610: I Thought I Needed to Escape My Career (The Real Problem Surprised Me)

Carolyn 00:01

At that point, I was doubting everything about myself. I failed in that role. I believed that was going to be a great opportunity for me and that I was going to be able to make all these changes and implement stuff that I really believed in, that I felt strongly in, and I failed. And so what am I doing?

Introduction 00:26

This is the Happen To Your Career podcast with Scott Anthony Barlow. We hope you stop doing work that doesn't fit you, figure out what does, and make it happen. We help you define the work that is unapologetically you and then go get it. If you feel like you were meant for more, and you're ready to make a change, keep listening. Here's Scott. Here's Scott. Here's Scott.

Scott Anthony Barlow 00:51

When a career starts feeling like a complete misfit, the human tendency is, "Get me the heck away from this thing. I want the opposite of this." Whatever the role or the industry, we tend to want to run far away. And we see this all the time. People come to us in a panic, saying, "I have to get out of engineering." Or, "Marketing is the problem. I need a drastic change." But what we found is, more often than not, it's not about the occupation or sector of the work. It's usually much bigger than that.

Carolyn 01:25

I call myself a reluctant leader. Ended up finding myself in leadership roles and started taking on more responsibility in kind of the management side of things. I eventually found I was being carried on a wave in my career towards something I never wanted.

Scott Anthony Barlow 01:45

Carolyn was a mechanical engineer. And like many high achievers, she eventually got promoted to leadership, and she really enjoyed being an engineer. Actually, she loved it at times. But when she stepped into management, everything started to fall apart. She began blaming herself, thinking she just couldn't hack it. She was riddled with self doubt, thanks to her misfit role, and ultimately decided that she wanted to leave not only management but engineering altogether. So she did. She quit. She began looking for a role anywhere but engineering, and that's when we got to meet her. As you might have guessed from the intro, Carolyn made a surprising discovery when creating her ideal career profile that led her back to engineering. So in this conversation, you're going to hear how Carolyn regained her confidence. Her management role had stripped away from her completely, and she did this by reaching out to former coworkers and focusing very much on her strengths. In fact, she regained her confidence to the point where she was boldly turning down second interviews and even job offers, recognizing that they weren't the right fit. She knew her ideal role was out there, and it turns out she was right. So Carolyn's now in a new role, in engineering, that she absolutely loves. I'm gonna let her share the full story here. Here's Carolyn discussing how she decided on engineering as her career path in college.

Carolyn 03:13

Basically in high school, or throughout my early days of schooling too, I was really good at math and science. Got put into accelerated programs and things like that. But I also really enjoyed reading. So in high school, I was kind of torn between two paths. I could have gone into journalism, which I thought I would like, and then looked into some options for engineering and the kinds of careers you could have and I would get to use the math and science I'd been really enjoying, so I decided to go that direction. It took me a while to figure out which branch of engineering I wanted to go into. I'm the first person in my family to actually go to college, so I didn't really have guidance from them. They didn't know, you know, what to tell me, where to steer me, or anything. So, I had to find my own path. And Mechanical Engineering is what resonated with me. I knew it wasn't going to be chemical or electrical. Those were not, definitely not for me.

Scott Anthony Barlow 04:10

What did you love about mechanical?

Carolyn 04:13

You know, for me, it was almost like common sense, the kinds of problems that were presented to what was in Physics that involved the Mechanical world. I understood it a lot more naturally than Electrical Engineering and Chemical. Those still baffle me. My son is a Chemical Engineer. I don't know where he got that. Definitely outside his family. But for me, yeah, it was just really, yeah, a natural fit. I could understand the concepts of it fairly easily for me, and take them like to different levels, and really be able to connect with what I was, what the problems were, and things like that– the problems you're trying to solve. And even the problem solving process, I really enjoyed learning more about that, and that's what makes you basically an effective Engineer, is how do you look at a thing and resolve it. Which is funny because that never occurred to me in my job search until I started with your program.

