations are are taking over in that regard. But what I want you to remember is that companies still have an applicant tracking system. They are still finding a way to filter out who the best candidates are. And so then you have to decide in that case, all right, so if I do want to use a job board and I'm not the first 100 people to actually apply for the job, how much of a great fit is that job for me to actually go ahead and apply for it? And of course, then the other question comes up, which is well, how do you know when a job's actually going to post? Unless you have inside information, which more than likely you don't, you will never know. It depends on how often you look and when you look to see when that job actually gets posted. But again, there's no wrong way to find a new job. So the flip side of this is that if you're already in a job and you're trying to get promoted, you have some questions to ask. For example, how long will it actually take for you to get promoted inside of your organization? What do you need to do? What are the skills or competencies you may be lacking that are blocking or prohibiting you from getting that promotion? Who do you need to network with? Where do you need to grow your network internally to increase your visibility so that when they're talking about you in the room, they have great things to say? And if you get an answer about being promoted, well, now's not the right time, or um, you know, we're really looking at things. You have to decide for yourself how much are you fully committed or invested to seeing that through in order to see whether or not it comes to fruition. I I wish I could tell you that this job market is all of a sudden gonna get easier and I don't see it happening. And if you're using any kind of AI tool, yes, there is a way to use the tool to help it be more advantageous for you when you're customizing or optimizing your resume, but it still needs to sound like you. I can't tell you how many times I have had worked with people or people have reached out and they've they've asked me to take a look at their cover letter. And keep in mind these are clients or people inside my membership. Um, and and I'll say to them, this sounds like AI wrote it. And if I'm saying that, can you imagine what a recruiter or HR professional or hiring manager is going to say? More than likely, they're not gonna say anything. They're just gonna move it to the discard pile and move on because they've got plenty of other applications to take a look at. If you want to simplify this entire process, if you want to make this easier for you, here's my advice. Pick one strategy and be fully committed to it. If you believe that your best path to finding a new job is to use job boards, do it. Because look, if you don't like networking, you're not gonna do it. It's like if you don't like eating Brussels sprouts and your trainer or nutritionist says to you, Oh, you need to be getting more vegetables into your diet, and and Brussels sprouts are great in order to do that. Like, I might have to choke down one more damn Brussels sprout. You're not gonna do it. Look, you are old enough and wise enough to know there are things you like doing and things you don't doing. You have agency, you can pick and choose what it is you want to do. It's just a matter of whether or not you are actually going to do it. If you believe that finding your next job is because of networking, then network. Talk to people, figure out who you need to be talking to and who are the people who know the decision makers or are the decision makers that are going to help you find that next job. And there's always a hybrid approach. Many of my clients often adopt a hybrid approach when they're looking for a new job that they do both because they don't want to roll one or the other out. But they have to pick a strategy. And one strategy you cannot adapt, in my opinion. Or sorry, one strategy you cannot adopt, in my opinion. For those grammarians that are out there listening, I apologize. So one strategy you cannot adopt, in my opinion, is this hope. Hope is not a strategy. You cannot sit back and hope that someone's just gonna go ahead and reach out to you. Now, the caveat to this is if you have a fully optimized LinkedIn profile that talks about your skills, your results, your competencies, there is an opportunity for someone who is in the recruiting space to reach out to you. But oftentimes that happens because you are proactively networking to make that happen and increase your visibility. It's not just about sitting back and going, okay, I'm gonna put this out there and everything's gonna be fine. It's just not gonna work. Okay. Lastly, I want to offer you that there's an opportunity here to protect yourself. By protecting yourself, I mean quiet the noise around you. Build a circle of trust of people whom you appreciate and rely upon that are going to be supportive and not be dismissive or argumentative with you. Review your data. If you are applying for a certain number of jobs each week and you're not getting any response, what is the data telling you? Adjust your plan accordingly, and most importantly, take care of yourself. That's so important. Take care of yourself. Like I said, this job market is difficult, and yes, it sucks. There is an opportunity for you here to be resilient. And if you are job hugging, know that you're doing it for a very specific reason. There is nothing wrong, in my opinion, about holding on to your job right now, as long as you are still finding ways to grow and develop. Because when the market gets better, when the job market improves, and when your skills are aligned to whatever that next level or promotion is, you want to be ready for it. Now, if you enjoyed this podcast episode, I've got something extra to help you, and it doesn't cost anything. So I recently recorded a 15-minute audio briefing. And to be clear, this audio briefing is not something that is here on the podcast. This audio briefing is a special piece of content that you can find on my website, johnnarrell.com forward slash briefing. It's called Why Being Good at Your Job Stops Working at Mid-Career. It's a 15-minute audio briefing for experienced mid-career professionals like you who are feeling stuck, overlooked, or unsure about what move they want to make next, and admittedly don't want to screw it up. You don't want to get this wrong. So you can go to my website, johnnarrell.com forward slash briefing. You can check the show notes. It's also located under the resources tab on my website. Put your name, your email address in, and you will get the audio briefing delivered directly to your inbox. It's a free piece of content, but it is a special piece of content, especially right now for everything's going on. I hope you will check that out. But um, I'll leave you with this. You know, um, if this was easy, it wouldn't be worth it. The lessons you learn and the things that you do because of this is going to greatly help you figure out what you need to do the next time you go to apply for a job or you find yourself in that situation. Or you land yourself or you already are inside of a great company and you're learning how to navigate all the internal politics to figure out how you get to that next step. But whatever path it is that you choose, make it right. Keep it simple, make it right, and do the thing that you are going to be fully committed to to help you find that job or career you'll love. So until next time, my friends, remember this. You will build your mid-career GPS one mile or one step at a time, and how you show up matters. Make it a great rest of your day. 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 johnnarrell.com 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 Daryl Coaching. I look forward to being back with you next week. Until then, take care. And remember, how we show up matters.