How

Professional
Women Can
Master Career
Change
A guide to finding your
power and achieving
professional fulfillment

Caroline Castrillon, Founder and Career Coach

www.CorporateEscapeArtist.com
caroline@corporateescapeartist.com
Introduction

Introduction
Hello and welcome!

This guide is grounded in my personal experience and is intended for professional women
who need help navigating a career change. For you, it could mean changing industries,
becoming a freelancer, creating a side gig, or even starting your own business.

For decades, I struggled to "climb the corporate ladder" because that's what I thought I
was supposed to do. I worked for over 20 years at some big-name companies like Dell,
Sony, and AMD until I accepted a VP of Marketing job, making more money than ever. I
still remember how excited my friends and family were. But I was miserable.

Eventually, it got to the point where I decided there must be more. So, I hired my own
career coach. That’s when everything changed. It felt like verbalizing all my hopes and
dreams made the universe conspire to help me. Not long after, my company was sold,
and I was told my position was eliminated. The good news—I had already started down
the path of becoming a career coach and creating my company, Corporate Escape Artist.
That was the year I turned 46.

These are trying times—especially for women in the workforce.

I intend for this guide to provide the inspiration you need to find your power. Even though
you might not feel it right now, I know it's inside you. Once you are able to access it, you
can find a way to be your authentic self and achieve career fulfillment. It's not always easy,
but I promise it's possible.

CorporateEscapeArtist.com
Here’s to a career filled with the freedom, flexibility, and fulfillment you deserve!

Caroline Castrillon
Founder/Career and Leadership Coach
Corporate Escape Artist
www.CorporateEscapeArtist.com

caroline@corporateescapeartist.com

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3
About The Author

About The Author

I'm a career and leadership coach who helps
Fun Fact professional women navigate career change. My
goal is to help women find their power so they
can be true to themselves and achieve career
fulfillment. I started my company, Corporate
I'm a first- Escape Artist, after a successful 25-year
marketing career working for organizations like
generation Sony, Dell, and AMD. So, I understand the

American and challenges, pitfalls, and frustrations that women

experience when climbing the corporate ladder.
proud Latina I'm also a first-generation American and proud
Latina, so I’m especially passionate about
supporting women of diverse backgrounds.

In addition to being a Certified Professional Coach

(CPC) I've also been a regular Forbes contributor
for over four years. My writing is focused on topics
including career, entrepreneurship, and women’s
advancement. Since 2019, my stories have
garnered over 6.1M pageviews. My work is also
regularly featured in publications including the

CorporateEscapeArtist.com
New York Times, Entrepreneur, Inc., Success
Magazine, Fast Company, and many others.

When I’m not coaching amazing women, you can

find me running, reading, traveling, wine tasting,
watching yet another gripping true crime episode,
or walking my two fur babies, Layla and Samson.
Yes, my kids have four paws.

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5
“You don't have to see
the whole staircase, just
take the first step.”

― Martin Luther King Jr.

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 Table Of Contents

Table Of Contents
02
Introduction

04 09
About The Author Why Women Leaders
Are Leaving Their Jobs
At Record Rates

CorporateEscapeArtist.com
13 16
What To Do If You Are 5 Common Career
Successful And Change Fears And
Unfulfilled How To Handle Them

22
Additional
Resources

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8
Why Women Leaders Are

Why Women Are Leaving

Leaving Their Jobs At
Record Rates
Women are tired and burned out. They aren't
getting what they need from work and are
deciding to take action.
According to the latest Women in the Workplace study¹ sponsored by Lean In and
McKinsey & Company, women leaders are leaving corporate America at the highest rate in
years. In fact, the gap between women and men leaving is the largest it’s ever been. It’s
called by some as the “Great Breakup,” and it refers to a trend where women are more
likely to leave their jobs to get their needs met.

It’s important to note that these ambitious women aren’t leaving the workforce. Instead,
they are walking away from their companies in search of better opportunities. Because
they are reevaluating their values and priorities, some are even switching industries
or becoming entrepreneurs.

The economic and personal pressure is higher on women than ever before. Here are some
reasons why they are leaving their jobs at record rates.

CorporateEscapeArtist.com
Unequal pay
A Pew Research Center analysis² confirmed that in 2022 women earned approximately
82% of what men did. One explanation is that even though women have increased their
presence in the C-suite, they are still overrepresented in lower-paying roles relative to
their share of the workforce. Gender discrimination and unconscious gender bias may also
contribute to the wage discrepancy. Not surprisingly, many of these women are deciding
to start their own businesses. Because while entrepreneurship carries risk, it also has the
potential to reap greater rewards over time.

Stress and burnout

Work-related stress is taking a physical and mental toll on female leaders. According to
the Deloitte report, Women @ Work 2022: A Global Outlook³, women are experiencing
dangerously high levels of burnout. The situation is so severe that 53% of respondents say
their stress levels are higher than a year ago, with almost half feeling exhausted. As a
result, nearly 40% of those women looking for new employment cited burnout as the main
reason.

¹ Women in the workplace 2022 (2022) LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company. Available at: https://womenintheworkplace.com/.

² Aragão, C. (2023) Gender pay gap in U.S. hasn’t changed much in two decades, Pew Research Center. Available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-
reads/2023/03/01/gender-pay-gap-facts/.

³New Deloitte Report: Working Women Face alarmingly high levels of burnout despite shifting work arrangements, rise in hybrid working (2022) Deloitte. Available at:
https://www.deloitte.com/an/en/about/press-room/men-face-alarmingly-high-levels-of-burnout-despite-shifting-work-arrangements-rise-in-hybrid-working.html.
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Why Women Leaders Are

Why Women Are Leaving

Leaving Their Jobs At
Record Rates

Harassment and microaggressions

Microaggressions can be around gender or race and include the use of sexist language or
subtle comments that are disrespectful and sometimes toxic. One example is when a
female employee shares an idea in a meeting, but then a male co-worker receives credit for
it when he repeats it. According to the McKinsey data, women in leadership are also far
more likely than men to have colleagues who imply that they aren’t qualified for their jobs.
And finally, women leaders are twice as likely as their male colleagues to be mistaken for
someone more junior.

Lack of flexibility

CorporateEscapeArtist.com
To keep women leaders engaged, organizations must offer flexible options like
remote/hybrid work, flexible hours, and a four-day workweek. In fact, the McKinsey
survey confirmed that almost half of women leaders say flexibility is one of the top three
considerations in job mobility. Yet, while many companies claim to embrace flexibility, only
33% of the women in the Deloitte study say their employers offer flexible work policies.
What is worse, a whopping 94% of respondents believe that requesting flexible options
will negatively impact their chance for promotion.

Limited advancement opportunities

While women are just as likely to want to move up in the organization, it is more difficult
for them to advance. In research from MIT Sloan⁴, although women received higher
performance ratings than their male colleagues, they received 8.3% lower ratings for
potential than men. Potential scores are subjective and reflect how much their managers
believed they would develop in the future. Because those ratings strongly predict
promotions, female employees were 14% less likely to be promoted than male ones.

It’s about time women start making bold choices. They want more from work and are
taking action. If companies want to retain valuable talent, they need to create an equitable
workplace where women can thrive. Otherwise, it’s clear that women leaders won't
hesitate to get their needs met elsewhere.

⁴Somers, M. (2022) Women are less likely than men to be promoted. here’s one reason why, MIT Sloan. Available at: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-
matter/women-are-less-likely-men-to-be-promoted-heres-one-reason-why.
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What To Do If You Are

Successful & Unfulfilled

Successful And Unfulfilled
For years, I pushed myself to advance
professionally. The higher I climbed, the less
fulfilled I felt. Finally, I decided there was
something missing and it was time to take action.

As a high achiever, you have a tremendous drive. You can set goals and achieve them.
You’ve reached the pinnacle of your career and attained financial success. Yet, despite all
this, you feel dissatisfied and empty. And you can’t understand why. Many of us find
ourselves in this dilemma—successful and unfulfilled. If that sounds like you, these
strategies will get you on the road to career fulfillment.

Revisit your “why”

Start by asking yourself why you chose your career. If you ask people who are successful
and unfulfilled why they do what they do, you might get answers like:

• It seemed like the most practical option

• It’s what my parents did (or expected me to do)
• It was a field I knew would make me financially successful

CorporateEscapeArtist.com
These are decisions driven by fear and insecurity rather than a desire to find meaningful
work. What gives life meaning is attaching ourselves to something significant and finding
our purpose in the world. When we do, we can discover the joy and fulfillment that we've
been searching for.

Create a personal mission statement

A personal mission statement is one of the most powerful tools to achieve career
fulfillment. It should consist of four key elements:

Your values
Your personality
Your interests and passions
Your strengths and unique gifts

Once you are clear on who you are and what’s important to you, start writing your
personal mission statement. It could be one paragraph or two sentences. It's up to you.
Then post it where you can see it and review it often to ensure you stay focused on what
matters to you.

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 What To Do If You Are

Successful & Unfulfilled

Successful And Unfulfilled

Here are some examples of personal mission statements⁵ from prominent visionaries:

• “To have fun in my journey through life and learn from my mistakes.” – Richard Branson

• “Not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion,
some humor, and some style.” – Maya Angelou

• “To be a teacher. And to be known for inspiring my students to be more than they
thought they could be.” – Oprah Winfrey

Reassess your values

CorporateEscapeArtist.com
When you identify the things that are important to you, you’re more likely to cultivate
habits that are consistent with who you want to become. Take time to reassess your core
values and whether they are congruent with your current profession.

Consider this exercise: write down your top ten values (they could include things like
family, adventure, autonomy, or creativity, among others) and then narrow the list down to
the top five. Rank those top five in order of priority and write down why each of these
values is important to you. If you feel successful and unfulfilled, this activity will help you to
uncover what really matters to you.

Review your definition of success

Maybe you used to define success by your job title, the number of zeros in your bank
account or how many academic degrees you could accumulate. Take a step back to review
your definition of success. If you are successful and unfulfilled, your definition has probably
changed over time. Perhaps it’s now defined as being able to step outside your comfort
zone, balance family and work, or make a meaningful impact on the world. As the author
and motivational speaker, Jim Rohn has said, "Success is not to be pursued; it is to be
attracted by the person you become⁶."

⁵Tom Gerencer, C. (2023) Personal mission statement (30+ examples & writing guide), zety. Available at: https://zety.com/blog/personal-mission-statement.
⁶Jim Rohn - success is not to be pursued; it is to be... - brainyquote. Available at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/jim_rohn_147512.

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What To Do If You Are

Successful & Unfulfilled

Successful And Unfulfilled

Start doing things that scare you

Have you noticed lately that you’ve been sleepwalking through your career? If you’ve
mentally checked out, it could mean that you aren’t feeling challenged anymore. The
reason this is significant is that the magic happens outside your comfort zone. If you
don’t stretch yourself in directions that scare you, you aren’t growing as a human being.
So, throw your ego out the window and start doing one thing every day that scares you.
It’s in moments like these that you learn the most.

Chase mastery

CorporateEscapeArtist.com
In the book If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Happy⁷, author and University of Texas at
Austin professor Raj Raghunathan argues that to be truly happy, we all need to feel like
we're good at something—a feeling of mastery. Yet high achievers often don't enjoy the
happiness that should come from doing good work because they go about measuring
mastery all wrong. They chase money and recognition rather than mastery and impact,
which is a sure recipe for dissatisfaction.

Instead, Raghunathan suggests we stop chasing external signs of success and turn our
attention back to what we fundamentally need—mastery. Do that, and not only will you
be happier, but you'll also probably be more successful.

"When you don't need to compare yourself to other people, you gravitate towards
things that you instinctively enjoy doing, and you're good at, and if you just focus on
that for a long enough time, then chances are very, very high that you're going to
progress towards mastery anyway, and the fame and the power and the money and
everything will come as a byproduct, rather than something that you chase directly in
trying to be superior to other people," he writes.

The bottom line is, rather than search for success, discover what gifts you can share
with the world. At that point, fulfillment will be just around the corner.

⁷Raghunathan, R. (2016) If you’re so smart why aren’t you happy: How to turn career success into Life Success. London: Ebury Publishing.

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5 Common Career Change

5 Career Change Fears

Fears And How To Handle
Them
Fear is normal when you're pushing yourself
outside your comfort zone! Here are some of
the most common fears (I experienced all of
them) and how to cope.
More than a quarter of Americans might make a career change in 2023, according to
Globalization Partners’ 2022 Global Employee Survey⁸. The survey revealed that
while 33% of workers are likely to switch jobs within the same sector, 26% want to
change careers entirely. In terms of why they want to make a switch, workers ranked
better pay (34%), the opportunity to change their work schedule (34%) and
professional opportunities that weren’t available when they were younger (34%) as
the most common reasons.

But it can be scary to make a career change. In fact, according to the Holmes-Rahe
Life Stress Inventory⁹, changing to a different line of work ranks just below the death
of a close friend. Fortunately, there are ways to mitigate the anxiety so it doesn’t
prevent you from moving forward. Here are some of the most common career
change fears and how to handle them.

CorporateEscapeArtist.com
#1: Fear of Failure
One of the most widespread career change fears is the fear of failure. The fear of
failure often originates from a fear of experiencing shame or embarrassment. We
worry so much about feeling humiliated and disappointing others that we give up on
attempting to achieve our dream. The problem with fear of failure is that it can be
paralyzing, causing us to do nothing.