Scott Anthony Barlow 05:14

So that's really fascinating, and that's something that I wanted to ask you about, particularly, you know, you had this, I would say, very good set of experiences, overall, that led you towards Mechanical Engineering. And then eventually, you got to a point where you wanted to leave Engineering entirely. That was where your head space was at. So, what took place to get to that point at first? And then we can talk about how you navigate it through.

Carolyn 05:42

Okay, so I have had a long career in Mechanical Engineering. I deliberately kept my experience diverse. I didn't specialize. I didn't get, like, pigeonholed into, "I am going to focus on this aspect of Engineering", which can be really easy to do, and it's how you can sort in a company, but I wanted to keep my knowledge base broad. But as I continued further in my career, and I call myself a reluctant leader, I ended up finding myself in leadership roles and started taking on more responsibility in kind of the management side of things. I eventually found I was being carried on a wave in my career towards something I never wanted. So I eventually stepped willingly into management, a management role, and I thought it was going to work out for me because it was similar to the job I was in, but it was officially a manager role, which I was unofficially doing. So I thought it was going to be a good fit company, the size was similar, and it turned out to be really, really not for me. I was not energized by the work I was doing. I was not getting any job satisfaction. It was exhausting me every single day, to the point where the best part about it was my drive to work, so that was pretty terrible. And then I get to work and basically have to endure the day, and I'd be putting in, you know, 5-10 hour days just to try to stay ahead of all the work that there was. But that wasn't really what was exhausting. It was, as I came to find out later, I was far or too far removed from the strengths that I have, and I was not feeding any of those strengths. I was actually going way outside of them, and that's what was making me exhausted, and eventually resulted in burnout to the point where I left my job with nothing else lined up.

Scott Anthony Barlow 07:40

It's really fascinating, still to this day, where, I mean, we've been doing this for 12 years at this point, and it still blows me away how quickly an otherwise great situation, or otherwise a situation that it seems relatively lined up can turn to burn out or turn to something that's very negative when you're removed from your strengths. It's, I don't know, fascinating in a little bit of a train wreck sort of way, but...

Carolyn 08:11

So yes. I couldn't stop watching it.

Scott Anthony Barlow 08:14

I know, right?

Carolyn 08:15

They're in front of me. And I kept trying and trying and trying to make this work. And I tried different tactics. You know, changing my mindset and my behavior to try to make this work, only to eventually realize there was literally nothing I could have done to make this work for me. And it would have, I mean, it was a good job for somebody. It just was not good for me in any way. And so I had to step away from it and try to figure out why that was.

Scott Anthony Barlow 08:44

So at that point where you realized, "Okay, this is, under no circumstances, that this is going to add up to a fit." It sounds like there was a period of time there where you just came to the decision of taking a break in your career. What was going through your mind at that point in time?

Carolyn 09:04

Oh, at that point, I was doubting everything about myself. I failed in that role. I believed that was going to be a great opportunity for me and that I was going to be able to make all these changes and implement stuff that I really believed in, that I felt strongly in, and I failed. And so, "What am I doing? There's definitely something wrong here, and what can I do going forward? Because it's not this", is how I felt. I really did believe that it was me, that it wasn't the wrong fit or anything like that. I thought it was just me not being capable of doing this job, and so I felt horrible. And so as I was walking out the door, I'm like, "Yeah, this is terrible, and I don't even know what I want to do next, but it's not this, and I gotta go." And I've never done that before. I may have felt like that here and there, but I've literally never just walked out and not had something lined up already.

Scott Anthony Barlow 10:04

That's a, in its entirety, a difficult place to be in. And I think I'm underrating it when I use that word choice. What kept you moving forward at that point?

Carolyn 10:20

Well, at first it was panic.

Scott Anthony Barlow 10:22

Panic can be a positive thing sometimes, for sure.

Carolyn 10:26

Well, I started sending out resumes in panic because I'm like, "Oh, my God. I have nothing." And then I realized, okay, that's not true. I actually planned for this. I had some savings and to stop panicking, stop sending out those resumes, and go forward with what I wanted. And that's when I started looking for career counseling help, and I went to the internet and started looking at different organizations that could provide it, and I listened to a number of your podcasts, and I'm like, "This is great." I would go for walks because, you know, what else was I doing? I wasn't working, so I would go for walks, and I'd listen to the podcast on the walks, and I'd come home feeling great. I'm like, "I'm not alone. Other people have had this exact same thing, and they have gotten through it and into something much, much better."

Scott Anthony Barlow 11:18

But I'm thinking about your whole story as a whole here for just a minute. And it seems as though, because you came out of this last opportunity in such a turmoil where initially you were panicking, but you did eventually end up in something that was a great fit for you. What really, truly helped you or allowed you to focus on what was a fit? Do you remember any activities in particular that you did, or anything in particular that really resonated that allowed you to be able to say, "Okay. I do, in fact, want to hone in on these areas." Or, "I now realize that Engineering, I shouldn't throw out the baby with the bath water." Or, you know, tell me a little bit about what fits that category for you that you recall.

Carolyn 12:10

Okay. Definitely analyzing what my strengths are, you know, going through the exercise and filling out, I think I did multiple different assessments to determine what my strengths are, and understanding what those are made me realize, "Okay, I was not in the wrong field after all. Engineering actually does." I know. It really does, and there were times in my career, so I reflected because you basically write down all of your jobs, and what was it about that job that energized you. And that exercise really brought it home for me, that there were times in my career that I absolutely loved what I was doing, and I was energized by the type of work it was and it was satisfying. There were other reasons why I would have left the jobs, but maybe to advance in my career, get more experience. But I did not hate engineering, so it helped get me back to reality of, "Yeah, this is a job that I actually like doing." Possibly not management. It was never my dream to manage people. I did find, you know, throughout my career, this is the other thing I learned by doing that evaluation of my past jobs, I like to mentor people, not the same as managing.

Scott Anthony Barlow 13:28

Two different activities. Potentially completely, they can overlap, but they don't need to.

Carolyn 13:35

And they were overlapping, but I didn't realize that it was mentoring that actually brought me some happiness. Passing on this knowledge to the younger or less experienced Engineers was something that really did give me a sense of happiness, or joy, whatever you want to call it. And I've gotten compliments from the people that I have mentored that I was very effective for them. I taught them a lot. They learned a lot from me. It was something that definitely we both got something out of. But once I stepped into straight up management, that's not what I was doing. So it gave me some perspective on what are the things that really would make me happy in a job. And the other thing that I learned was the places that I worked, even though I don't consider myself a super social person, the places that I worked where we had a strong team dynamic were great. I was super happy working on an effective team. So those were the things I was going to be looking for in my next role because I was energized by teamwork, and I kind of knew that at some level, but it really drove it home for me that that was something I needed. It wasn't just nice to have.

Scott Anthony Barlow 14:57

The, what you said about mentoring versus management or leadership, that's such a great example of a really important distinction that, in your case, I think either makes it or breaks it for you. Took this otherwise wonderful topical area of mechanical engineering that you have loved at different periods of time and then turned it into something that was, shall we say, less wonderful.

Carolyn 15:27

It was less wonderful.

Scott Anthony Barlow 15:28

Yeah. So I think what's always really fascinating for me too, is that it's not a small amount of work and reflection and thought and critical thinking that goes along with that to get to the point where you have these what seem to be like magical realizations. It doesn't just happen. So I'm curious, you know, when you think back on your experience in getting to that point, what particularly made it easier for you? Or what advice might you give to other people who are trained to get to some of those realizations? Because they're going to be different realizations for them, of course.

Carolyn 16:06

Yes, yep. And their realizations may come at different points within the whole process. And like I said, for me, it was during the evaluations of where I've been, also reaching out to past co-workers about what they thought my strengths were, which also reinforced for me that I wasn't a failure, and that people actually did enjoy working with me. And again, got something out of that relationship, our working relationship that we had.

