3,2,1 iRelaunch: Recent Episodes
iRelaunch
iRelaunch is all about getting professionals back to work after a career break - most often childcare, but also eldercare, pursuing a personal interest, a personal health issue, extended travel, or other reasons. We also think about how other non-traditional professionals – expats repatriating, retirees “unretiring, military spouses and veterans, fit into the relauncher demographic.
iRelaunch works with employers to create, implement and expand career re-entry programs of all kinds, and we produce the largest and longest-running dedicated career re-entry event in the country - the iRelaunch Return to Work Conference. Our fast-growing national community is made up of thousands of relaunchers in all stages of returning to work. iRelaunch Chair and Co-founder Carol Fishman Cohen's TED talk “How to get back to work after a career break” has viewed more than 2.5 million times and translated into 29 languages. Join us for our award-winning podcast featuring advice, strategies and success stories on returning to work after a career break.
We’ve compiled the best advice from recent podcasts, we hope you enjoy hearing from our amazing guests, some with incredible relaunch stories of their own, some to share guidance, all inspirational: Jennifer Andrews, equity & diversity lead at Guardian Life; Elizabeth Andrew, TEDx speaker and global leader & motivator; Ofer Sharone, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on research regarding career transitions, unemployment, and aspirations; Felicia Williams on her relaunch at Vanguard and consequent advancement; Heather Bannon, returned to Discover Financial Services after leaving for a break, and her advancement; Rowena Zahn pivoted into life sciences after a 15-yr break; Ashley Miller pivoted from sports management to DEI initiatives after her break; Elia O’Rourke relocated from Mexico and relaunched in the US; Evan J. Kopelson relaunched into legal advocacy from LA’s entertainment industry.
Today, we welcome Evan J. Kopelson. Evan began his career as an in-house business affairs attorney for Capitol Records, followed by 20 years in the entertainment industry and creative pursuits, including songwriting.A song he wrote for Vanessa Williams called 'Where Do We Go From Here," hit three billboard charts and and won a BMI Pop award. Given that the songwriting industry can be fickle, unpredictable and unstable, even for a top songwriter, Evan was not able to replicate his earlier songwriting success and he took a career break. When Evan relaunched his career, he relaunched first as a volunteer and ultimately he was hired as a trial attorney for the Eviction Defense Network, a non profit that supports individuals and families facing eviction.Evan is a beloved member of our iRelaunch Return to Work Forum private Facebook group. We discuss the role of the group in Evan's relaunch, and Evan's role in the group as a contributor, bringing his peers along with him on his relaunch journey, the highs and lows, the setbacks, the victories, and the ultimate successful relaunch.
In the run up to the iRelaunch October Virtual Return to Work Conference, we are revisiting this special edition on resume advice, from our iRelaunch recommended resume expert, Heidi Ravis. Heidi has over 30 years experience working with relaunchers in a wide range of industries and situations. She's a relauncher herself and has a first-hand understanding of relauncher résumé challenges.In this episode, we speak with Heidi about her career journey, get her best resume recommendations, as well as advice on LinkedIn profiles and using AI. Listening to this episode is a must if you’re struggling with framing your resume for career reentry programs and traditional positions.
Today, we ask you to join us in revisiting the previously aired excerpt, The Black Relauncher’s Perspective Panel, a webinar hosted recently by Mocha Moms, Inc. + iRelaunch. This panel highlights the professional return to work stories of four Black relaunchers, Catherine Duffy, Country Leader of Bermuda, AIG; Kuae Kelch, National President of Mocha Moms, Inc.; LaBrena Settles, SVP, Program Manager, Bank of America; and Tiana Sousa, Contract Manager, Iron Bow Technologies; hosted by iRelaunch’s Diversity Lead, Janet Peterson (who is also a relauncher!)At iRelaunch, we recognize that relaunching can be a difficult undertaking, and that the intersectionality of relaunching as a Black professional presents unique and additional challenges. Please join us as we amplify the voices of Black relaunchers in this frank and revealing conversation. We also invite you to join the upcoming event which continues the conversation, Part 3 of The Black Relaunchers conversation, find the link to register on the iRelaunch event website.
Elia O'Rourke, a native of Mexico, found her career path after moving to New York City, where she met her husband during an exchange program. Elia took an eight year career break to raise her three daughters. During this time, she learned English by watching TV, and went through the process to validate her Bachelor's degree in accounting earned at a university in Mexico through World Education Services.In October 2021, Elia returned to work through Lockheed Martin's Chapter Next program where she worked for a year and a half as an associate proposal analyst. From there, she was recruited by BBVA into her current role as a global cash management implementation lead. Join us as we hear Elia's inspiring relaunch journey.
Ashley Miller spent the first 19 years of her career working in the NBA and WNBA organizations. After a two-year career break, Ashley pivoted her career by joining Goldman Sachs in private wealth management via Goldman’s Returnship program. She later became Chief of Staff for Diversity Recruiting and leader of the Returnship program. From there, Ashley moved to Yum! Brands, parent of Pizza Hut Global, where she leads equity, inclusion, and belonging. She spearheads initiatives that champion inclusiveness and foster cultures of belonging around the world.We speak with Ashley about her career break, relaunch, and career progression, including examining her changing identity during different life phases and imposter syndrome during relaunching.
Rowena Zahn took a 15 year child care career break during which time she completed a dual degree master's program in Food Science (MS) and Business (MBA). Having left a pharmaceutical sales career before her career break, Rowena's relaunch ultimately led to her career in account management in global life sciences. Her key accounts include global pharmaceutical companies in the biopharmaceutical industry and laboratories, from drug discovery and development, to production platforms. We speak with Rowena about her strategy of using full degree programs to relaunch her career after a lengthy break. A proud career relauncher and champion of the benefits relaunchers bring to employers, Rowena takes us through the day to day of her relaunch journey and the step by step stages of her successful relaunch.
