In this episode of the All In podcast, Joan Michelson shares wisdom that she’s gained throughout her long and varied career, which has gone back and forth between corporate communications and journalism for the most part, but has been focused in the “green” economy (energy, sustainability, climate, corporate responsibility) for the last 15 years. Joan currently works mostly on career coaching about transitions; both transitions within a career, as well as helping clients with transitioning out of the workforce and into starting their own business. She also does book coaching, helping clients get started with writing books about their areas of expertise.

In her current career coaching endeavours, Joan focuses mainly on mid-career women, particularly in STEM fields (and especially women who are also in the energy/climate/sustainability sector.) Joan is striving to make an impact in the business world by making more space for women to be successful – for example, at her position at Chrysler in the past, she actively worked to get female dealers featured and frequently ran campaigns about female drivers, as women car-buyers were often being ignored.

Joan shares her idea of a “career GPS” and how one can use this idea when planning out ideal career moves by looking broadly at where you want to go, but honoring the tangents that arise. Joan and Daniel discuss the dangers of making career moves based on assumptions; she advises listeners to assess the reasons behind the assumptions they are making and try to figure out why they are doing the things they believe they need to be doing, and not to let themselves get blinded to other possibilities.