Scott Anthony Barlow 16:31

Yeah. At some point, I believe you had this realization that culture mattered significantly. In fact, it was possibly one of the largest things that mattered, aside from working your strengths and being able to... everything else that we've talked about. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Carolyn 16:51

Well, that was actually interesting. Because when I did the Ideal Career Profile, maybe it was how I answered the questions, but it seemed like the type of work or the type, yeah, type of work was going to be what was most important. But as I talked with Amy about it, and, you know, talked about the things that really drained me at the last place I was at, definitely the culture was the biggest problem there. It wasn't, necessarily, the type of work, although it wasn't everything that would feed my strengths. You know, I was outside my strengths completely, but it was also the culture and the lack of teamwork that really made it so that I was extremely unhappy, if not depressed. Just being there every day was sucking the life out of me.

Scott Anthony Barlow 17:45

Literally.

Carolyn 17:46

I can laugh now, but yeah, literally, it was. It was that bad.

Scott Anthony Barlow 17:49

I've been in that situation. It is not fun. Fortunately, there's a better end to the story. However, it feels terrible when you're there.

Carolyn 18:00

It really does. And I asked myself, "Do I just stick this out? So many people do. A lot of people just stay in this awful job that they hate, and they complain about it incessantly, but keep going back. Or do I get out because it's so bad that I kind of feel like I need to do it to preserve my sanity?" Because I didn't even know who I was at that point anymore. So that month I took off was to figure out, again, who I was and be able to actually function and make decisions instead of feeling like I'm constantly... it almost felt like I was under attack, you know, even though that's not the case, but that's what the work environment seemed to foster. There was hostility, and it wasn't toward me necessarily, but the fact that it was there, at this undercurrent of it, was something that I picked up on very easily. So if people are happy around me, I pick up on that. If they're really unhappy around me, I pick that up unfortunately, and I have a hard time putting it down.

Scott Anthony Barlow 19:03

That's such a good realization. It really truly is. If you know that about yourself where you are, maybe more so than the average person, impacted by the negativity or the positivity or whatever it is that's around you, then from a strategic standpoint, it becomes critical to surround yourself by what's going to benefit you. That's amazing. I love that. Way to go.

Carolyn 19:29

A huge thing to learn. I mean, I always kind of knew it, but I didn't necessarily trust my gut. That was another thing that Amy and I talked about a lot, was that I do have those feelings, and I need to trust them, because they're what will help me find a situation that's going to be more healthy for me. Yep. So that was definitely part of what we were going for. So when it became apparent that the culture was really an important factor for me, getting in touch with what I felt during interviews, and not ignoring what I was seeing or feeling became really important.

Scott Anthony Barlow 20:11

So the interviews. Tell me a little bit about what did you do specifically to go from, "I have this wonderful Ideal Career Profile on digital paper that generally represents what I am heading towards, what I'm trying to run towards" But taking, you know, going from there to an actual interaction, set of interactions, that are more than likely with better fit organizations can be a challenge. So what worked for you to move you into interviews that were potentially a fit?

Carolyn 20:50

Well, so I will say, one of the things that people should not be afraid of is making mistakes. So I can't say that this part of it went super smoothly for me because I was always drawn to the old way of looking for a job and basically reading a job description and saying, "Oh, I could fit into that role", instead of, "Is this the one I want to actually apply for? What is it about this company that makes me want to apply? What is it about this role that fits me?" So I had to flip flop everything I had ever done in a job search in the past. So when I was looking through, you know, different opportunities, I definitely had to stop myself from applying to some things that I would have applied to because when I really looked into it and thought about what they were advertising for, I'm like, "This is not going to work." Or looked into reviews that people had about the company. Or, yeah, basically, I usually take reviews with a grain of salt anyway, but this time, I wanted to at least look at them to see, you know, "If people left and they were unhappy, what were they unhappy about? And is it something that was, you know, maybe something that was personal to them, or did it seem like it was a cultural problem?"

Scott Anthony Barlow 22:15

Yeah, which would make it relevant to your situation then, because we know culture matters so much to you.

