AI, Jobs and Your Future: What Professionals Over 40 Need to Know

Episode 346 - As AI reshapes the workplace, experienced professionals face a new challenge: combining decades of expertise with emerging technological capabilities. Professor Jon Whittle explains why successful AI adoption depends on much more than technology, and what professionals over 40 can do to remain competitive. Artificial intelligence is changing how organizations operate, what employers expect, and how professionals demonstrate their value. For experienced workers, the challenge is not to abandon decades of expertise, but to learn how to apply it in a workplace being redesigned around AI.For professionals in their 40s, 50s and 60s, the conversation about artificial intelligence has become increasingly difficult to ignore. Every week brings another prediction about disappearing jobs, another announcement about AI agents performing sophisticated tasks, or another company explaining how technology will allow it to operate with fewer employees. For people who have spent decades building expertise, professional relationships and a reputation for delivering results, the uncertainty raises a legitimate concern: how much of that accumulated experience will employers value in five or ten years?As a career coach working primarily with experienced corporate professionals, I see how this uncertainty affects people's confidence. Some are already looking for work after redundancy, while others are considering whether their current roles will remain relevant. Many understand that they need to learn about AI but are unsure what meaningful proficiency looks like, particularly when their professional strengths have traditionally been leadership, strategy, communication and organizational judgment rather than technology.I recently revisited this question with Jon Whittle, an AI expert with more than three decades of experience, a former senior leader at CSIRO's Data61, and now a professor at Melbourne Business School. When we first spoke earlier this year, I was considerably more concerned about AI's implications for careers than he was. Several months later, despite significant advances in the technology, his position had not fundamentally changed.What emerged from our conversation was a more useful way to think about career resilience. The biggest challenge for experienced professionals may not be that AI makes their expertise obsolete, but that employers increasingly expect them to combine that expertise with capabilities they have not yet developed. This is an important distinction because it shifts the conversation from defending an existing career to actively shaping its next stage.Read the full Blog on the Website Book a Free Introductory Meeting with RenataJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe Now31 Days of Action for Job SeekersFind Your Talents: Learn About Your Strengths, and Watch Your Career GrowLear More About Renata's career coaching and courses Timestamps to guide your listening:0:00 Is AI really coming for your job?1:04 The AI veteran who never expected this in his lifetime4:44 More worried than earlier this year?7:02 Why AI companies are asking to be regulated9:54 The “uniquely human” skills AI is already eroding14:52 Leading AI with imposter syndrome18:31 50-something with a strong career? Start here23:40 Why 80% of AI success isn’t technical29:48 What not to do, and why a gap helps33:56 What 60 Minutes missed about AI and hiring40:28 Why 200 applications get you nowhere46:34 Why an AI professor now posts every day50:56 He left a 1,000-person role, with no website54:43 Don’t build the website firstLinks mentioned in this episode:BookPodcastJon Whittle’s Substack: Being Human in an AI World60 Minutes Australia Investigation into AI in Recruitment60 Minutes Australia Investigation into AI in RecruitmentReset Your CareerPodcast episode 311 with Leanne Brannigan: When the Recruiter Becomes The CandidateAbout the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter

Episode 345 - After decades of work, many experienced professionals can describe what they have done but struggle to explain why it matters now. This episode explores how understanding your value, rather than relying on titles, credentials and experience alone, can change the way you approach job searches, career transitions and the next stage of your working life.One of the hardest career questions for an experienced professional should, in theory, be one of the easiest: What is your value?After 20, 25, or 30 years of work, there is plenty of evidence to draw from. You have qualifications, projects, promotions, difficult problems solved, teams led, budgets managed, relationships built, and lessons learned the hard way. Yet in my work as a career coach, I regularly meet accomplished professionals who struggle to explain why any of this should matter to the person sitting across from them in a job interview.The problem is rarely a lack of experience. More often, they have confused experience with value.That distinction became the central idea in my recent conversation with Helen Palmer, creator of value(x) hub and the broader Self unLimited approach to working life. Helen argues that value is not a fixed characteristic we accumulate over a career. It is contextual, plural and dynamic. What one employer prizes, another may barely notice. What mattered enormously to us professionally at 35 may matter considerably less at 55.“Value is in the eye of the beholder,” Helen told me.For experienced professionals, this idea is more challenging than it first appears. It means that having impressive credentials, a senior title, or a long track record does not automatically make our contribution relevant to the next opportunity. It also means we cannot outsource the work of interpreting our experience to employers and expect them to reach the conclusion we hoped for.Read the full Blog on the Website Book a Free Introductory Meeting with RenataJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe Now31 Days of Action for Job SeekersFind Your Talents: Learn About Your Strengths, and Watch Your Career GrowLear More About Renata's career coaching and courses Timestamps to guide your listening:00:00 Why capable people can't describe their value00:50 Twenty years of friendship, and one question about value03:54 Value vs values: what value literacy means06:07 Why time for money is nobody's real value exchange08:33 Value you create for your employer vs value for you14:10 "My boss doesn't value it": value is in the eye of the beholder17:51 What your old credential tells the person reading your application19:47 "I'm an accountant" is a feature, not your value23:11 Why most value proposition statements fall flat24:11 Months without interviews: do you still value the work?26:37 You don't need passion from every job (the workscape)31:11 When what you value changes in your 50s32:50 The value exchange ledger, and why you time-box it39:22 When your identity is welded to your job title42:18 "You should stay": leaving when there's nothing left to give44:53 Seeing your career in eras, and grieving the old one49:54 Break the egg: Helen's advice if you're unsure what's next51:21 Where to find HelenLinks mentioned in this episode:Understanding “workscape”Value-literacyHelen Palmer’s LinkedIn profileAbout the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter

Episode 344 - Career change after 40 does not have to mean abandoning everything you have built. In this conversation with Kate Dillon, we explore portfolio careers, small career experiments, transferable career capital and how to create more professional options without making an unnecessary leap. There is a particular kind of career dissatisfaction I see frequently among experienced professionals. They are successful by conventional measures. They have seniority, expertise, a respectable salary and two or three decades of professional history behind them. Yet increasingly, they feel uneasy about the idea that the next ten or fifteen years of their working life should look much like the last ten or fifteen.The problem is that many people interpret this uneasiness as evidence that something dramatic needs to happen. They imagine leaving their employer, retraining completely, launching a consultancy, buying a business or finally pursuing the idea they have been quietly carrying around for years. Then reality intervenes. There is a mortgage, children at university, aging parents, a lifestyle built around a certain income, and a professional reputation that took a long time to establish.This is where the conversation about career change can become unnecessarily binary. Stay or leave. Corporate career or entrepreneurship. Employment or consulting. Security or freedom.My conversation with Australian lawyer, strategist and entrepreneur Kate Dillon offered a much more useful possibility: perhaps the next stage of an experienced professional's career does not require abandoning what came before. It may instead involve building outward from it.Read the full Blog on the Website Book a Free Introductory Meeting with RenataJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe Now31 Days of Action for Job SeekersFind Your Talents: Learn About Your Strengths, and Watch Your Career GrowLear More About Renata's career coaching and courses Timestamps to guide your listening:00:00 The myth that you have to pick a lane02:47 How she built a portfolio career (it wasn’t planned)06:31 The loss and public failure that freed her10:35 Planner or not? Vision without a rigid plan14:34 Why she built a business without quitting her job21:06 The smallest experiment before you leap25:35 Who to talk to (and the boss conversation to have)31:31 The money question no one warns you about37:02 “What do people pay you for?” and why you never start from scratch41:30 AI, and the hardest skill: unlearning47:02 Your next 12 months: where to startLinks mentioned in this episode:Kate’s diagnosticsFind my talents TalentPredix strenghts assessmentBook Mentioned: Do the Work, by Steven PressfieldEpisode 121 - Impostor Syndrome and Fear of SuccessEpisode 242 - The Role of Business Intelligence (BQ), Emotional Intelligence (EQ), and Social Intelligence (SQ) in Career AdvancementEpisode 287 - Hiring Makes No Sense Anymore: Why Recruitment and Hiring Feel Like a Burden and How Leaders Can Fix ThemEpisode 288 - How to Job Hunt During the Mid-Year SlowdownAbout the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter

Episode 243 - Salary is one of the most uncomfortable parts of the job search, especially when employers ask for expectations early in the process. In this episode, compensation consultant Matt McFarlane explains how companies think about pay, salary bands, job titles, negotiation, and what experienced professionals need to understand before naming a number.Few moments in a job search create as much discomfort as the salary question. It often appears too early, too bluntly, and too impersonally. A candidate is completing an online application, still unsure whether the role is a genuine fit, and suddenly a form asks for salary expectations or current compensation. For experienced professionals, especially those in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, that question can feel less like an administrative step and more like a trap.Read the full Blog on the WebsiteBook a Free Introductory Meeting with RenataJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe Now31 Days of Action for Job SeekersFind Your Talents: Learn About Your Strengths, and Watch Your Career GrowLear More About Renata's career coaching and courses Timestamps to guide your listening:0:00 The question that traps every job applicant0:47 Why nobody wants to talk about salary1:56 What employers really do with your number7:02 A smarter way to answer the salary question9:42 How companies build your pay package14:38 Why the top of the band is rarely offered18:21 Job titles, ego, and what they cost you22:29 Why startups hand out titles instead of money25:23 What startup hiring gets wrong (and right)30:55 The client who wrote his own job description34:07 Do employers expect you to negotiate?38:57 What you can negotiate besides salary39:47 Who fixes broken pay structures42:49 Inside the Startup People Summit44:34 Ask Matt your questions on LinkedInLinks mentioned in this episode:LinkedIn profile, Matt McFarlaneWatch the Replay of the Startup People Summit 2026FNDN’s website (Matt’s business)Podcast episode about salary negotiation (245)Podcast episode with startup founder Alex Naoumidis (47)Podcast episode with startup Chief People Officer, Emily Zhang (191)About the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter

Episode 342 - What if confidence isn’t the thing holding you back? I’m sharing what I’m seeing in the job market right now, from executive presence and relatability to why being more human may be your biggest advantage in the age of AI.Confidence has become one of the most common explanations experienced professionals give me when their careers stall.“I need to be more confident.”“I’ve lost my confidence.”“I don’t think I come across confidently enough in interviews.”I hear versions of these statements every week from people with 15 or 20+ years of professional experience. They have managed teams, delivered complex projects, advised executives and built careers that demonstrate considerable competence. Yet when they enter a job search or begin aiming for a more senior role, confidence suddenly becomes the diagnosis. Increasingly, I think we may be diagnosing the wrong problem.The professionals who stand out today are not necessarily the people projecting the greatest certainty. Often, they are the ones who communicate with enough self-awareness to be credible, enough courage to be visible and enough humanity to be memorable. And in an employment market increasingly saturated with AI-assisted communication, those qualities may become considerably more valuable.Read the full Blog on the Website Book a Free Introductory Meeting with RenataJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe Now31 Days of Action for Job SeekersFind Your Talents: Learn About Your Strengths, and Watch Your Career GrowLear More About Renata's career coaching and courses Timestamps to guide your listening:0:00 The new luxury is not using AI1:06 Why today is off-script2:49 Three things I can't stop noticing4:18 Why relatable beats confident8:21 Confidence is overrated10:31 It's not really confidence they lack12:04 What executive presence actually is15:07 There's no one right way to command a room17:16 The worst thing you can do in an interview19:43 The new luxury: slowing down in an AI world21:27 The career privilege nobody talks about23:54 When AI writes everything, being human is scarce26:23 Why slow is the new status symbol30:19 Become more of yourselfLinks mentioned in this episode:LinkedIn post from the beginning of 2026Episode 118 - Generalist or Specialist: Chances Are, You May Be Misusing the Labels!The ONE Thing Executives Who Land Jobs Fastest All DoAbout the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter

Episode 341 - Financial stress can change how we assess risk, negotiate, job search and plan our next career move. Carrie Joy Grimes, founder and CEO of WorkMoney, joins me to discuss financial runway, career transitions, money anxiety and how to make better decisions when your income or employment suddenly feels uncertain. When experienced professionals lose their jobs, one of the first questions I ask is not about their resume, LinkedIn profile or network. I ask about money. How long can you afford to be out of work? The answer matters because a job search conducted with six months of financial runway can look very different from one conducted with six weeks.Financial stress has a way of turning a career decision into an emergency. Suddenly, the goal is no longer to find the right next role. It is to make the discomfort stop. That distinction came up repeatedly in my recent conversation with Carrie Joy Grimes, founder and CEO of WorkMoney, a U.S. nonprofit focused on helping working people improve their financial lives, and author of The Joy of Money: How to Do More With and Feel Better About Your Money, No Matter How Much You Have.“Financial stress isn't a thing that we walk around saying, ‘I'm financially stressed right now,’” Grimes told me. Instead, she described it as something that gradually weighs on us until we become accustomed to operating under pressure. That pressure can have consequences well beyond our bank accounts.Read the full Blog on the Website Book a Free Introductory Meeting with RenataJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe Now31 Days of Action for Job SeekersFind Your Talents: Learn About Your Strengths, and Watch Your Career GrowLear More About Renata's career coaching and courses Timestamps to guide your listening:01:03 Introduction and Context of Financial Stress02:31 Understanding Financial Stress and Its Impact05:11 Strategies for Managing Financial Stress08:22 Navigating Career Transitions and Financial Decisions12:51 The Role of Employers in Alleviating Financial Stress17:59 Adapting to a Changing Workforce and Financial Landscape21:15 The Importance of Financial Education and Support25:50 Conclusion and Final Thoughts on Financial Well-being33:18 Embracing Change: The Transition to Entrepreneurship36:36 Budgeting for Joy: Finding Freedom in Financial Choices38:41 The Reality of Financial Distress: Sharing Real Stories41:27 Overcoming Financial Anxiety: Understanding Your Worth45:22 Empowering Women: Negotiating and Understanding Value52:09 Building a Supportive Community: The Role of Organizations54:07 The Joy of Money: Understanding Your Relationship with FinancesLinks mentioned in this episode:Carrie Joy Grimes’ new book, The Joy of MoneyCarrie’s non profit organization, WorkMoneyAbout the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter

👉 Ready to take the next step in your career? Book a free Career Coaching Introductory Meeting with me.👉 Join 5,000+ senior professionals getting actionable ideas to get your next job and take control of your career directly in their inboxThe people deciding your next role form an opinion about you before you ever apply. This conversation shows you how to shape it.My guest is Vanessa Errecarte: marketing lecturer at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, consultant, and author of Valuable and Visible. She created one of the only for-credit MBA courses in personal branding in the United States, and she has a message for every senior professional who was taught that great work speaks for itself: the market stopped listening to silent excellence.We talk about why decades of strong work can disappear from view after a redundancy, how recruiters and hiring managers now discover senior candidates before a resume is ever read, and what separates real authority from empty visibility on LinkedIn. Vanessa explains why the advice to simply post more backfires, and why helping people publicly beats talking about yourself.You will also hear the practical layer: her formula for introducing yourself so people remember you, the difference between an influencer's job and yours, what AI can and cannot do for your thinking, and a minimum viable personal brand that takes 1 to 3 hours a week, starting with one LinkedIn post.In this episode, career coach Renata Bernarde and UC Davis marketing lecturer Vanessa Errecarte argue that personal branding is about creating value for others rather than promoting yourself: senior professionals get remembered, referred, and recruited when they publicly help their audience solve problems, because visibility without earned trust produces no career results.Your one thing this week: write one LinkedIn post using Vanessa's formula. Open with a short personal story, connect it to why it matters, then teach a framework of three to five steps your peers can use.As I say at the close of this episode, your expertise can be recognized, remembered and recommended through a little bit of work on your part. Subscribe so next week's episode finds you.Read the full Blog on the Website Book a Free Introductory Meeting with RenataJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe Now31 Days of Action for Job SeekersFind Your Talents: Learn About Your Strengths, and Watch Your Career GrowLear More About Renata's career coaching and courses Timestamps to guide your listening:00:00 Introduction to Personal Branding and Visibility03:06 The Shift in Career Progression and Recruitment05:55 The Importance of Genuine Authority in Visibility09:08 Navigating Personal and Professional Branding11:52 Building Trust Through Value15:03 Leveraging Personal Stories for Professional Growth17:46 The Role of AI in Personal Branding20:56 Overcoming the Visibility Trap23:57 The Challenge of Authenticity in Online Presence27:33 Creating Engaging Content28:30 The Impact of Viral Posts29:04 Building Trust and Authenticity31:57 Navigating Job Transitions36:06 Minimal Visibility Strategies39:31 Consistency in Personal Branding43:24 Leveraging Different Platforms46:17 The Human Element in Online Engagement50:11 The Importance of Real-Life ConnectionsLinks mentioned in this episode:Vanessa’s websiteLearn more and join Renata’s RB Career ClubAbout the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter

Ready to take the next step in your career? Book a free Career Coaching Introductory Meeting with me.Episode 339 - I answer the seven LinkedIn questions my career coaching clients ask most often, from headlines and About sections to recruiter visibility, skills, posting, and making your profile support your next career move. Most experienced professionals know LinkedIn matters. They know recruiters use it, hiring managers check it, and that former colleagues, board contacts, clients, and professional peers may look them up before making an introduction.And yet, many still treat LinkedIn as a digital filing cabinet. A place to store job titles, dates, and old responsibilities. That is a missed opportunity.Your LinkedIn profile is designed to be a record of where you have worked. It is a positioning tool. It should help the right people understand who you are, what you are known for, what problems you solve, and where you may be heading next.This is especially important for professionals in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. By this stage, your career is usually more complex. You may have worked across sectors, held several leadership roles., and you may be changing direction. For example, you may be moving from executive work to board roles, from corporate to consulting, from one industry to another, or from full employment into a portfolio career. If that's the case, your career complexity can be valuable. But if your LinkedIn profile does not translate it clearly, it can become confusing.That is why Episode 339 of The Job Hunting Podcast focuses on the seven LinkedIn questions my clients ask me most often. These are not questions from people who lack experience. They are questions from people who often have a lot of experience, but are not sure how to make that experience visible, searchable, and relevant. Read the full Blog on the Website Book a Free Introductory Meeting with RenataJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe Now31 Days of Action for Job SeekersFind Your Talents: Learn About Your Strengths, and Watch Your Career GrowLear More About Renata's career coaching and courses Timestamps to guide your listening:00:00 The Importance of LinkedIn for Professionals06:05 Utilizing the Featured Section08:20 Choosing the Right Skills14:37 Crafting Your About Section20:53 Why Recruiters Aren't Finding You26:05 Positioning for Future OpportunitiesLinks mentioned in this episode:My LinkedIn Audit ServiceMy websiteAbout the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter

Ready to take the next step in your career? Book a free Career Coaching Introductory Meeting with me.Episode 338 - I answer the seven career questions my clients ask most often about visibility, CVs, achievements, career change, age bias, role choice, and career storytelling. My clients don’t come to career coaching because they lack experience. They come because they are trying to make sense of that experience. They have done the work. They have led teams, managed complexity, navigated politics, influenced stakeholders, delivered projects, rebuilt systems, survived restructures, and made decisions under pressure.But when they sit down to explain what they want next, the story often becomes unclear. This is especially true for experienced professionals – those in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. By this stage, your career is rarely linear. You may have worked across sectors, changed functions, taken time out, held several leadership roles, been made redundant, moved countries, started consulting, returned to employment, or begun exploring board opportunities.Your experience may be rich. But rich experience can also be hard to explain. That is why Episode 338 of The Job Hunting Podcast focuses on the seven broader career questions my clients ask me most often.These are not LinkedIn questions. I will cover those in another episode. These are the bigger questions behind a job search, career transition, or professional reset. They are the questions that sit underneath the CV, the interview, the networking conversation, and the search strategy.And if there is one idea I want you to take from this episode, it is this: Your experience does not speak for itself. You need to translate it.Read the full Blog on the Website Book a Free Introductory Meeting with RenataJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe Now31 Days of Action for Job SeekersFind Your Talents: Learn About Your Strengths, and Watch Your Career GrowLear More About Renata's career coaching and courses Timestamps to guide your listening:00:00 Understanding the Translation Problem in Careers01:07 The Seven Key Career Questions02:01 Visibility in the Job Market05:25 Tailoring Your CV for Success08:38 Highlighting Achievements Over Responsibilities11:15 Navigating Career Changes14:02 Addressing Age and Experience Bias17:53 Choosing the Right Roles to Apply For20:10 Crafting a Clear Career StoryLinks mentioned in this episode:You can find more information about Renata's coaching services at renatabernarde.comAbout the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter

Ready to take the next step in your career? Book a free Career Coaching Introductory Meeting with me.Episode 337 - Job searching can test even the most experienced professionals. In this episode, I reflect on Sabalenka’s emotional loss at Roland Garros and explain why job seekers need to move from emotional reaction to strategic response after rejection, redundancy, long job searches, interviews, and career setbacks.There are moments in sport when we see more than performance.We see pressure, and the private battle that sits underneath public achievement.That happened recently at Roland Garros, when Aryna Sabalenka lost a match many expected her to win and later said she felt like she wanted to quit tennis. Reports from Reuters and Sky Sports captured the emotional weight of that moment. It was not polished or strategic. It was human.I was watching the interview with my father, and he said something that stayed with me. He observed that Sabalenka has the physical gifts of an elite tennis player. The strength, the talent, the training, the ability. But at that level, the difference is often mindset.That comment made me think about job seekers.Not because looking for work is the same as elite sport, of course. But because both can place people under intense pressure. Both require repeated performance under judgment. Both involve rejection, recovery, comparison, and the ability to reset after disappointment. Read the full Blog on the Website Book a Free Introductory Meeting with RenataJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe Now31 Days of Action for Job SeekersFind Your Talents: Learn About Your Strengths, and Watch Your Career GrowLear More About Renata's career coaching and courses Timestamps to guide your listening:00:00 The Emotional Side of Job Searching05:45 Mindset Matters in Job Search10:01 Navigating Redundancy and Emotional Responses17:17 Dealing with Rejection and Performance Feedback22:12 The Challenges of a Long Job Search28:00 Exploring Career Changes and New Directions32:47 Building Resilience in Job Search StrategiesLinks mentioned in this episode:Renata's website About the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter