347: You Think You’re in the Right Job. You Might Be Wrong

“The right job feels like home” is a comforting idea, but at mid-career it can quietly keep you stuck.

In this episode, I challenge the belief that clarity, excitement, and relief mean you’ve found the right role. Those feelings are not reliable indicators of fit. Instead, I introduce a more practical and strategic lens: alignment you can actually see and measure.

When the fit is real, it leaves evidence. You can see it in how your value is recognized, how you are developed, and how you are invited to lead.

I start with a hard truth about career visibility. You can be doing excellent work and still be invisible. At this stage in your career, your value cannot rely on effort alone. It must be clearly understood by the people making decisions about your future. I walk you through a simple but powerful test. Can leaders describe what you do, why it matters, and the value you bring in 10 seconds or less? If not, your visibility gap may be holding you back more than your performance.

From there, I break down how your personal brand shapes your opportunities. What people say about you when you are not in the room matters. I share practical ways to gather that data through direct conversations and 360 feedback so you can better understand how your impact is perceived.

Next, we focus on growth and positioning. If you are the reliable go-to expert but no one is talking about your future, you may be getting utilized instead of developed. I explain what to look for on your calendar, how stretch opportunities actually show up, and why you need advocates beyond your direct manager. This becomes even more important as AI continues to shift expectations around execution and strategic leadership.

Finally, I address identity alignment. When your values do not match what your organization rewards, the misalignment does more than frustrate you. It changes how you show up, how you lead, and how you see yourself over time.

If one of these three indicators is missing, you are not in the right role. You are in a role that works, but it is not moving you forward.

This episode will help you assess whether you are truly aligned in your current position or simply staying somewhere that feels comfortable.

