From Overworked & Underpaid to $40K Raise: How She Almost Settled (Success Spotlight Series)

She was scrolling through job boards again, looking at the $60K postings. Lower than what she was already making. Lower than what she needed to live. But her brain kept whispering: Just apply. At least it's something. You need to pay bills.

This wasn't supposed to be her story. She'd been the first in her family to attend college and graduate school. She'd worked research projects across multiple ecosystems. She had the credentials, the experience, the passion. But the conservation field was telling her she should accept being overworked and underpaid and she'd started believing it was just "how it is."

In this Success Spotlight interview, Jessica Gutierrez shares the raw truth about what it's like when external circumstances, funding cuts, field dynamics, exhausting job searches, start shrinking your belief in what's possible. She'd asked for a promotion after doing work beyond her job description, only to be told she needed to take on even more responsibility first. That's when something clicked: she was the common denominator in this cycle of resentment and burnout.

Four months later, she accepted an offer for $40,000 more than her previous role—in a different state, working as a nursery inspector protecting biodiversity and forest ecosystems. The job she actually wanted, not the survival job her panicked brain kept trying to convince her to take.

But here's what makes Jessica's story particularly powerful: she didn't get this result by applying to hundreds of jobs or perfecting her resume. She got it through a conversation in July with a friend about an opening that wouldn't even post until fall. The cocktail party method—the networking approach she initially dreaded as "transactional and icky"—is what ultimately landed her dream role.

This interview pulls back the curtain on what it actually takes to override your brain's desperate energy, why anxiety and optimism are both fantasies (so you might as well choose the useful one), and how someone who hated networking learned to make it feel authentic instead of gross.

What You'll Discover:

• The internal moment when Jessica realized she had to stop accepting "overworked and underpaid" as her truth
• Why her brain wanted to apply for jobs $20K below what she was already making (and how she fought that urge)
• The shift from "I'm doing everything right" to identifying actual blind spots that were keeping her stuck
• How a July conversation turned into an October job offer (and why she had no idea it was happening)
• The tangible difference between therapy and coaching that made this process feel direct instead of circular

Ready to stop settling and start communicating your actual value? Join Mindset to Hired at www.nataliefishertraining.com/start

Listen to the Full Episode:  

SUBSCRIBE FOR WEEKLY INSPIRATION ON

APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY