Gina Riley joins our intergenerational Mode/Switch team to show you ways to survive career shock, helping you become your next organization's "candidate of choice."

I remember one day being on a treadmill in our university fitness center, squinting and panting towards a sunlit window. My pace felt good. My heart and lungs felt okay. Sure, my legs felt rubbery, but this was a challenge workout—so I hit the speed-up button to a sprinting pace.

Then came a twitch in the tread. A momentary slippage between the rubber track and the machinery beneath. It wasn’t a loss of traction or a stumble on my part. I hadn’t tripped, I was sure of it. But I felt the machine itself, for the briefest second, lose its grip on itself. I stopped looking at the day and started imagining myself shooting backwards off the treadmill and into an emergency room.

That’s how the thought of career transition feels to me—like a slippage in the taken-for-granted reality beneath my feet. And the truth is, as institutions and organizations struggle for footing in a janky and unpredictable economy, career shock is a not-unlikely future.

Here’s the thing about career shock: it compels you to rethink your life and work—and that can be a gift. A difficult gift. But a gift all the same.

This week, the Mode/Switchers do some vocational round-tabling in the company of career-transition expert Gina Riley, author of the forthcoming book Qualified Isn’t Enough. Gina is a career strategist, who draws on a quarter century of business experience and an MA in Whole Systems Designs. You’ll find that her kind manner and frank advice make room for hope.

Join us for an idea-generating intergenerational conversation. As our Gen Z co-host, Jake Aupperlee, notes this week moving between jobs can feel like you’re running through fog. Here’s a conversation to clear the air for you.