Transcript

Welcome And Who This Is For

John Neral 0:14

Hello, my friends, and welcome to the Mid-Career GPS Podcast. I'm your host, John Narrill. 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. That means how you make clear decisions, build influence, and take control of your career. Let's get started. Have you ever heard someone say that they love their job so much that it feels like they're home? What I want to clear up in this episode is that that is potentially a trap. Right now, you might be thinking that the right job feels like having this amazing sense of clarity, an unbelievable feeling of excitement about this job, and admittedly some relief that you don't have to look for a job right now in this market. But at mid-career, the right job does not feel like that. It doesn't feel like it's some kind of spark that's lighting you up. In reality, the right job feels like alignment. And alignment leaves evidence. Many mid-career professionals think they found the right fit, or they'll even say this when they're going to interview for a job. But what they've actually found, or what they're actually looking for, is comfort. And comfort equals stalled growth. My friends, if you are too comfortable in your job, you're probably not being challenged, seen, or positioned accordingly. So in this episode, I'm going to give you three specific indicators of what real fit actually looks like. And I want to offer you that if one is missing, you might not be where you think you are. Now, look, I talk about fit quite a bit in my work and in my practice and when I'm speaking to audiences. But fit is so much about alignment. And in early career, that fit is all based on utilizing our skill set and having a particular opportunity. But at mid-career, that has to change. Fit is actually more about visibility, being recognized for the value you're bringing day in and day out, and being on an upward trajectory to whatever's going to be next for you in your career. If you are still measuring your success by how well you do your job, you are playing too small. Your work needs to be excellent, but it cannot be the only thing that is advocating for you. You have to be your biggest champion and cheerleader, and you have to be building a network of people who understand and know firsthand the great work you're doing on a daily basis and are advocating for that as well. So, how do you know when you've actually found the right fit? Well, organizationally, the first point I want to make for you is that your value is understood without you over-explaining it. Now, as an educator who has written a lot of lesson plans, the one thing I know is that you cannot measure understanding. But you can measure the evidence of what that actually means. So when I say your value is understood without you over-explaining it, what I mean by that is that you are not constantly translating your worth. You're not leaving meetings wondering if people got what you said. You certainly are producing high-quality work, but it's not converting into the visibility that you want, let alone or craving, to help you be recognized to get to the next level. And if you find yourself stuck in so much tactical activity, the doing work, what I want to ask you then is where's your strategy? Where are you demonstrating being a more strategic leader, a strategic visionary, as opposed to just checking the box off of things that you're doing day in and day out? When the people in your network, the people who have decision-making authority inside of your organization, your managers, your stakeholders, when they can clearly communicate what it is that you do, why it matters, and the value you are bringing day in and day out, and can do that in under 10 seconds, now we have a much better fit. If they cannot communicate your value, they're not going to advocate for you. You'll hear them say, Oh, they're really nice. They're a great person, love working with them. They're not giving anything of substance. If they cannot advocate for what it is you do on a day-to-day basis, there's no way that that work can be rewarded. When I talk about how we show up, your value needs to be clearly communicated in how you protect and promote your brand. As Jeff Bezos says, your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room. What are people saying about you when you're not in the room? And if you aren't sure what they're saying about you when you're not in the room, I want to invite you to see how you can get that information. If your organization offers a 360 assessment, that can certainly be a valuable tool in that regard. But sometimes it could just be from asking some very direct and intentional questions. Number two, you know you have found the right fit when you are being positioned for what's next rather than being utilized. If you look at your work calendar and you find that your work calendar is filled with daily tasks and things that you just need to check off your list, you are just doing work. And in this environment, in this job market, where more and more we see AI coming to the forefront of more and more discussions, if AI can do your job, I hate to say it like this, but you should be worried. If you are just doing work, you are not being prepared for what's next. Here's the trap. Many mid-career professionals who are hesitant to speak up about themselves, they often go with what got them to where they are. They're reliable, they're trusted, they're the subject matter expert, they're the go-to person. But you and no one else, you're not talking about your future. In fact, you have almost sunk into a spot on the org chart as a utilitarian. You're great at doing your job. The fit is when people start saying, We see you beyond what you're currently doing. We'd like to get you skilled, we'd like to up-level you, we'd like to train you for this next role. We'd like to give you some exposure, some more visibility, some different experiences. How often are you being included in higher-level conversations? Where are you given stretch opportunities to expand your skill set and grow? Who are the leaders inside your organization that are advocating for your growth? And I also want to offer you, it needs to be someone in addition to your direct or immediate supervisor. If no one is positioning you for what's next, your growth is not part of the plan. Think about when companies go through reorganizations, where do you land? Think about when a new project comes up and you want to be considered for it, and you're not. So let me ask you, are you currently being prepared for what's next? Or are you just being relied upon to do what needs to be done now? That is a hard question to hear. Especially if you are questioning your fit within an organization. If you are going to show up and welcome new opportunities, you can't welcome them if none of them are being created or offered for you. If your genius, the thing that you do better than anyone else, is not being valued and appreciated and stretched, you are boxed into a column on the org chart that only leaves you to execute on a daily basis and nothing more. Point number three the work that you do day in and day out aligns with how you want to show up. The energy that you're bringing into the organization, to the role that you have, the expertise, the skill set, the strategy, the vision. Because the role matches your identity, not just your skill set. The role matches with where you see yourself in the organizational landscape at this very moment. When that work is in such incredible alignment, you are not performing to survive. You are not suppressing how you lead. You are playing bigger, bolder, more impactfully than you have ever done in your career. But here's where some of you get it wrong, in my opinion. You will sit there and say that you value collaboration when your organization is rewarding control. You will say that you value opportunities for development when your organization rewards speed. You are saying to yourself, I want to make a bigger impact when your organization is prioritizing optics. What you're bringing to the table and what your organization values needs to be aligned. If it's not, there is a misalignment or there isn't fit there. Misalignment doesn't frustrate you, it reshapes how you show up over time. I have seen this where people get the golden handcuffs or their job hugging, and they're like, it's just okay for right now. And look, I am not in a position to tell you what you should or should not do in terms of your financial advice, your guidance, how you support your loved ones and your family, because God only knows we all got bills to pay. But I do want to offer you that if things feel misaligned, how long have they felt misaligned? And how much longer are you willing to tolerate it? Just because you can do the job doesn't mean it's the right job. Do you have to shrink, stretch, or pretend to succeed where you are? This alignment piece is so key. A few episodes ago, I talked about how are you surviving or thriving? And boy, did that episode resonate with a lot of you because I saw it in the downloads. I saw how people were listening to that episode. And then additionally, they were commenting, they were reaching out on social media, they were, they were emailing me. And these are the kind of things where as a content creator, I hate saying content creator, by the way, right? You know, like ugh, I just I just don't like that term per se, but as a podcast host, right? And yeah, I do, I create content for you, but but as a podcast host, the thing of it is that when I see a particular episode resonate in a certain way, it tells me something. It's episode 343, surviving versus thriving, where you're settling in your career and life. That tells me that's something you needed to hear, you wanted to hear about. So now when we look at fit within our jobs, where are you aligning yourself? What does that actually mean for you? And if you feel like things are misaligned, what do you want to do about it? This is the exercise in showing up to clearly own where you are and deciding if where you are still fits. How is that shaping you? Because when you think about fit, fit is not about a good salary or a great team or having flexibility or being familiar with the work you are doing. Those things are great on some level, they just make the job easier. They don't make it right. Because in our careers, especially in this most dynamic time in our careers, mid-career, confidence, I'm sorry, comfort and convenience are not evidence of alignment. You might be tricking yourself to confidently say, Oh, things are great where I'm at. But comfort and convenience are not evidence of alignment. So when you look for the job that feels like home, that you're where you're supposed to be, the right job doesn't mean it's easy. What it means is that the work you do on a daily basis, the value you bring to that organization, and the direction of your career path all makes sense. Your value is known and clearly communicated in 10 seconds or less. You are correctly positioned for what how you're being developed and for what's going to be next. And your role aligns with how you want to show up. If you're missing one of those things, my friends, you are not home. You are just staying somewhere that works. Which one is missing for you right now? Which one of these three things are missing for you in your career right now? Your value is clearly communicated without you over-explaining it. You are being positioned for what's next rather than just being utilized. Or your work aligns with how you want to show up. If one of those three things are missing, I invite you to spend some time with it. Think about what's missing and where you may want to course correct. Now, if there's an opportunity to course correct, there's two ways to do that. And there's two ways that I can very specifically help you. You can come into my Show Up Leadership Lab. It is my monthly membership program for$47 a month. You can come into that. We will be spending some time on this month's content call for May, which is all about getting people to communicate your value in 10 seconds or less. So if that's not resonating for you, I invite you to come inside to the Show Up Leadership Lab. Join us on that content call later this month. We will be working on that. And secondly, maybe you don't want the group membership, maybe you want one-on-one support. I have spots available for one-on-one coaching. You can go to johnnarrell.com forward slash work with me and start the application process for private coaching. I want you to feel like you find the job that is most aligned. I want you to be in the role where your leadership is not simply needed, it is craved. It is that way for you to stand up, show up, and show out how you are leading on a daily basis. Because you are the kind of leader that organization needs in this moment to take them forward because of how you show up. So, in how you show up, it's all about how you're navigating this part of your career. And that's the joy in building your mid-career GPS. So, 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. Kindly share it with someone who needs it. And if you're tired of feeling stuck, overlooked, or underutilized in your career, go to my website, johnnerrell.com to get started. There you'll find free resources, ways to work with me, and details about the Show Up Leadership Lab, my signature membership for mid-career professionals who want to lead better, get noticed, and elevate their career. All the links are in the show notes. You can grab what you need right there. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. And if you're getting value from the show, take 30 seconds to leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. Remember, how you show up matters, and I'll see you next time.