Carolyn 22:20

Exactly, yep. And even one of the places I applied to, and they brought me, I did, you know, the phone interview first, and then went in for an in person. And I think they wanted to keep pursuing me. I eventually turned, I canceled the second interview with them because I did have, when I read the job description, I'm like, "This sounds exactly like where I came from." The job itself is exactly what I was doing, and so I didn't want to apply. My sister's like, "You should just apply. It's a bigger company. It's not the same place." But I had warning signs during the phone interview. I had definite warning signs when I was interviewing there, and as Amy and I kind of debriefed about the experience, she's like, "You've got to trust your gut here." And she had some concerns with the body language that I described with at least one of the interviewers where it was going to be combative with this guy. I'm sure of it. And so I didn't get a warm fuzzy. And when I started interviewing at this company that I ended up accepting a job with, when I left that interview, I actually felt happy. I've literally never felt happy after an interview before, like, I was happy. I couldn't wait to talk to Amy about this. I'm like, "Oh my god. This is so cool. They're dynamic." The energy that they brought to this interview was like nothing I had ever experienced. And so this small company, and I didn't think I'd want a small company, I thought for sure. I needed to hide myself in a big company, instead of, you know, going to the small company where you're overly scrutinized, and whatever was going on, it might...

Scott Anthony Barlow 23:22

Well, that, in itself, is a really interesting way of how you looked at things in the past, you know, coming out in what you perceived, what also in the past what you perceived that it meant for you and what you wanted. That's a, we call that a very high level of self-awareness.

Carolyn 24:25

I didn't think it. I'd never have that.

Scott Anthony Barlow 24:27

Oh, look at you. See? It just takes practice, as it turns out.

Carolyn 24:31

Yep, and some encouragement because I was riddled with self-doubt. Yeah, there was just so much that I was working against. So it was having somebody help lift me up and help me realize that I can have confidence in myself and my abilities, because I've made it this far, it was incredibly helpful so that I could make a decision to not go down a path that it seemed like, I mean, that would have been where the money was. I did not take the job that would have offered more money, and they were still looking for somebody long after I had, you know, turned on their second interview and stuff, but knowing that I got myself into a better situation, someplace where I could feel that teamwork was going to be a big thing there, and it is, that was definitely a huge deal for me. Because it's not the place I would have actually probably ended up in if I were still doing things the same old way I used to.

Scott Anthony Barlow 25:27

What do you think would have happened? Like if you, and maybe it's a, I don't know, maybe it's an exercise in futility. But I'm curious, if you, you know, from the point in time where you left, if you hadn't gone through the work to define what it was that you actually needed and then eventually that led to, you know, a variety of interviews, and you honing in on what being able to recognize what actually was a fit, so that you could keep going in the ones that were a potential fit, what do you think would have played out? What's your best guess? I won't hold you to it. We'll never know, I guess.

Carolyn 26:02

I definitely would have been looking for jobs in Engineering Management specifically, or Engineering still, because, to be honest, those were the two areas that I was focusing on when I was searching. But I would have looked for those, but I probably would have gone for the money and ignored what were ultimately warning signs, just these, the vibes that I was getting from the interviewers, or just the place itself, you know, because sometimes you go into a company and you can kind of feel that things are not gelling, you know, that it's struggling with something, and it's an undercurrent that you can feel. I felt it before I took the job I walked out on, but I ignored it. I would have done the same thing. I would have ignored those signs and ended up taking a job and once again, saying, "How long do I stay here before I realized that this is terrible for me?" And I would have done it out of panic. And, yeah, this was a much, much better approach. I wasn't panicked, even though we were getting to, you know, this was the plan that I had laid out, even the time frame and everything. But I didn't feel panic. I had enough money saved up where I knew I was going to be able to make it into January, but I really wanted to have something before year end. But if that hadn't happened, I would have been okay. But it turns out, this company I talked to, where they had this really cooperative and positive interaction with each other that just, I don't know, it wooed me, I guess. It was great being there, and I'm really glad that that came up and that I didn't turn it down. I'm not sure I would have applied for that job.

