Job Search, Promotion, and Career Clarity: The Mid-Career GPS Podcast
Get Clarity. Get Promoted. Get Hired. Are you feeling stuck, undervalued, or underutilized in your current role? Wondering how to position yourself for a promotion, raise, or leadership opportunity? Are you trying to figure out what’s next for your career, but not sure where to start? You're not alone, and you're in the right place. Hosted by executive and career transition coach John Neral, The Mid-Career GPS Podcast is your go-to resource to help you confidently navigate your job search, career advancement, and workplace challenges. Whether you want to find a new job, get promoted, or simply feel more fulfilled at work, this show will help you build the clarity and strategy you need to take your next step. Each episode features actionable advice, insightful interviews, and real-world strategies to help mid-career professionals, typically managers to senior directors, design a career they love or love the career they have. You’ve built a solid career. Now it’s time to build Your Mid-Career GPS to figure out what's next and how to get there. New episodes drop weekly. Subscribe today and let's start figuring out whatever is next for you and your career, together.
Episodes
Feeling stuck in your mid-career is not a character flaw. It may not even be an information problem.
If you are dissatisfied with your job, struggling in the current job market, or uncertain about your next career move, your instinct may be to gather more information. You read another book, listen to another podcast, research another opportunity, or give yourself one more weekend to think about what you want.
That can...
Every workplace has an unwritten script. It shapes how decisions are made, how conflict is handled, who gets heard, and who gets promoted. If you do not understand that script, you may find yourself improvising during some of the most important moments in your career.
In this episode of The Mid-Career GPS Podcast, I’m joined by Robyn Hatcher, a former soap opera writer for All My Children and One Life to Live w...
You can be talented, experienced, and dependable and still feel invisible at work.
If you have ever wondered, “I’m doing great work, so why am I not gaining traction?” this episode is for you.
Many mid-career professionals reach a point where working harder no longer produces better career opportunities. They get passed over for a promotion, receive vague or unhelpful feedback, watch colleagues navig...
You can be talented, dependable, and exhausted from giving your best and still feel invisible at work.
After taking a two-and-a-half-month break from recording, I’m back with an honest look at what has been changing in my life and business. I recently had a coaching session that gave me the kind of clarity I could not find by working harder, overthinking my next move, or asking an AI tool to generate another te...
There is a moment in your career when you may still be showing up to meetings, answering emails, and doing your job, but something inside you has already shifted.
You have not resigned yet. You may not even be actively job searching. But you have stopped believing there is a real future for you where you are.
I call that moment “crossing the bridge.”
In this episode of The Mid-Career GPS Podcast, I’m ...
Getting passed over for a promotion is painful. But getting passed over and then hearing nothing about why can feel even worse.
In this episode of The Mid-Career GPS Podcast, I dig into what happens after an internal promotion rejection when your leader or organization does not give you a clear explanation. For many mid-career professionals, the silence can create anxiety, frustration, and a lot of mental noise. You ...
A routine day at work can change your career and your life in seconds. In this episode of The Mid-Career GPS Podcast, I’m joined by Joe Mazzarello, whose story is both intense and deeply instructive for any mid-career professional navigating change, uncertainty, or a career pivot.
Please take care as you listen. This episode includes a brief discussion of a serious workplace injury, surgeries, recovery, and reh...
Your work can’t walk into a leadership meeting and explain what you solved, what changed, or why the team’s results improved. That’s the uncomfortable mid-career truth we’re tackling in this quick bonus drop, along with an invitation to my free live webinar, “Why Doing Good Work is No Longer Enough,” happening Wednesday, August 12 at noon Eastern (with a limited-time replay if you...
Most mid-career professionals are not struggling because they lack skill, experience, or dedication. They are struggling because the value they bring is not always clear to the people making decisions about promotions, job offers, and leadership opportunities.
In this episode, I’m talking about one subtle language habit that may be keeping you from being recognized at work: always saying “we” when i...
Promotions can feel deeply personal, especially when you are carrying the workload, delivering results, and still watching someone else move up.
In this episode of The Mid-Career GPS Podcast, I’m asking the question many mid-career professionals have quietly wondered: “How did they get promoted when I’m doing as much or more?”
The answer is rarely “work harder.”
At this stage of your...
You can be the most dependable person in the room and still be quietly falling apart.
Many mid-career professionals have built their reputations by being capable, responsive, and willing to solve difficult problems. But when you become the person everyone relies on, your competence can turn into a trap. More work comes your way, other people’s emergencies become your responsibility, and saying yes becomes almos...
Your boss is not a mind reader, and hoping they become a better manager is not a career development strategy.
When your one-on-one meetings keep getting canceled, priorities change without warning, and the only feedback you receive comes after something goes wrong, it is easy to feel unsupported, frustrated, and resentful.
But a disappointing boss cannot be the thing that dictates the direction of your career.
In this ...
You finally hear the words you have been waiting for: “We’re excited to make you an offer.”
Instead of feeling relieved, your stomach drops.
You know the negotiation is coming, and you are worried that asking for more could make you look difficult, ungrateful, or too demanding. You may even fear that the employer will withdraw the offer entirely.
In this episode of The Mid-Career GPS Podcast, I break ...
What you wear communicates something before you ever say a word.
For mid-career professionals, personal style is not simply about following trends or buying expensive clothes. It can influence how confidently you walk into a job interview, lead an important meeting, pursue a promotion, return to the office, or begin a career transition.
In this episode of The Mid-Career GPS Podcast, I sit down with Caden Broussard and...
This video is about My Feedback can be difficult to hear, especially when it conflicts with how you see yourself.
You believe you are confident, but someone describes you as dismissive. You consider yourself collaborative, yet colleagues experience you as closed off. You think you are being decisive, but your team sees you as unwilling to listen.
That disconnect may feel unfair. However, it can also reveal one of the ...
What if the biggest risk to your career isn't getting laid off, but assuming someone else is responsible for your growth?
For years, many professionals were told that if they worked hard, stayed loyal, and delivered results, their company would invest in their development and help them advance. Today's workplace looks very different.
With AI reshaping jobs, organizations cutting budgets, and professional development o...
One unexpected phone call can change everything.
Sarah White thought she had stability as a restaurant partner.
Then she learned her partners had voted without her, planned to sell the business, and were eliminating her role. Instead of scrambling to find her next job, Sarah made a bold mid-career move. She bought them out and took ownership of Westover Taco in Arlington, Virginia.
In this episode of The Mid-Care...
What happens when you stop seeing retirement as an escape plan and start treating it like a leadership decision?
In this episode of The Mid-Career GPS Podcast, I sit down with my friend Rich Lucey to talk about retirement planning, professional identity, consulting, networking as an introvert, and what it really means to create a purposeful next chapter after mid-career.
Rich spent more than two decades leading alcoho...
If you have been treating summer like a season to slow down professionally, this episode may challenge everything you believe about career growth at mid-career.
Too many mid-career professionals mentally check out between Memorial Day and Labor Day. They stay busy, answer emails, attend meetings, and keep projects moving.
But they stop showing up with intention. While everyone else waits for September to “...
Most managers think strong leadership means holding regular one-on-one meetings. But if those conversations are nothing more than project updates and task reviews, your team is not being led. They are being supervised.
In this episode of The Mid-Career GPS Podcast, leadership and career coach, keynote speaker, and host John Neral breaks down the three leadership skills that separate transactional managers from impact...
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