In 2006, Heather left her role as a Senior Programmer Systems Analyst at Discover Financial Services to begin a five year childcare career break. She ultimately relaunched her career by returning to Discover, where she has been promoted six times over the 13 years since she has been back. Heather is currently the Senior Director of Information Technology at Discover. She is a big supporter of relaunchers, which she has posted about on LinkedIn, including her enthusiasm for our Normalizing Career Breaks mission. We will also find out how Heather graduated with a fine arts degree and was able to transition to a technical career both before and after her relaunch at Discover.
Felicia Williams spent over 20 years as a director in accounting, finance, and audit at a major US railroad before electing to take a career break. In 2022, she relaunched her career and made a significant career pivot when she joined the Return to Work program at Vanguard. Hear how Felicia determined that a side interest should become the focus of her relaunch, and learn about the training she received through Vanguard’s Return to Work program in order to attain the licenses needed to provide investment and advisory services to Vanguard clients. We also speak with Felicia about her career progression since joining Vanguard as she recently accepted a promotion as a high net worth advisor.
What's the one step you cannot skip in order to successfully relaunch your career? Carroll Welch, Career, Executive & Leadership Coach, and one of our longest-serving iRelaunch coaching partners reveals the answer in this multi-faceted conversation.Note: The iRelaunch BootCamp referred to in this episode has been replaced by the iRelaunch RoadMap, the comprehensive, step-by-step guide for returning to a rewarding career, available on the iRelaunch website.
Mary Catherine Malley is Director, Assistant General Counsel for Juniper Networks. Her route to this huge role for a global, NYSE listed, multi-billion company following an 11 year career break is the topic of our conversation. A surprising conversation with a neighbor jumpstarted her relaunch, and ended up in a returnship-like role for his company. Mary Catherine details the key role networking played in her relaunch, and how attending our iRelaunch Return to Work Conference twice and the iRelaunch Roadmap helped guide her relaunch. This episode is part of our "Relaunching in Senior Roles" mini-series and is a rebroadcast of a previously aired episode.
Today we welcome Ofer Sharone, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst whose research focuses on career transitions, unemployment, and aspirations. His new book, The Stigma Trap: College-Educated, Experienced, and Long-Term Unemployed shows how the stigma of unemployment renders all workers, including those who are highly experienced and hold advanced degrees from elite universities, precarious and vulnerable to being trapped in long-term unemployment. Recognized as a leading expert on unemployment, Ofer has been invited to the White House and the U.S. Department of Labor to participate in policy discussions on addressing unemployment. We discuss long term unemployment as it pertains to relaunchers and get his advice on how make progress in the face of it.
We are pleased to present you with a special broadcast of a previously recorded interview where Carol Fishman Cohen, host of the 3,2,1 iRelaunch podcast, CEO & Co-founder of iRelaunch, sits on the opposite side of the podcast mic and answers questions regarding her relaunch and more on the "Disrupt Yourself Podcast" with Whitney Johnson. We hope you enjoy this insightful and inspirational conversation, and get a peak into aspects of Carol's relaunch story and her journey in founding iRelaunch.
Elizabeth Andrew is a top-producing technology sales executive, startup advisor, and TEDx speaker who has established herself as a leader, motivator, and role model. Elizabeth achieved career success by breaking down barriers in the San Francisco technology space at nearly 50 years old and after a 17-year career break, with no technology experience.Elizabeth has been a three-time VP of sales working for companies including Hello Sign, Dropbox, Puma, and Netomi. She is now the co-founder and CEO at Sales Compete. We discuss in detail the steps Elizabeth took to resume her sales career and will also hear about her recent entrepreneurial venture.Earlier, Elizabeth was featured as an iRelaunch Relauncher of the Month.
Janet Peterson is Diversity Lead at iRelaunch, and like many on the iRelaunch team, Janet is a relauncher. Prior to her five-year career break, Janet held leadership roles in sales, marketing, and training and advocacy at Johnson & Johnson, and at Xerox Corporation. She served as board member for the American Diabetes Association and was a liaison for the National Urban League, NAACP and La Raza. Janet currently serves her community through Mocha Moms, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and Women's Ministries. Janet discusses the initiatives, events, and programming that have made the biggest impact in diversifying the iRelaunch pool. Employers, relaunchers and others interested in impactful diversity measures - this episode is for you.
Today's episode is a rebroadcast of an earlier podcast full of tips on how to bring your best self to the table. When Carol asks for Selena Rezvani’s best advice on how to “be a fierce self-advocate” as Selena says, and how to reach out to people to help in a job search without coming across as opportunistic, Selena explains this is all about demonstrating executive presence! Selena is a popular Leadership Speaker and Inclusion Consultant as well as a LinkedIn Learning Instructor. Her book “Pushback” addresses how self-advocacy is critical for professional success. Selena hosts a weekly show on LinkedIn Live, an invite-only platform, all about ways to elevate women at work. Tune in for a dynamic conversation.
Jennifer Andrews is an equity and inclusion expert who relaunched her career in 2015 as part of Credit Suisse's Real Returns program in their second cohort. After eight and a half years at Credit Suisse, Jennifer took on a new role leading the equity and inclusion efforts globally at Guardian Life, where she is today. We speak with Jennifer about her job search and experience relaunching through a returnship, how a volunteer position with her children’s school inspired her to pursue a career in DEI, as well as her career progression since her relaunch. Jennifer attended the iRelaunch Return to Work Conference in 2014 and will discuss the critical role of the Conference in her relaunch.
Looking back at the many stories we've aired over the last year, we wanted to share the best bits of advice from our incredible list of guests. Today, the great advice continues as we hear from Keita Young of FanDuel and her exciting story of reaching a senior level after her relaunch; Samantha Orlando of Lockheed Martin and her relaunch after a life-threatening illness; Chip Conley, founder of Modern Elder Academy; Jennifer Chin Schnabl of State Street Advisors; Wendy Sachs, author and talented multi-media communications executive; Jill Johnson, co-founder of IFEL discusses DEI and access to capital; Priya Venketesan, Business Systems Analyst at University of California, Davis; Christine Fay, HR Manager at Grenova; Ying Chen Axt in public finance investment banking; and our resident resume expert, Heidi Ravis. We hope you enjoy the second episode in our 2-part best advice compilation of 2023 series.
Looking back at the many stories we've aired over the last year, we wanted to share the best bits of advice from our incredible list of guests. Today, we'll hear from Kerry Carter, who relaunched and had a long career at Staples before becoming CEO of non-profit Hope & Comfort; Avanti Tilak, astrophysicist turned data scientist; Shweta Sharma, who relaunched in tech after three career breaks; star comedian Zarna Garg, and her journey onto the stage; Alisha Fernandez Miranda, author of "My What If Year"; Susan Golden, author of "Stage Not Age, How to Understand and Serve People Over 60"; Jana Toner, whose relaunch was at the White House (!) and who has continued her career in public service; Carmen Park, a relaunched engineer who is now a senior engineering manager at Collins ; Tcheula Lienou, relaunched electrical engineer with Trane; and Katie Perry, chief executive of the Daphne Jackson Trust. We hope you enjoy listening to Part 1 of our 2-part best advice compilation of 2023.
Today, we are pleased to share an excerpt from The Black Relauncher’s Perspective Panel, a webinar hosted recently by Mocha Moms + iRelaunch. This panel highlights the professional return to work stories of four Black relaunchers, Catherine Duffy, Country Leader of Bermuda, AIG; Kuae Kelch, National President of Mocha Moms Inc.; LaBrena Settles, SVP, Program Manager, Bank of America; and Tiana Sousa, Contract Manager, Iron Bow Technologies; hosted by iRelaunch’s Diversity Lead, Janet Peterson (who is also a relauncher!)At iRelaunch, we recognize that relaunching can be a difficult undertaking, and that the intersectionality of relaunching as a Black professional presents unique and additional challenges. Please join us as we amplify the voices of Black relaunchers in this frank and revealing conversation.
Today we welcome Heidi Ravis, our iRelaunch recommended resume expert. Heidi has over 30 years experience working with relaunchers in a wide range of industries and situations. She's a relauncher herself and has a first-hand understanding of relauncher résumé challenges. In this episode, we speak with Heidi about her career journey, and get her best resume recommendations. Listening to this episode is a must if you’re struggling with framing your resume for career reentry programs and traditional positions.
Ying Chen Axt spent six years as an Infrastructure project finance consultant before taking a nine year career break. While on career break, working around her child’s schedule, she studied for and passed the three rigorous and notoriously difficult Chartered Financial Analyst exams to gain the highly regarded CFA credential.“It turned out the experience of studying for the CFA was instrumental: it not only helped me sharpen my technical skills, but also built my confidence and networks in the process.” Using the knowledge gained from studying for the CFA, and leveraging her interests in infrastructure project finance and public finance, Ying recently landed an offer from a public finance investment banking team of a boutique women-owned, women-led investment bank.We will get into the details of Ying’s career relaunch journey in today’s conversation.
Christine Fay is the Human Resources Manager at Grenova, a biotechnology start-up focused on waste reduction solutions. A human resources professional with extensive experience in human capital consulting across a variety of sectors, from Fortune 500 companies to federal government agencies, Christine relaunched her HR career after a seven-year career break. Christine serves as the Director of Learning Events and on the Board of Directors of the Richmond, Virginia chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Our conversation with Christine focuses on specific networking strategies she used to successfully relaunch her career and the role of professional associations in upskilling, reskilling, and networking.
Author, Speaker, Educator and Coach Steven Campbell joins Carol to discuss the power of the brain and how destructive negative self-talk can be, especially during a prolonged job search. Steven points out “your brain believes everything that you tell it” and having a more positive discussion with your brain can change your life. He will also discuss how his personal experience changing a negative narrative into a positive one led to the work he’s doing today. This is a rebroadcast of a previously aired episode.
Priya Venkatesan works as a Business Systems Analyst at University of California, Davis. She relaunched into her position with UC Davis after a 16 year career break. Her relaunch involved many job applications, interviews and rejections before she ultimately found success. She became a certified Scrum Master during her career break, and since she's been back at work, she has achieved her Lean Six Sigma white, yellow, and green belts. Priya calls attending the iRelaunch Return to Work conference while she was relaunching, “life-changing”. In the ultimate full circle, she returned to the iRelaunch Return to Work Conference in 2022 to speak about how she successfully relaunched! Her mantra to everyone is keep pursuing your dream job and don't give up.
Jill Johnson is the co-founder and CEO of the Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership (IFEL), based in Newark, New Jersey. IFEL is an independent nonprofit organization that supports economic development through entrepreneurship. IFEL recently acquired Pipeline Angels, founded by Natalia Oberti Noguera, who is a member of the iRelaunch Advisory Board.As a 30 year champion for black businesses, Jill is a pioneering voice for inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems and access to capital. She's the driving force behind the Black Angels initiative to drive diversity and inclusion within the investor ecosystem. In 2022, Jill was named one of Crane's New York Business Whole Health Heroes for her work creating pathways for Black and Latinx entrepreneurs and small business owners to have entrepreneurial success. Hear Jill discuss how her personal and professional experiences formed her passion to create initiatives within the D&I investment space, and the importance of strategic volunteering for people returning to work after a career break.
Today we welcome Wendy Sachs, a seasoned communications executive and creative storyteller. Wendy has spent more than two decades in media as a journalist, Capitol Hill Press secretary, Emmy Award-winning TV producer, Forbes columnist, author, film director, and digital editor in chief. Additionally, Wendy is a frequent keynote speaker giving talks about growing confidence, embracing failure, engineering serendipity and taking risks. In today's episode, we speak with Wendy and her career pivots and the career breaks that she's taken along the way.
Today we welcome Jennifer Chin Schnabl, who relaunched her finance career four years ago. Jennifer is currently a Vice President in the Capital Markets group at State Street Global Advisors, where she is responsible for managing and developing relationships and strategic initiatives with top tier investment banks and liquidity providers. In today’s episode, we speak with Jennifer about her return to work journey, and her unusual decision to plan for her career break by attending an iRelaunch return to work conference at the start of her break.
Chip Conley, co-founder of MEA (Modern Elder Academy), started his professional career disrupting the hospitality industry twice, first, as the founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, the second largest operator of boutique hotels in the world, and then as Airbnb's head of Global Hospitality and Strategy leading a worldwide revolution in travel. Chip co-founded MEA in January, 2018. Dedicated to reframing the concept of aging, MEA supports students to navigate midlife with a renewed sense of purpose and possibility. Chip's upcoming book, Learning to Love Midlife, 12 Reasons Why Life Gets Better With Age, is about rebranding midlife to help people understand a life stage that is misunderstood. It will be released in January, 2024. In today's episode, we speak with Chip about what it means to be a modern elder and the evolving perception of aging.
Samantha Orlando is Senior Systems Engineer at Lockheed Martin. Samantha, who has a bachelor's degree in ocean engineering from Florida Atlantic University started her career in 2003 as a systems engineer at Lockheed Martin, where she built underwater vehicles. A decade later, Samantha resigned for medical reasons. In March, 2021, Samantha resumed her engineering career by returning to Lockheed Martin through their career reentry program, Chapter Next. We don't often have the opportunity to speak with a relauncher whose career break was for health reasons and who relaunched a technical career at their pre-career break employer. Listen in as Samantha shares how she made her amazing comeback.
Keita Young is an attorney who is currently Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at FanDuel. After practicing employment law earlier in her career, Keita took an 11-year career break from the legal profession. During that time she was an entrepreneur - owning a children’s specialty boutique and eventually relaunched her legal career through JPMorgan Chase’s ReEntry Program. She was selected for the inaugural 2014 Legal ReEntry cohort and over the next 8 and 1/2 years, Keita rose in seniority in the legal department, moved to Human Resources to program manage a global diversity strategy and eventually rejoined the legal department to serve as JPMC's Global Head of Outside Counsel Engagement. Keita left JPMC to become the first head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for FanDuel, the fast-growing sports-tech entertainment company. This episode is the podcast version of a previously recorded video interview, aired in its entirety on the iRelaunch website. https://www.irelaunch.com/resources/keita-young-career-path-reaching-senior-level-management
Katie Perry is the Chief Executive of the Daphne Jackson Trust, which under her leadership has become the UK’s leading organization dedicated to helping returners relaunch their research careers. Katie is a physicist with a background in science communication. She holds a doctorate degree in Physics from the University of Surrey, where she worked with the Trust's namesake and the first female physics professor in the UK, Professor Daphne Jackson. In 2022, Katie was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Surrey in recognition of her unwaveringly commitment to securing the legacy of the Daphne Jackson Trust’s vision. Since inception, the Daphne Jackson Trust has helped more than 480 individuals relaunch their careers in STEM and other fields.
Tcheula Lienou, a Senior Controls Hardware Engineer with Trane Technologies took a ten-year career break to raise her three children before relaunching her career in 2019. Tcheula participated in the inaugural cohort of Ingersoll Rand’s ReLaunch career reentry program, which is now run by Trane Technologies following a 2020 corporate restructuring. Her focus is in new product development, life cycle engineering, quality and supply chain. We will speak with Tcheula about her career path, career break and her career progression since participating in the ReLaunch program.
Carmen Park is a technical leader with experience in the automotive, electronics, telecom, semiconductor, defense, and medical device industries. She is a senior manager at Johnson & Johnson and is pursuing a master’s degree in data analytics at Penn State University. Carmen returned to a technical role after an 8-year career break. Listen in as she describes the key role her husband had in supporting her before and during her relaunch, and how her involvement in the Society of Women Engineers had a positive impact on her relaunch. Carmen's picture was featured on posters all over the Society of Women Engineer's annual Conference in 2022, which had 16,000 people in attendance! Carmen also describes how her Master's degree has been a factor in her career progression.
Today we welcome Jana Toner, Senior Vice President with American Corporate Partners, which is dedicated to assisting US veterans and active-duty military spouses in finding rewarding careers. Based in Washington DC, Jana has over 20 years’ experience in the private and public sectors, including working in two White House administrations. She took an eight-year career break to care for her children. In this episode, we speak with Jana about what steps she did during her relaunch to keep her “toe in” and relaunch back into a public service role in government.
