How to Leave Corporate and Build Your Own Business Doing Work You Actually Love (A Real Director's Mid-Career Pivot)
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Episode Description
If your career looks successful on paper but feels off inside, you're not alone. Many mid-career professionals reach a point where the work that used to fit no longer does. Breanne Gjurich-Wozniak's story is one path forward: a portfolio career that combined her biotech expertise with her animal welfare interests.
Breanne had a career that looked solid from the outside. Biotech R&D, then regulatory work submitting new technologies to the FDA. Director-level. Real success.
Inside, the fit was changing. The work was drifting.She started looking at R&D and regulatory roles she was qualified for. Nothing gave her any excitement. That's when she found HTYC's free 8-day mini course and joined the Career Change Bootcamp.
She built one 5-year career plan with her manager and a separate one with her career coach. The two plans were so different. The energy in each was so different. She knew it was time to leave.
What followed wasn't a traditional job search. It was 20 conversations with strangers, a series of career experiments, and surprising feedback from people who'd only met her for an hour. Her coach introduced the idea of a portfolio career: multiple types of work, multiple interests, all under one umbrella. Breanne built a consulting business that combined her biotech expertise with the animal welfare work she'd always wanted to do.
What you'll learn:
- The 5-year career plan exercise that reveals when your current path no longer fits
- How to use Social Goldilocks conversations to get strangers to see what you can't about yourself
- What a portfolio career actually looks like (and why one full-time job isn't always the right structure)
- How to translate decades of industry experience into consulting work
- Why "successful on paper" is the hardest career trap to leave
Our book, Happen To Your Career: An Unconventional Approach To Career Change and Meaningful Work, is now available on audiobook! Visit happentoyourcareer.com/audible to order it now! Visit happentoyourcareer.com/book for more information or buy the print or ebook here!
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Free Resources
What career fits you? Join our free 8 Day Mini Course to figure it out!
Career Change Guide - Learn how high-performers discover their ideal career and find meaningful, well-paid work without starting over.
Related Episodes
- Changing Careers (When You Don't Know Your Next Job Title) (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)
- How to Figure Out What You Really Want (Spotify / Apple Podcasts)