Scott Anthony Barlow 27:53

I think that's what's really interesting to me, not just with your situation, but what we see over and over. But in your situation, what I'm hearing you say is that you had all of these different types of encouragement, whether it be from family members or the outside world, or pressures in your head, or, you know, the panic response to apply to all of these things, even though you were getting these vibes. And then even in interviews, you know, it would have been an easy thing to do to just keep going, even though you had those warning signs. And I think that's what almost everybody does, but you had already, at that point, done enough work yourself to recognize that, "Hey, I understand what these warning signs are now, and I can choose to do differently, and I understand what I'm looking for, and this is not it." But then also, have done enough work for yourself to be in a position to actually behave differently because it's easy for us to lean on our past behaviors, it's hard to do something different.

Carolyn 29:00

It really is. And it maybe would have felt comfortable to just go with what I already knew, you know, like, that one company where I had the warning signs and stuff. I could see me fitting in there. I could see how I would be able to fit in that role. And I could convince myself that, "No, it's going to be different enough from where I was" that I wasn't going to have the same experience. But I don't actually believe that. So actually following my gut and heeding the warning signs this time, I think, kind of averted another crisis that definitely would have happened. Yeah, it wasn't the right kind of company for me. Again, it would have been a good job for somebody, just not the right one for me.

Scott Anthony Barlow 29:43

You know, what I think is always really interesting too for, not all professions experience, but especially, say, like, Engineering is a great example of this. Like your experience for so many years is to be able to, you know, take somewhat limited resources and engineer solutions in one way or another to solve problems by looking at what resources you have and what you can use and everything else, and figure out a solution that other people wouldn't be able to do. So when you go into a job search type of situation, you're looking at all of these different job descriptions or postings or anything like that, and you're like, :Yeah, I could do that. Like I could figure out how to make that work", or whatever else. So it literally goes the opposite way from everything you've done for years and years to be able to say, "Nope, we're just not going to do this. I'm not going to find a solution."

Carolyn 30:36

I think it's what keeps us in bad situations longer, too, because, "Oh, well, if I do this, I can make that work better. If I do this, it'll get better." And you keep doing that because that's what you do. You keep trying something until you find something that works. And when you're in a situation that is truly not healthy for you, you are not going to be able to make that change. It is very ingrained in the company culture itself and you can't always have influence over that. And that's what I found is even though I thought I might have had some, I really did not. It was not coming from me. So there's only so much that you can do if there's a problem that is truly insurmountable, and you have to admit at some point that, "Hey, this is actually not something I can solve." And it just doesn't feel right, but it's true, yeah. And I would have talked myself into, "Oh yeah, this isn't perfect, but I know that I can do this" just because I can solve these things.

Scott Anthony Barlow 30:45

[31:42] Yeah. What I'm really curious about now too, is, I mean, you could have gone that direction, but you didn't. So what I'm curious about now is, what is life like now? And there is no perfect, but it sounds like your situation now is very different from the one you most recently left. What specifically is different for you?

Carolyn 32:08

Well, first and foremost, I absolutely love the team I'm working on. I'm not the leader of the team. There's someone else who's worked there for a long time and kind of worked his way up from the bottom. He really has a lot of people skills, and I enjoy working with him, and he leads us, but he's not like my manager, so we have this great rapport, I guess. And there's one other person. We're a very small group. So three Engineers, or three people in the Engineering group. I'm the only degree in Engineer, but that's not what matters to me. They have their own strengths that they bring to it. We call ourselves three C's Engineering, because all our first names start with C.

Scott Anthony Barlow 32:47

Obviously, it was meant to be. You completed the C's.