Susan Golden is the director of DCIX at the Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute (DCI), and a lecturer and adjunct professor at Stanford University. She leads the DCIX Longevity Innovation Special Interest Group focused on creating innovations and new business opportunities for longevity and healthy aging, and she serves as a lead mentor to the Techstars Future of Longevity Accelerator. Susan is also the author of Stage Not Age, How to Understand and Serve People Over 60, which focuses on the business opportunities and strategies to support longevity and healthy aging using life stage instead of a person's age. Susan co-developed a course offered at the Stanford Graduate School of Business on Longevity, for which a case study on iRelaunch was written. Susan is a relauncher, having taken a past career break of 15 years. Her pre-career break career was in venture capital. Listen to our wide ranging conversation on Susan's career path, her work as a longevity expert, and what living a longer life means for career progression and taking career breaks.
Amy Miller is a PR and communications expert who wrote to us a few months ago after relaunching her career following an eight year career break and a three year effort to relaunch. Despite doing all of the recommended steps to find a new job, she only got a couple of phone interviews and got to the point where she became so demoralized that she had to stop because she was becoming depressed. Things changed when Amy took a break from her job search, updated her skills, and made the decision to go into business for herself -- a decision which led to a new job opportunity. Today's episode is a rebroadcast of our prior conversation with Amy Miller, whose story is highlighted as part of our new mini-series, "Managing Through a Prolonged Job Search." Follow the link to hear other guests share their experiences and offer advice on managing a prolonged job search.
Alisha Fernandez Miranda is the author of My What If Year. Detailing her year of unpaid internships, the book follows Alisha on her quest to figure out what might have happened if her life had taken a different path. Alisha is also the host of Quit Your Day Job, a new podcast that takes listeners behind the scenes of her guests' dream jobs. Alisha is a Cuban-American, born and raised in Miami who has spent her adult life in New York and London. She is currently based in Scotland. Alisha is a graduate of Harvard University and the London School of Economics. In addition to being an intern, Alisha is the ex-CEO and current Chair at I.G. Advisors, a social impact intelligence agency that consults to the world’s biggest non-profits, companies and foundations on their philanthropy and social impact.
Today we are airing the audio version of our previously released video interview with Corey and LaBrena Settles, both military veterans who later relaunched their careers within a five year period; Corey after a 2 year career break for eldercare reasons and LaBrena after a 17-year career break focused primarily on childcare.We discuss how Corey and LaBrena coordinated the timing of their relaunches, what kinds of conversations they had leading up to their double relaunch, how it actually played out in real time and the ways Corey and LaBrena supported each other before, during and after their career breaks. We will also hear about the family sabbatical they took in Costa Rica. Join us for this rare opportunity to hear from one couple about their two relaunches.
"She could make anyone laugh and I wanted her to be paid for it. 'Mom, have you ever thought about being a stand-up comedian?' As she began dreaming of a comedy career, the reality of her current life as a stay-at-home mom sank in. She began to cry and told me it was too late for her. I could not bear to watch her struggle between ambition and doubt," wrote Zoya Garg, Zarna's daughter. Zarna Garg, an Indian immigrant, started her career as a lawyer and then spent 16 years as a stay-at-home mom. It was her kids who ultimately challenged her to go to an open mic night. That night changed her life and led her to success as a stand up comedian, finding her unique voice that relates to so many, especially women getting back into the workforce. Listen to Zarna’s inspiring and humorous story in this previously recorded session that was initially aired as part of the iRelaunch video series.
How does a technical professional prepare for relaunching her career in technical roles after career breaks of different lengths and in two countries? What kind of updating is required? How does the job search work? Did it get any easier after each career break? Did the strategies change?A strong proponent for the benefits relaunchers can bring to an organization, and as part of her commitment to “paying it forward,” Shweta Sharma gives us the answers from her first hand experience. Shweta, a senior software engineer at Intuit in India, has had roles ranging from developing a digital marketing, product at a startup, to working on cloud technologies and architectures for a multinational company.As part of this comprehensive discussion, Shwetha shares great advice on how to study for technical exams and why she looked forward to every interview no matter what her chances.
Avanti Tilak's career transition and relaunch from astrophysics and academia to corporate data science was a triumph after a long, frustrating period of setbacks. Avanti explains how she updated her skills, which freelance roles contributed to her progress, how she dealt with repeated rejection, and what ultimately led to her successful relaunch into the corporate world via IBM's Tech Re-Entry program. Two and a half years later, she was part of a layoff from IBM during the pandemic. This meant that Avanti, at this point an experienced healthcare data scientist, needed to look for a new job. Her next role was at a small innovative start-up. She is now at a traditional health insurance company. Avanti walks us through her entire career path during our conversation.
After her relaunch and subsequent rise to senior executive leadership roles in the distribution and logistics industry, Kerry Carter made the leap to the nonprofit world, taking on the role of CEO of Hope & Comfort. Hope & Comfort provides basic hygiene products to tens of thousands of adults in need in Massachusetts such as deodorant, toothpaste, shampoo. Before her current role, Kerry led a national same-day specialty logistics company focused on the medical and life sciences industry and had a long career at Staples Business Advantage, where she held numerous senior executive leadership roles and roles in sales, marketing, merchandising, strategy and acquisition integration. Kerry’s story also includes taking a six year career break to care for her family. Hear how she maintained connections during her time away and how she made the shift to nonprofit.
Hear the “Best Piece of Advice” from select episodes of “3,2,1 iRelaunch,” Samantha Kranyak shares what gave her the confidence to relaunch after divorce and becoming a single parent; Arlene Willis successfully relaunched into the transportation industry; Rabbi Suzanne Offit offers encouragement from her relaunch in the clergy; Krystal Shorts shares how she returned to work through an internship in civil engineering as a military spouse; Caytha Jentis put her career in the entertainment industry aside for 10 years to care for her children; Robin Gorman Newman discusses becoming a Broadway producer later in life; MaryAnn McLaughlin talks about her pioneering return to work years ago; Amy Miller shares about relaunching into communications; and Natasha Slaughter how she navigated her relaunch after a 4 year career break due to health issues. Which of these relaunchers spoke directly to you? Be sure to listen to the full podcast content from these previous episodes.
Zibby Owens is an author, podcaster, publisher, CEO, and mother of four. Writing has been her passion since she was a child. During her 11 year career break to take care of her children, she continued writing and ultimately began a podcast called Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books. The popularity of her podcast subsequently led to the creation of her own publishing and media entity, Zibby Owens Media, which is disrupting the publishing industry. In our conversation with Zibby, originally recorded during the May 2022 iRelaunch Return to Work Conference, Zibby shares her journey through challenges, what has motivated her to show up for herself, and what she’s excited about for the future.
How can relaunchers ensure they are making the best impression while networking, at a professional conference, and even in an interview? Today’s episode is a rebroadcast of an earlier episode with guest, Julie Holunga, executive coach and founder of Chinook Executive Solutions. Julie asserts that relaunchers should be deliberate about the words they use – presenting themselves with confidence and thereby projecting confidence about themselves onto others. Noting mirror-neuron studies that suggest that our body language and vocabulary have a mirror effect on those with whom we interact, Julie provides numerous examples of weak vocabulary and replacement words that will help employers focus on what you are, not what you’re not.
Amanda Drake Liu is currently Senior Director, Data Analytics, for ADP. She took a 14-year career break before relaunching as part of MetLife’s Act2 Program in 2014, to which she connected with through iRelaunch’s Return to Work Conference. Amanda got in touch with us last year because she was interested in hiring a relauncher to work for her! We discuss Amanda’s relaunch journey, how the first few years she tried to reenter the workforce were unsuccessful and what made the difference in finally breaking through, connections she made during her returnship that were critical later in her career advancement, her interest in hiring relaunchers, and her thoughts on having a relauncher report to her. Today’s episode is part of our “relaunchers hiring other relaunchers” mini-series.
Today we welcome Chef Steve Konopelski, a Broadway dancer turned pastry chef who is Chef Instructor with the prestigious Auguste Escoffier Culinary Institute. Steve explains how he successfully navigated his extreme career transition; starting with how he thought of his new career goal in the first place, to how he proceeded to reach that goal step by step. As always, we get into the important details! As different as professional dancer and pastry chef careers seem, Steve reveals how they are related and how he weaved the story that led to his success. Steve's discussion of identifying transferable skills and other connections between the two fields is a master class in career storytelling for relaunchers.
Wendy Schlatner’s career started in investment banking and investment relations. She took a 16-year career break and then made a career transition when she relaunched in medical practice management. Her interest in the new field was piqued after spending several summers running the health office at her kids’ sleepaway camp. In this episode, which is part of our “Relaunching in Medicine” mini-series, we will hear from Wendy about how she navigated her career shift and progressed in her post-relaunch career to Practice Administrator for Orthopedics and Interventional Pain Management at White Plains Hospital.
Liz Brown, a lawyer turned business professor, and Amy Impellizzeri, litigator turned novelist, are the co-authors of How to Leave the Law, a guidebook for lawyers considering a career change, that was released September 6, 2022. Listen in as we speak with Liz and Amy about their individual career paths, their new book and the many examples of career pivots it features, plus strategies for career transition that are relevant for non-lawyers too.
Kendra Johnson is currently Senior Counsel/Manager, Management Liability Claims at the global insurance giant, Markel Corporation. Kendra had been out of the legal profession for over 12 years when she attended our Spring 2019 iRelaunch Return to Work Conference in metro Chicago, at a pre-Pandemic time when our conferences were in person! Shortly after attending, she was hired at Markel handling management liability claims. Now at Markel for over three years, Kendra has been promoted twice, and was recently honored with one of the Markel Style Awards for Excellence, awarded to only 11 people in the entire company. Kendra discusses the "play by play" of her job search, recounting in detail how she relaunched successfully back into the legal profession.
Heather Black is founder and CEO of Supermums, an organization that trains relaunchers and others to be Salesforce administrators. In 2010, Heather became an “accidental” Salesforce administrator for her non-profit, helping to establish their customer relationship management system (CRM). She loved it so much that two years later she decided to upskill as a Salesforce Consultant and help other non-profits do the same. She realized her career path could work for other mothers, so she launched Supermums in 2016 to bring more women into the sector. As a consultant, Heather has overseen over 700 Salesforce projects and now enjoys upskilling talent in Salesforce consultancy and coaching skills. In this episode, we break down the Salesforce Administrator training process with Heather and discuss the doors it can open for relaunchers.
Steve Deeble is a Senior Technical Writer at Gurucul, a global cybersecurity company protecting data and information from insider threats and external cyberattacks. He has taken career breaks to care for his father following a stroke, and to transition back to a technical career after 12 years as a video producer. He found himself competing with younger professionals and had to fight the perception he was technologically obsolete. Steve recounts the mental and emotional journey of his prolonged job search, the role of freelancing and contract work along the way, and how he ultimately took the steps that kickstarted his relaunch and led to relaunch success.
