On My Own Terms: Career Change | Life Pivot | Success Redefined
On My Own Terms is the podcast for career change, life pivots, and redefining success in today’s fast-changing world.
Hosted by John Lim—whose journey spans banking, entrepreneurship, tech startups, and e-commerce—it explores what it takes to build a meaningful career, especially in Asia where traditions run deep. From launching Singapore’s largest indoor laser tag business to navigating layoffs during the tech winter, John has lived the challenges of reinvention.
Each episode dives into real conversations with career changers, entrepreneurs, and unconventional thinkers, uncovering mindset shifts, strategies, and practical tips. If you’re exploring new career paths, adapting to the age of AI, or rethinking what success means, you’ll find inspiration, insights, and action steps here.
Subscribe to the newsletter to receive bonus content from podcast episodes, on career switch and growth in your inbox here: https://bit.ly/3VU2e47
- Update frequency
- every 14 days
- Average duration
- 44 minutes
- Episodes
- 25
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2024
24. Joining AI industry, Anxiety and Why Laid Off Folks Are More Likely to Get Laid Off Again (Part 3)
This is Part 3 (and final part) of special conversation episode between John Lim and Aaron Wong, guest from Ep 1. At time of recording, John has been actively job hunting for several months.
Some to…
23. Life after Layoff, Building Skills and Network and Career Coaches (Part 2)
This is Part 2 of 3 of special conversation episode between John Lim and Aaron Wong, guest from Ep 1. At time of recording, John has been actively job hunting for several months.
Some topics covered…
22. Special Episode, Getting Laid Off in May 2023 and Post Layoff Reaction (Part 1)
This is Part 1 of 3 of special conversation episode between John Lim and Aaron Wong, guest from Ep 1. At time of recording, John has been actively job hunting for several months.
Some topics covered…
20. Moving From Finance to Fashion, Test Driving Your Next Dream Job and Investing in Yourself with Career Change Coach Jennifer Ong
In this episode, we have a special guest - a career change coach who has helped numerous individuals successfully navigate their career transitions. If you're a millennial in Singapore looking to mak…
19. Switching from Service Industry to Corporate, Working with Chatri Sityodtong at One Championship to Starting New Career in E-commerce and Showing Hunger at Interviews with Jasper Lim
During a career switch, it is common to assume that one needs to take a pay cut when joining a completely different industry to "start from scratch". Or in job hunting, the candidate with the most r…
18. Three Lessons I learnt at Lazada
In this solo episode, I share the 3 lessons I learnt during my time at Lazada Nov 2019 - Jan 2022. I had front row seat watching the world rushing to pivot to e-commerce when Covid19 brought the wor…
17. Building No Harm Done, Uprooting his life and Management Consultant career in Europe to Yishun in Singapore and Reducing Social Isolation with Simon Lieberum
It is one thing to have a career change. It is another to do it while you're uprooting your life to move to another country with no social network. It is one thing to start a business. It is another …
16. Starting Side Hustles, Building Activewear Fashion brand Whakamana, Early Employee at Fave, Property Investing in early 20s and Why You Don't Need a Degree with Bethia Wee
Not everyone can easily and/or necessarily need to make drastic career changes immediately to get more fulfilment. You can start a side hustle or passion project while keeping your day job.
This epi…
15. Interviewing at Shopify and 4 Career Takeaways in Sharing with SMU students (I regret not doing #4)
Hi everyone, this is another special solo episode. This is a recording for a presentation I did for Singapore Management University (SMU) students in Jan 2022. It consists of three main parts:
- Brief s…
14. Building Product at StashAway, Building Transferable Skills, Being a “Cockroach”, Career Optionalities, Frameworks for Career Switch and Hiring with Yaohong Ch’ng
Yaohong Ch’ng is the Head of Data and Engineering at January Capital, a venture capital (VC) firm based in Singapore. He is responsible for building data-driven solutions that will complement January…
13. Building UglyFood, sustainability food startup after 12 years at Shell and MBA with Sean Goh
12. My Career Journey So Far - 3 Transition Chapters (the last one was painful 😔 )
Hi everyone, this is a solo episode where I will share my career journey thus far. I will tell you why and focus on the 3 career transition chapters:
- From banking 🏦 to laser tag 🔫
- From employer to star…
11. Quick Review of 2022 and What to Expect in 2023 - We have a newsletter!
Hi everyone, this is a special episode (more of such to come) - to give everyone a quick review for 2022 and let everyone know what to expect in 2023.
We launched an email newsletter - click to subsc…
10. Co-hosting Business Over Drinks podcast, having co founders when starting businesses and growing up as a minority in Sri Lanka with Terng (Part 3)
Our guest speaker, Terng Shing Chen, more commonly known as Terng, is the CEO and founder of SYNC PR, a technology company that provides public relations and content marketing.
Before founding SYNC PR…
9. Rethinking value of Public Relations (PR), entrepreneurs taking everything personally and starting Business Over Drinks podcast with Terng (Part 2)
Our guest speaker, Terng Shing Chen, more commonly known as Terng, is the CEO and founder of SYNC PR, a technology company that provides public relations and content marketing.
Before founding SYNC PR…
8. Public Relations (PR) vs Marketing, career in PR agency vs in-house and the REAL reason behind joining the PR industry with Terng (Part 1)
Our guest speaker, Terng Shing Chen, more commonly known as Terng, is the CEO and founder of SYNC PR, a technology company that provides public relations and content marketing.
Before founding SYNC PR…
![7. [Full Conversation] Taking A Leap of Faith, Finding Purpose, Quitting Singapore Airlines in Los Angeles for Social Work and Redefining Success with Dennis Teo](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_episode/44381866/b7b1571d2e7536d4.jpg)
7. [Full Conversation] Taking A Leap of Faith, Finding Purpose, Quitting Singapore Airlines in Los Angeles for Social Work and Redefining Success with Dennis Teo
Imagine this: you’re at the peak of your career. You have a great job, maybe even a great boss, and you’re making good money. You’ve made it.
Most people would say that this is where life gets easier—…
![6. [Highlights] Taking A Leap of Faith, Finding Purpose, Quitting Singapore Airlines in Los Angeles for Social Work and Redefining Success with Dennis Teo](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_episode/44381866/4145e14ee0b0aabd.jpg)
6. [Highlights] Taking A Leap of Faith, Finding Purpose, Quitting Singapore Airlines in Los Angeles for Social Work and Redefining Success with Dennis Teo
Imagine this: you’re at the peak of your career. You have a great job, maybe even a great boss, and you’re making good money. You’ve made it.
Most people would say that this is where life gets easier—…
![5. [Full Conversation] Joval Gan on why he left his $500K high life career, differences between Singapore and Hong Kong, how he co-founded cloud CRM platform Advocado and how to do well at sales](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_episode/44381866/03f41b37a97fc888.jpg)
5. [Full Conversation] Joval Gan on why he left his $500K high life career, differences between Singapore and Hong Kong, how he co-founded cloud CRM platform Advocado and how to do well at sales
“Imagine you are now dead, what would people say about how you lived your life?”
If you think career change is only for those in their early careers or with unfortunate circumstances, you need to list…