Here is an exercise to deal with the fear of failure:

Consider all the worst-case scenarios and write them down on paper. Be specific.
Then in a second column, write down what you can do to minimize the likelihood of
the worst-case item happening. In a third column, decide what action you would take
to get back on track if the worst case did happen. Then in a fourth column, rate how
likely the worst-case scenario is on a scale of one (not likely) to 10 (highly likely). This
simple exercise will help you put fear into perspective and realize that the worst-case
outcome is unlikely or manageable.

⁸ G-P (2022) Today’s workforce is planning ahead: Results from G-P’s 2022 global employee survey: G-P, G. Available at: https://www.globalization-
partners.com/blog/todays-workforce-planning-ahead-results-g-p-2022-global-employee-survey/.

⁹Holmes- rahe stress inventory (2022) The American Institute of Stress. Available at: https://www.stress.org/holmes-rahe-stress-inventory.

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““I was always looking
outside myself for
strength and confidence,
but it comes from
within. It is there all
the time.”

― Anna Freud

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5 Common Career Change

5 Career Change Fears

Fears And How To Handle
Them

#2: Fear of what others may think

If you’re afraid of making a career change, fear of people’s opinions may hold you back.
Perhaps your father encouraged you to pursue a “secure” job in finance, and now you
feel you’d let him down by becoming a professional chef. In the end, you’re the one
that’s going to live with the choices you make, not others. To deal with this concern,
start by cultivating authenticity and developing a strong sense of self.

Ask yourself some important questions:

CorporateEscapeArtist.com
What do I care about?
What do I really want?
What activities do I enjoy?
What legacy do I want to leave behind?
What would I pursue if I wasn’t so worried about being judged?

Then focus on your purpose and intentions. Why are you thinking about changing
careers in the first place? Is it because you want to make a difference in the world? Do
you want a better quality of life? If you can remember your “why,” you’ll be able to stay
focused and less concerned about the opinions of others.

#3: Fear of being too old

Changing your career path may seem scary, especially if you are over 40. But it is not
uncommon or impossible. The good news is that the majority of older career changers
are successful, based on a study from the American Institute for Economic Research¹⁰.
One way to face the fear is to think about all the advantages that come with someone
who has a significant amount of work experience. For example, as you progress in your
career, you acquire valuable contacts and diverse hard and soft skills. You also may be
more financially stable, which provides additional flexibility when planning a career
change.

¹⁰ Saverio-Eastman, L. (2015) New careers for older workers, AIER. Available at: https://www.aier.org/new-careers-for-older-workers-2/.
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5 Common Career Change

5 Career Change Fears

Fears And How To Handle
Them

#4: Fear of wasting experience

A typical career change fear is having to start from the bottom. To deal with this, recognize
that you have more transferrable skills than you realize. Also, if you have a strong network,
it will be easier to make the right introductions to make a smooth transition. Finally, don’t
overlook your soft skills like leadership, communication and problem-solving, which are
more in demand than ever. Everything you’ve done up until now has prepared you for
what’s coming next.

CorporateEscapeArtist.com
#5: Fear of uncertainty
There are no guarantees in life. When you make a career change, there is always some risk
involved. But you can mitigate that risk in several ways if you:

Embrace uncertainty and look at it as a learning experience

Take small steps instead of giant leaps
Develop new skills outside your comfort zone
Avoid dwelling on things you can’t control
Seek support from a small group of people you trust

Uncertainty is all around us. But by focusing on developing a resilient mindset, you’ll be
more likely to face the unknown with confidence.

The most important thing to remember is that it’s okay to be afraid. Just don’t let it
interfere with your vision. Mastering fear involves learning how to recognize and change
the conversation in your mind. Once you do that, there are no limits to what you can
achieve!

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"Sometimes the bravest
and most important
thing you can do is just
show up. "

― Brené Brown

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Additional Resources

Additional Resources
When I started my business, it was overwhelming being a
solopreneur. I had no idea what tools would help me
grow and scale the business.

To save you time, if you're thinking of freelancing,

creating a side gig, or starting your own business like I
did, these are some of my favorite resources (I use all of
these personally!):

CorporateEscapeArtist.com
▪ Domain names and web hosting: Namecheap
▪ Accounting software: Quickbooks
▪ Web content management system: WordPress
▪ Web hosting: Siteground
▪ Graphic design platform: Canva
▪ Scheduling software: Calendly
▪ Email marketing: MailChimp
▪ Document management: DocuSign
▪ Business naming and logos: SquadHelp

For more information check out my blog:

CorporateEscapeArtist.com/blog

or email me at: caroline@corporateescapeartist.com

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