308: Quick Fixes Don’t Work for Your Mid-Career Job Search (And What to Do Instead)

Are you tempted by the bold career promises flooding your social media feed like “land your dream job in 30 days” or “double your income using AI”? 

For mid-career professionals navigating job dissatisfaction, these flashy shortcuts can feel like a lifeline. But the truth? Real career growth isn’t about gimmicks. It’s about strategy, self-awareness, and intentional planning.

In this episode of The Mid-Career GPS Podcast, host John Neral breaks down the dangers of one-size-fits-all job search solutions and why they often fail professionals with 15–25 years of experience. 

You’ll learn:

• Why plug-and-play templates and AI-generated shortcuts don’t serve mid-level professionals
• The three red flags to watch for in career marketing and online job search tools
• What a realistic timeline looks like for a mid-career job search (Hint: It’s 3–6 months, not 30 days.)
• Why your 30s and 40s are critical wealth-building years and how your next career move can set the foundation for future success
• How to use John’s Four F Framework (Fit, Function, Finance, Forward) to gain clarity and make confident career decisions
• What to look for in a career coach or program when you’re ready to move beyond band-aid solutions

This episode is a must-listen if you’re tired of career advice that doesn’t speak to your stage of life, values, and leadership responsibilities. You deserve more than a quick fix. You deserve a strategy tailored to your goals and your experience.

Resources Mentioned:

• Free Guide: Why Your Mid-Career Job Search Isn’t Working (And What to Do About It)
• Coaching Options: Email John directly at john@johnneral.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Career Quick Fixes: The Emotional Trap
• 3:10 Red Flags in Career Marketing Promises
• 8:45 AI Tools: Helpful But Not The Strategy
• 13:20 What Actually Works at Mid-Career
• 19:30 Investing in Career Legacy Over Gimmicks
• 23:40 Call to Action and Resources

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

If you've ever scrawled past an ad that says land your dream job in 30 days or double your salary using AI, you are not alone and you're definitely not crazy for feeling tempted when you're stuck, frustrated and feeling undervalued in your job or career. Those quick fixes yeah, they sound really appealing, but here's the truth Career growth and I'm talking real career growth Takes more than a plug-and-play template or some type of AI-generated magic. In today's episode, I will break down for you why mid-career professionals need to be especially cautious of these flashing online promises. I'll walk you through the red flags, what actually works for mid-career professionals and how to make smarter, more strategic moves that lead to lasting impact. My friends, this is your reminder that your career is not a quick fix. It is an investment and you deserve far better than shortcuts. Let's get started. Hello, my friends, this is the Mid-Career GPS Podcast and I'm your host, john Nerrell. I help mid-career professionals like you find a career they love, or love the one they have, using my proven four-step formula. So crazy to me how we can so easily get bombarded and we can have the algorithm fill our feeds with things that we might have clicked on once, be it about getting a job promotion or increasing your salary, negotiating a better job offer, or you click on one Golden Retriever video and, the next thing you know, your whole feed is flooded with them.

Speaker 1: 2:07

Okay, here's what I wanted you to know right off from the start. These ads are designed to trigger an emotional response and if you're unhappy or unsatisfied in your career, you are desperate for change. But there is a rise in online promises. It is a tremendous marketing tool Land a six-figure job in 30 days. Use AI to double your salary. This hack got me a job at Google, whatever it might be. But when you're frustrated, what do you want? You want fast relief, and so these promises, which may or may not be true, trigger that emotional response for you to think okay, this might actually work Well, will it?

Speaker 1: 3:01

I think there are a few red flags you need to be paying attention to, and they're ones that I have seen as I've been digging into this a little bit. So here's number one. Number one red flag is to be aware of these one-size-fits-all promises. If you think that there is a templated AI resume or a generic cover letter that's going to be the be-all and end-all for you and your job search, I want to offer you is not going to help you stand out. Your story, your goals, your career path are unique to you, and that means you have to be the one telling the story. Now, can you use a tool to help you tell that story? Absolutely, should you be using a tool to help you tell that story?

