Navigating A Mid-life Career Change With Laura Sheehan

My guest today is Laura Sheehan, a career coach and speaker. Laura was a U.S lawyer when she followed her husband overseas to support his career. What followed was life in 8 different countries and on four continents. With each move, Laura changed her professional identity. Today, Laura joins the show to discuss her career transformation and shares advice for those on their own journey, no matter what age they are.
Many of us will change our careers multiple times in our lives – but as we age, the idea of a career change begins to look not only scary, but impossible. In a time when our lives are so wrapped up in our careers, sometimes the only way to find our most authentic and happy selves is to change our jobs.  

My guest today is Laura Sheehan, a career coach and speaker. Laura was a U.S lawyer when she followed her husband overseas to support his career. What followed was life in 8 different countries and on four continents. With each move, Laura changed her professional identity. Today, Laura joins the show to discuss her career transformation and shares advice for those on their own journey, no matter what age they are.

Episode Notes: 
  • Laura discusses becoming a lawyer. [2:37]
  • Leaving her role as a lawyer is detailed [5:59]
  • Laura’s first few months as a diplomat’s wife is reflected on. [6:53]
  • Travelling abroad and adding value to life is discussed [8:55]
  • Moments that made Laura recognize her new career path are explained. [12:52]
  • The transformation stage in Laura’s journey is detailed. [17:57]
  • Challenges Laura faced and overcame is touched on. [20:20]
  • Laura’s approach to her new career path as a coach is reflected on. [21:54]
  • How Laura has come ‘full circle’ is explained. [24:25]
  • Laura’s professional expertise about mid-life career and job changes is given. [27:49]
  • Tips and advice for people considering a change is given. [33:56]
  • Ways you can get in contact with Laura. [40:28]

Highlights

“I had the choice of staying with the law firm in D.C. by myself, or accompanying my husband overseas to his first assignment – and so I chose the latter.” [5:31-5:42]

“I started to kind of get into a rhythm and knew generally what to expect on a day-to-day basis and really then, that’s when it started to sink in, that’s when I started to feel as though I had left something behind and that I had potentially sacrificed my career and my professional identity to follow my husband overseas.” [7:22-7:40]

“A lot of us who move around as often as I have begin to view our careers as almost like patchworks of seemingly unrelated experiences” [10:58-11:12]

“One of the women looked at me, and just stopped me in my track and said ‘well, Laura, if you could do anything what would it be?’ and the questions blew my mind.” [15:27-15:38]

“The greatest gift I think I’ve received from this part of the journey is exactly what I wanted it to be – helping other people recognize their inherent value, see that all the things that they have been doing mean something and have been moving them forward.” [22:17-22:34]

Check out Laura's TEDx talk about Career Change

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