In this video, career coach Chloe Spillane challenges mid‑career professionals who believe they have no opportunities within their existing network. She argues that self‑limiting beliefs mask the wealth of contacts—former managers, colleagues, and stakeholders—who could open doors. Spillane acknowledges the discomfort of reaching out, especially after long gaps or past conflicts, but emphasizes that people generally want to help. She outlines a practical approach: start with a warm introduction rather than a direct job request, build a genuine conversation, and then disclose the job search. She also highlights the pervasive fear of judgment and stresses that embracing short‑term discomfort is essential for long‑term career gains. The core message is that by re‑engaging past contacts thoughtfully, job seekers can transform perceived scarcity into tangible opportunities.
Chapters
If I'm being honest, if you are mid-career and you tell yourself that you don't have opportunities within your network to help you get ahead, you are choosing to believe that self-limiting belief. Let me ask you this. Before the role you were in right now, or the role that you were just made redundant from, how many other jobs did you have? How many managers did you have? How many people did you work with? How many stakeholders did you have? Where are all those people? What are they doing? What companies are they at? These are all people that are in your network that can potentially bring you to opportunities. What I know you're probably thinking right now is, I can't reach out to those people. That's embarrassing. People want to help you more than you think. And I understand that there is hesitation around reaching out to people from prior organizations, especially if there was conflict or things just didn't go that well. Sure, maybe they're not the best people for you to reach out to. And yeah, I know it's an uncomfortable thing. I know it sucks to be like, oh my God, I haven't spoken to that person in like 6 years. That's so weird. I get that. I know. But it's all about your approach. When you reach out to these people, you're going to start with a warm introduction. You're not going to go straight into, hey, I need a job, can you help me out? So you're going to start the conversation and then you'll take it from there, and then eventually you go into the fact that you are looking for work. I also know that we have this insane fear of judgment, especially when you're putting yourself out there and doing things a lot of people won't. But this is where you're actually going to see change, you know, this is where you're actually going to see results. If you're not prepared to do something that is a little bit uncomfortable in the short term, that will give you maximum long-term gain, then you can't expect yourself to get that far. So you're either going to continue to do the same thing and end up in the pile of rejections, or you're going to do the thing that no one else is prepared to do to get yourself ahead.