Carolyn 32:50

The teamwork. He's very supportive. So always has their backs. Definitely is working toward improving things. So we're, you know, figuring out, "All right, what is the path we want to go on? How do we want to get there?" They are having me look at certain things that they don't really have the expertise in. So I'm a design engineer, so what is the design software that we're going to use? And they had gone through a number of things where they were trying to make that decision and they didn't feel confident in it, so I've been evaluating that, and I made a presentation to show them this is what I recommend. They're taking my input and actually listening to me. They value what I can bring to the table. So those are the kinds of things that I think helped me to be happy with what I'm doing, because it's not perfect. You know, there are some people that I know I'm going to clash with, but it's like that wherever you go. It's, you know, everybody has different priorities and what they want to achieve, and different personality types. But that's not really the predominant thing for me. This sense of teamwork and working together to actually get something done is what seems to be there for me the most, us, for this job. And I never thought I'd do this. I'm not a morning person. They work a four day work week, so I get a three day weekend every week. I kind of love that. My Fridays are for me every week.

Scott Anthony Barlow 34:20

That's amazing.

Carolyn 34:21

They don't want you to work from home because they want work life balance. And so those were some of the things I was looking for, is to have more time for me. And I actually am finding that I have energy to participate in my home life where, prior to this, I came home and I was exhausted and I would just unplug and do nothing, and it was awful. So now that's not how I'm living. I'm actually enjoying my outside of work life. I'm enjoying what I'm doing at work. So I feel like I've gotten what I was looking for.

Scott Anthony Barlow 34:56

That is really cool. I am really, legitimately, happy for you. You're doing my heart good.

Carolyn 35:04

Oh, thank you.

Scott Anthony Barlow 35:05

What advice would you give to anybody else who's in that same situation? If we go back now to your previous situation, where you were at that role, you knew it wasn't a great fit, you're trying to decide, "Do I stay? Do I go? How does that look?" It's eroding your self-confidence. You know, that's where a lot of people sometimes find themselves. What advice would you give to that person in that place?

Carolyn 35:31

Take steps to do something about it, whether it's if you want to try talking to your management team and see if you can make it better. Keep in mind, I did try that and it got better for a minute. But if you think that that's going to actually help your situation, give that a try, but don't stay in it if you're miserable. Because life is way too short to feed that much of your energy into something that basically is never going to pay off for you. And it's not about money, it's more about your well being and how you're feeling, and do you have enough energy left to actually enjoy your time outside of work? If you don't, don't stay there. For the love of God, don't stay there. Take care of yourself.

Scott Anthony Barlow 36:22

Most of the episodes you've heard on Happen To Your Career showcase stories of people that have taken the steps to identify and land careers that they are absolutely enamored with, that match their strengths, and are really what they want in their lives. If that's something that you're ready to begin taking steps towards, that's awesome. And we want to figure out how we can help. So here's what I would suggest. Take the next five seconds to open up your email app and email me directly. I'm gonna give you my personal email address, scott@happentoyourcareer.com. Just email me and put 'Conversation' in the subject line. And when you do that, I'll introduce you to someone on our team who can have a super informal conversation with and we'll figure out the very best type of help for you, whatever that looks like. And the very best way that we can support you to make it happen. So send me an email right now with 'Conversation' in the subject line.

Scott Anthony Barlow 37:15

Here's a sneak peek into what we have coming up in store for you next week.

Scott Anthony Barlow 37:19

You know that feeling when you're staring at your computer and you've got this really important thing you need to do, maybe you even know exactly what you need to do, but for some reason, you just can't start? Or maybe you start, and then 30 seconds later, you're researching the history of paper clips or reorganizing your desk for the third time this week. Yeah, that's ADHD for you. And if you've had similar experiences, this episode is definitely for you. To be clear, I'm not a doctor and I'm definitely not diagnosing you, but we made it for you. So here's the thing that a lot of people don't understand about ADHD. Society has created all of these boxes, these systems that we're supposed to fit into– show up at nine, focus for eight hours, remember every detail from that meeting last Tuesday. And when you're wired differently, those boxes can feel impossible. But I want to talk about something that doesn't get mentioned enough. Having ADHD can be a pretty massive advantage, too.

Scott Anthony Barlow 38:21

All that and plenty more next week right here on Happen To Your Career. Make sure that you don't miss it, and if you haven't already, click subscribe on your podcast player, so that you can download this podcast in your sleep, and you get it automatically, even the bonus episodes every single week, sometimes multiple times a week, until next week. Adios, I'm out.