Getting Intentional After spending 2 decades in and out of difficult and toxic work environments, I needed to get serious about making better decisions and finding more meaningful work for the next 2 decades of my career. I knew I needed guidance because I had not been intentional about what I really wanted to do or getting clear about what that looked like. I came across the Happen to Your Career Podcast in my search for a career coach and loved their "whole life" approach to coaching. Because work is such an enormous part of our lives, it is important that it is as meaningful and purposeful as our family and downtime. I went in knowing I not only needed to leave my current job, but leave the entire city I was living in. Working with my HTYC career coach, Ang made clear that I was living outside of my values in nearly every area of my life and that I could absolutely do something about it! Since then I have been on a journey to intentionally design my life and continue to get clear on my vision. I have moved to a fabulous new city, halfway across the country and have an extremely fulfilling new job with the collaborative and creative team I longed for. Every morning I wake up knowing that I am living my values in every area of life and I could not have gotten here without the guidance of the HTYC team.

Putting Advice into Action I had an opportunity to take some of the advice I received from Phillip as part of my coaching in the Fall of 2022 and put it into action. I actually got a call back from a job I interviewed for 2 months earlier and didn’t get. I guess I did really well in the interview and they put me on a shortlist for any future openings (which is often the case in the public sector). Since I had already interviewed, things were going to progress straight to the initial offer. To make sure I was ready, I consulted my ideal career profile and assessed my current working situation (which wasn’t great) to determine my salary range. Since public sector salaries are generally governed by policies and collective bargaining agreements, I anticipated that the initial offer would be quite low. In fact, it was $20,000 less than what I was making at my current gig! Since I was desperate to get out, I might have just went along with the initial offer, fearing that they might rescind the offer if I tried to negotiate to a higher salary. Thanks to my chats with Phillip and the modules recorded by Scott, I knew the importance of being honest with myself and what my bare minimum to shift jobs would be (despite my desperation!). Despite REALLY wanting out, I knew I'd also be miserable if I took this gig and was earning less in an inflationary economy! By being intentional and planning ahead, I was able to establish a range that would allow me to get a bump in salary (even when factoring my performance raise at my previous job) without putting the recruiter off. I presented this to them in an honest and transparent way by letting them know where I was now in my current salary range and where they’ll need to be for me to accept the offer. In the end, they met me at the lower end of what I proposed. Nonetheless, by doing the work in advance, I was satisfied with the result because it satisfied two important criteria I established: getting out of my current job and getting a salary bump. Having that knowledge from HTYC really gave me the confidence to approach this situation in a systematic way. Without it, I may have taken a significant pay cut out of desperation or compelled them to rescind the offer because my demands were too high. Salary negotiation is just a microcosm of what you’ll learn at HTYC! When you take the time to set parameters for your ‘ideal job’ (location, salary, commute times, etc.), the ‘overwhelm’ that can accompany these kinds of decisions is reduced significantly!

Never been on a podcast before…Scott… Never been on a podcast before…Scott made the entire experience just like a conversation. Really enjoyed sharing my story & obviously the entire HTYC team is just top tier. You all have helped me change my life in the most positive and beautiful way. Thank you!

Coaching gave me the framework I needed! I was young in my career but knew I wanted to make a change. HTYC taught gave me a great framework and coaching to navigate my career change but also taught me a lot of valuable skills I know I will continue to use as I grow in my new career. HTYC was both challenging and rewarding. If you find yourself feeling unfulfilled and doom-scrolling on job sites for new opportunities, consider HTYC's career change bootcamp and coaching to give you the tools you need to make a meaningful career switch!

Invest in HTYC, it changed my life. Finding your podcast randomly on Spotify, investing in your program, and working with Liz and then Phillip was the beginning of an amazing journey. "Comfortably unhappy" was what you said in the first podcast episode I listened to. That single description captured perfectly how I was feeling at the time. I appreciate you, your program, and your people. I HIGHLY recommend investing in your program to anyone looking to make a career change and find work they truly want to do.