How One Conversation Can Change Your Career (Even When You Don't Know What You Want)

How One Conversation Can Change Your Career (Even When You Don't Know What You Want)

July 2, 2026 · 15 min · Episode 733

About this episode

This episode discusses how conversations can lead to career change and meaningful work, highlighting success stories and strategies for networking.

Every year, millions of professionals send out hundreds of applications, get almost nowhere, and decide the problem is their resume. It's not. Referrals make up just 7% of applicants but account for 40% of hires, and the gap between those two numbers comes down to one thing: conversations. In this episode, two professionals who had no plan, no clear direction, and no obvious path forward used test drive conversations to find meaningful work and career change success when nothing else was moving. What You'll Learn in This Episode: Why test drive conversations work when job applications don't, and the data behind why referrals account for 40% of hires while most people trying to change careers never tap into them How Shreya used informational interviews to go from stuck in the wrong career to landing a role she loves, and what her career change success story teaches anyone who doesn't know what they want yet The Social Goldilocks Method for career networking that Travis used to break into the toys and games industry from a completely unrelated background, and how to use the same approach to find meaningful work in any field What test drive conversations are actually teaching you…

People in this episode

Host: Scott Anthony Barlow

Guests: Shreya, Travis

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Happen To Your Career: An Unconventional Approach To Career Change and Meaningful Work

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