Speaker 1: 4:02

I'm going to offer you more than likely probably yes right now in this job market, but it is more important than ever to recognize that a plug and play advice does not work to your advantage when you are at mid-career, especially when you are managing leadership, personal values, financial responsibilities and looking to make a bigger impact and do more things. That's where you have to tell your story and that's where AI cannot do it to the best of your ability. To the best of your ability. Now, certainly in this job market and in this landscape, we know that, be it ChatGPT or any of the other AI tools that are out there, it's all about helping you save time and get better results. I want you to remember that AI is a tool, it is not a strategy. To remember that AI is a tool, it is not a strategy.

Speaker 1: 5:10

I look at AI much like I look at using Microsoft Office. It helps me, whether in Word, excel, powerpoint, whatever it might be. It is there to assist me and make my job easier. I still have to do some of the work. Okay, I don't have to build the software program to do it, but I am responsible for what I put into it.

Speaker 1: 5:30

When you're using AI, especially if you are trying to figure out what is next in your career, keep in mind that you are positioning yourself for impact based on your results. You are not positioning yourself based on output. In other words, if you're not telling your story that is from a very results-focused mindset and perspective, about here's what I've done and here were the results that I got, and here's why you should care about this If you're writing a resume that is nothing more of I did this, I did this, I did this and it sounds like a job description. That is not what a mid-career resume should be, nor should it be your LinkedIn profile. Okay, additionally, ai and I want to just credit my dear coach, colleague and friend, susan on this one, because we were talking the other day and what she said about AI was so spot on. What she said was AI cannot and will not be able to give you the aha. The aha is that insight. The aha is that insight. It is that revelation or that light bulb moment that goes off over your head. That truly happens when you are doing intentional career reflection and you are strategically positioning yourself in the market.

Speaker 1: 7:00

If you want to leverage AI, use it in a very smart and strategic way. Do not use it with reckless abandon and dependency to think that, okay, I'm going to go ahead and put my resume in AI and I'm going to put the job posting in here and I'm going to tell it to optimize it and everything's going to be great and I'm just going to go ahead and submit that. Okay, great, and I'm just going to go ahead and submit that. Okay, because what I know and I know this from talking with my colleagues in the recruiting and hiring spaces is that as AI gets more sophisticated and people are using it more and more the people who are actually reviewing the resumes what's also happening is they're getting better at detecting who is using it and just taking it for what it spits out. And so if there's a suspicion, or a flag, if you will that goes up and thinking like, I'm not so sure they really used AI in the best way here that may actually go against you in terms of getting called or invited in for an interview. So again, ai is a tool.

Speaker 1: 8:09

But the third red flag I want you to know about is that if you're hearing about unrealistic timelines or exaggerated income claims in some of these marketing, be careful and do your research. Okay, I saw one the other day it said double your salary in your research. Okay, I saw one the other day it said double your salary in six weeks. Okay, could you do that? Sure, all, right Now, if you're at a job, say, making $20,000, it is far easier to land a job where you're gonna make $40,000 versus making a job where you're, say, making $150,000 and then trying to make $300,000. Okay, so be careful in terms of what those particular claims actually mean Right now in this job market.

Speaker 1: 8:58

What I am seeing with working with my own clients and in talking with other mid-career professionals and colleagues that are in this space, is that, realistically, you're looking three to six months Three to six months between when you actually start looking for a job to when you start. The sweet spot seems to be around five months. But depending on how selective, how particular, the type of industry you are in and what the forecast is for that industry. It may take you longer and, additionally, you have to look at factors such as how aggressive are you going to be in your job search? How valuable is your network? So there's a lot of things here that, yes, you have some control over in terms of you how quickly you may find a job, but the reality is there are way too many factors to consider and so, realistically, you are looking at that three to six month time frame.

Speaker 1: 10:02

Okay, now, in my work, when I help people build a mid-career GPS, my work is based off of the hundreds of people whom I have helped over the years. Okay, and right now, you may have seen an ad for me, or you may have seen something in my newsletter, or you may have seen something posted on LinkedIn about it, but I have a new free guide or free lead magnet, whatever you want to call. It is called why your Mid-Career Job Search Isn't Working and what to Do About it the four-step framework to build a smarter, faster and more confident career move. This is based off of what I know. It is based off of what I know, what is working and what has worked with my clients and if you're new to me, if you're listening to this episode for the first time or you've been listening for a while and you want to get this resource, it's free. All you have to do is go to my website, johnnerrellcom, click on the Resources tab and right there at the top, you will see this PDF guide and you get it, and it downloads right away, and, as a bonus, you automatically get entered into my email newsletter community that I currently send twice a week.

Speaker 1: 11:24

Okay, but this is the thing that in my work and in my space where I'm helping mid-career professionals, you must be more strategic than what you're being, and being more strategic means about being more creative, intentional, thought-provoking, memorable, and you've got to find a way to stand out, and you've got to find a way to stand out. Plugging your stuff into AI is not going to make you stand out. It might give you an idea, though, and that's where it's different. It might help you get an idea that you hadn't thought about or considered. There's a great AI tool that I use called Notebook LM, and I recently did a presentation for a group of interns where we talked about optimizing your LinkedIn profile, and I showed them this AI tool where you can use Notebook LM to upload a PDF of your LinkedIn profile and it will generate an audio review. And so we get this AI-generated person, if you will, kind of talking about you as if they were interviewing you. And my friend, rhonda Scherr, who's an amazing LinkedIn expert, showed me this tool months ago and it's so much fun. But when you get past the novelty of it, what I encourage my clients to think about and listen for is is the audio review? Is the tool picking up on something you hadn't considered sharing or discussing? So here's what I know actually works at mid-career and I know this because I eat, live and breathe this every single day with the work that I do with my clients and being in this space.

Speaker 1: 13:21

You need two things. One, you need self-reflection, to know what it is you want to do, and that self-reflection drives to career clarity. The career clarity is far more than knowing. Well, this is what I'm good at and this is what I ideally want to do. I coach my clients on what I call my 4F framework. The 4F framework is fit, function, finance and forward, and you can go to my website, johnnarrellcom. Forward slash resources and get the mid-career promotion blueprint Okay, but the self-reflection and the career clarity. To dig deeply into these four things that I guide you through is all about helping you strategically position yourself on LinkedIn, on your resume, when you are networking and when you get to that job interview. Having the career clarity about knowing where you are most valuable and how you are going to help an organization. Is all about value-driven outreach and not spamming people or using some tool to generate an AI message that they are just going to gloss over and never read. And that is where the power of coaching comes in. Coaching is personalized. It is specific to exactly what it is that you need.

Speaker 1: 15:05

When you listen to the beginning of this podcast, when I get through the introduction and I say to you I help people find a career they love or love the one they have, I can't tell you how many times people come to me for coaching and they think they're going to leave their job and they end up staying. They find a way to make their situation better, more manageable, because leaving a job isn't always the solution. This is where coaching is personal and AI can't do that. You might think AI can do that, but it can't. And how do I know that? Because I've tried it. I have tried it around some things related to business coaching and it doesn't work. It's why I hire a business coach. It's why I have my own coach for certain things, because I need that personal interaction. I want that personal interaction. If you think of AI as being on the surface, the interactions and relationships you have, the working relationships that you build when you hire a coach. You have a mentor, you have a sponsor, whomever that might be. That is an opportunity for that coach to listen, customize and strategically plan with you about what you wanna do for the the long term and not go after the shortcut.

Speaker 1: 16:39

Okay, so if you're looking at hiring a career coach, look for process, don't look for promises. Yeah, promises are a part of it. You know what I tell people who are curious about hiring me. I say, look, I can't promise you you're going to get a job. I can't. I'm not there with you when you're actually interviewing. Here's what I can promise you, and I list those things out. Okay, ask if that coach or service provider is speaking to your career stage and challenges and they get to know exactly your pain point. Or are they just offering some kind of mass market fluff? And lastly, does that coach emphasize effort, partnership, clarity and confidence? Or are they just promising you results without any proven track record of getting there? That's why when people hire me as their coach or they come into the mid-career GPS membership community, they're getting strategies and processes that are customized and individualized to exactly what it is they need to get them there. Because here's the thing At mid-career, let's say, you're between the ages of 35 and 50.

Speaker 1: 18:06

Okay, okay, you are in what I like to call your career and wealth building years. You are setting yourself up to reap the benefits in your 50s and your 60s of all the work that you have done leading up to that point. You've had the career, you've had the promotions, you've had the success and you are looking to leverage those and continue those as you move through mid-career and ultimately into retirement. Your career is not some kind of gimmick. Your career is about your brand, your reputation, your livelihood, your leadership and, most importantly, my friends. Your career is about your legacy. What is the legacy you want to leave on this earth, within your organization, with your team, your clients, the people you work with day in and day out? Mid-career is an opportunity for you to invest in sustainable progress and not silver bullets.

Speaker 1: 19:30

Look, the goal here isn't just to find another job. That can be part of it. You might be really unhappy in your job situation and be like, damn it, I just got to get a new job. Okay. The goal isn't just to find another job. The goal is to build the right one, is to find the job that leads to the career that gives you more clarity, more purpose and more confidence. That you get to wake up in the morning and be very excited about going to work every day. That you are excited about the work you get to do and the impact you get to make. And look, I'm not talking that this is every day. You wake up feeling like that, but the days that you do far outweigh the ones that you don't.

Speaker 1: 20:15

Mid-career is hard. It is challenging. It is why I do the work that I do, because I never want another mid-career professional to feel like they are struggling or they are undervalued or underutilized, like I did at times when I was a mid-career professional, undervalued or underutilized, like I did at times when I was a mid-career professional. Mid-career is one of the best and most dynamic times in your career. Look, I couldn't be doing what I'm doing now if I didn't have the experiences I had at mid-career. I want the same for you.

Speaker 1: 20:49

So look, if you are interested and you wanna stop looking for quick fixes and you wanna get started with some real traction and momentum to help you. Here's the first step Go to my website, johnnerrellcom, click on the resources tab and get my free guide why your mid-career job search isn't working and what to do about it. Let's start there and then from there we'll continue to email and you'll gain some more insights and I'll ask you some questions and we'll figure out what the next step's gonna be. And then, if you're interested, I've got a couple options. I've got a career options. I've got a career community. It's called the Mid-Career GPS Membership Community. You can come into that, okay, or you can inquire about hiring me for one-on-one coaching.

Speaker 1: 21:43

But right now it is let's see, I'm recording this on the 31st of July, so right now it is what? August 5th Okay, that's the date when this episode drops is August 5th. You are hitting the biggest time right now that 2025 is going to have, because from here until Thanksgiving is going to be the push, because you and I both know you get to the holidays If you don't have a job, you'd be like I'll just wait till the new year. You can still find a job between Thanksgiving and New Year's, but you're not going to be as motivated to do it. Now is the time to capitalize on you. It is time to invest in what you do and the impact you want to make, and I can help you do that. So if you want to know more, go to my website, johnnerrellcom. Click on the resources tab, download that free guide, or you can email me at john at johnnerrellcom, and we can talk about what one-on-one coaching or coming into the membership community might look like.

Speaker 1: 22:54

As I say at the end of every single episode, it's this you will build your mid-career GPS one mile or one step at a time, and how you show up matters. Now's your chance to show up. Show up for you and invest in your career. Take the time and don't look for the quick fixes, but find the things that actually work. And, my friends, I will be back with you next week. Take care of yourself. We'll talk soon. 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 johnnerrellcom 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 Darrell Coaching. I look forward to being back with you next week. Until then, take care and remember how we show up matters. Thank you.