Jennifer Tufillaro is a Control Account Manager for the Radar Systems Engineering Group at Lockheed Martin. She initially joined Lockheed Martin after receiving her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Villanova University, and subsequently took a 20-year career break for childcare reasons. Jennifer returned to Lockheed Martin when she relaunched her career through Lockheed’s Chapter Next program, which she found through iRelaunch, and now works in a part-time engineering role. In this episode, we get the details on how Jennifer successfully returned to a technical role after a very long career break.
Monique Garcia Rizer was a military spouse for 13 years to a reserve service member. She relaunched twice, first after her partner's deployment, and second, after a major life transition. Monique currently serves as Vice President of Freedman Consulting, a consulting firm focused on strategic planning and policy development for non-profits, foundations and advocacy organizations. She has served in leadership and executive roles for direct service nonprofits, coalitions, and policy advocacy organizations, and previously created and scaled an award-winning career program for military spouses. Monique shares the details of how she built her professional career, including following her two career breaks, and provides recommendations for military spouses and other relaunchers who are looking to relaunch in public interest leadership roles.
Anita Rehman is a Partner at GSV in Silicon Valley who took a 2-year career break. Her experience encompasses roles as an entrepreneur, investor, and advisor to global companies in the Technology sector. Prior to GSV, Anita was an investment professional at Vantage Point Capital Partners where she invested in early to growth stage technology companies across the Consumer, Enterprise and Energy sectors. In addition, Anita is the founder of a vertically integrated plus size womenswear retail startup. Today's episode is part of our "Relaunching in Senior Roles" mini-series.
Lazetta Rainey Braxton is the co-CEO of 2050 Wealth Partners, a financial planning firm. She is also the Founder and CEO of Lazetta and Associates, a consulting practice that helps financial services firms create culturally aware and hospitable workplace environments. Today we are focusing on financial decision making when returning to work after a career break. Relaunching can impact Social Security benefits, tax brackets, budgeting and more. If a spouse or partner is involved, money-related conversations can change significantly when a non-working partner is working again. Listen in to the conversation as Lazetta offers financial advice to relaunchers coming back from a career break.
In 2015, Estelle, a French native, resigned from a career in proposal development at an ERP software company to meet the demands of mothering a child with special needs and a new baby. Shortly after, she turned published a food survival guide for French people in the US. Next, she challenged herself to review 37 chocolate bars in honor of her 37th birthday that Halloween.
Estelle is now an award-winning food writer and chocolate sommelier. In this episode, we talk to Estelle about her journey and the creation of 37 Chocolates, a chocolate education company.
Kimberly Frost is the Director of Public Sector Growth at Britton Industries, a circular eco solutions company, where she manages recycling initiatives throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania, tapping into her passion for creative repurposing and sustainable materials management strategies. Following a relocation and birth of her son, Kim took a career break to adapt to her new circumstances. She was diagnosed with postpartum depression, had a passive investment morph into her running a business, became a single parent and battled in family court, managed a gut rehabilitation of the house she lived in and eventually closed the business she started. After four years in court she was awarded relocation. Her lowest point set in while she and her son were living in her brother's basement with no prospects on the horizon. We speak with Kim about how she navigated a lot of transition and turbulent times, leading ultimately to a successful career relaunch.
Chad Koenig is a Managing Director with Cushman & Wakefield's Atlanta Office Tenant Advisory Group. His wife, relauncher Kati Koenig, was our guest for the 223rd episode of the 3,2,1 iRelaunch podcast. Kati took a 20-year career break before relaunching her career as a Salesforce Administrator. She is now a Senior Salesforce Business Analyst for Booz Allen Hamilton. In this episode, which is the first of our “The Importance of Significant Others in Relaunching” mini-series, we’ll talk with Chad about how he and Kati navigated Kati’s career break and her return to work.
Cedric Layton is the Global ReEntry Program Co-Ordinator at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., responsible for all facets of their long running, rapidly growing, global career ReEntry Program - including all executive champions, managers, other internal stakeholders and especially the relauncher "Fellows" themselves. We discuss what to expect when applying to and participating in the ReEntry Program, and the major features of the program.
The ReEntry Program is one of the oldest career reentry programs, having launched in 2013. Fellows from the earliest cohorts are now senior enough to be managing the newest participants, something we could only dream about back in 2007 when iRelaunch was founded.
Betsy began her career as an occupational therapist before making a career shift into sales and ultimately into pharmaceutical sales. After taking a career break to raise her three children, Betsy discovered her passion for organizing, rearranging, and re-doing furniture and decor. She began in her own home and soon was getting requests to do the same at her friends’ homes. After discovering there was actually a professional name for her work - "staging"- she pursued a home staging certificate and subsequently launched her real estate residential staging company, PorchLight Home Staging. We speak with Betsy about her career shifts, finding her passion, the importance of upskilling, and hear Betsy’s valuable advice on entrepreneurship.
Market researcher Prabha Kannan took a seven-year career break before relaunching at Apple, ultimately as the Managing Editor for Siri – which means, as Prabha describes, “head writer and character lead for Siri”. After four years in this role, Prabha published a LinkedIn post that went viral, talking about her decision to take a second career break. This post has over 95,000 reactions, 2,000 comments and more than 1,500 shares. She was also recently featured in a Business Insider article writing about her career journey. We will discuss how Prabha relaunched her career at Apple, how she progressed once there, and hear more about her decision to take a second career break and write about it.
Elizabeth Bader was a Team Effectiveness Coach at Red Hat at the time of this recording and has since been promoted to North American Regional Advocate in Sales! Over the course of her career, Elizabeth has taken three career breaks – one to obtain a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership, one to start her own company, and one for family care. This year, she is celebrating the twenty-second anniversary of her first return to work. In this episode, we will discuss lessons learned by Elizabeth during her career breaks, the importance of professional development, and tips on how to handle restarting in a new location where you don’t know anyone.
At the time of this podcast recording, Mariany Polanco-Cruz was a Vice President on the Global Diversity Recruiting Team at Goldman Sachs. She discusses the recent innovations to the Goldman Sachs Returnship program which was completely overhauled, as well as last Fall’s newly-introduced COVID-19 Career Relaunch Initiative. Mariany describes who is eligible, including important guidance for interested applicants who are unsure whether they meet eligibility requirements, and what the application process looks like. She also discusses the key role that Goldman’s community of relaunchers have played since the first returnship cohort began in 2008.
Applications are currently closed but interested relaunchers can learn more at https://www.goldmansachs.com/careers/professionals/returnship/
Richard Eisenberg was, until recently, the Managing Editor of Next Avenue, the PBS’s website for people 50+, and the editor of the site's Money & Policy and Work & Purpose channels. Richard was a previous guest for Episode 197 of the 3,2,1 iRelaunch podcast, when we discussed career progression trends for the 50+ worker, how COVID impacted those trends, and his predictions about what working behaviors will look like post-COVID. Since that conversation, Richard has retired from Next Avenue to start his "unretirement." In this episode, we ask him to turn the lens on himself and discuss his personal career journey, his thought process and expectations for this phase of his life and career, what “unretirement" looks like for him and some advice on how others might navigate it as well.
Relauncher Nuala Murphy is a professional marketer, entrepreneur, community builder and connector. As a marketer she has worked with some of Northern Ireland's most successful companies internationally, selling and marketing products, services and technology across many industries for 15+ years. As President of the Lean In network in Belfast, Nuala has led and scaled the Lean In movement across Ireland over the past nearly 8 years and she spent three years launching a company with a health tech solution offering early intervention to pre and post natal depressions. These pursuits overlapped with a 7 year career break. As interim head of business at Diversity Mark, Nuala is channeling her expertise, leadership and passion into building a more equal and inclusive society working with companies from all sectors across Ireland and the UK.
Shay Baker is Program Manager of Return Utah, Utah’s career reentry program. Utah is the first state to launch a career reentry program. Shay was a participant in the inaugural cohort of Return Utah that launched in fall 2021, and was subsequently hired to run the program. The second cohort launched in January with almost three times as many participants as the first. Shay is a relauncher herself, leaving her career as a reporter and producer for KTVX, the Salt Lake City ABC affiliate TV station, for what turned out to be an eight year career break. In this episode, Shay shares the unique and varied scope of the Return Utah program, her mandate to grow the program, and her future vision for it.
Bef Ayenew is Director of Engineering at LinkedIn where he leads the Search and Profile engineering teams focused on helping LinkedIn members express their professional identity. In this special edition of our podcast, Bef announces the launching of the significant, new LinkedIn profile feature that is particularly relevant to relaunchers, the career break designation. Now, a career break can be presented as an integral part of members’ profiles, as any job listing would, with opportunities to explain and list pertinent efforts during that time. Listen in as Bef explains the background, evolution and impact of this brand new profile feature, and how best to utilize it.
Marion Viray is Program Manager of the Technology Leadership Development Program at Baruch College and Advisor for the Starr Career Development Program. Marion moderated our Successful Relaunchers Panel at the October 2021 iRelaunch Return to Work Conference. Marion stepped away from full-time employment to focus on childcare. In the years since, he has held a variety of freelance, adjunct, and part-time positions in higher education, many of which focus on career counseling. In this episode, Marion talks about these roles and his experience relaunching in higher education and career counseling.
Alex Mooney is Sr. Manager of DEI Talent Acquisition Programs and a 12 year Amazonian serving in increasingly senior HR roles, most recently in innovative talent pipelines and DEI talent acquisition. He is the founder of the Amazon Returnship Program and leads other global talent acquisition programs. Under Alex’s leadership, Amazon Returnship has committed to hiring 1,000 returners over the next few years. Join us as Alex describes the features of Amazon Returnship and shares excellent tips on how to frame the career break in an interview.
Nadia Gil is Head of Business Strategy at Google Cloud, where she is responsible for developing international strategic planning and transforming the operations for Google Cloud's cyber security products. Nadia has over 20 years of experience in strategic transformation and operations with a specialty in strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and integrations. She has an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. After the births of her each of children, Nadia considered taking a career break, but ultimately opted to remain in the workforce on her own terms by redirecting her experience and transferrable skills into new roles. We speak with Nadia today about her process of reinventing her career path to accommodate her changing priorities, and what that looks like today.
CFC & Nadia Gil approved 1/31/2022
Short Description for Social Media Platforms (FB and IG): Nadia Gil is Head of Business Strategy at Google Cloud, where she is responsible for developing international strategic planning and transforming the operations for Google Cloud's cyber security products. After the births of her each of children, Nadia considered taking a career break, but ultimately decided to pivot her career path while remaining in the workforce successfully. Listen to our conversation to find out how she did it.
Mary Catherine Malley is Senior Corporate Counsel for Juniper Networks. Her route to this huge role for a global, NYSE listed, multi-billion company following an 11 year career break is the topic of our conversation. A surprising conversation with a neighbor jumpstarted her relaunch, and ended up in a returnship-like role for his company. Mary Catherine details the key role networking played in her relaunch, and how attending our iRelaunch Return to Work Conference twice and the iRelaunch Roadmap helped guide her relaunch. This episode is part of our "Relaunching in Senior Roles" mini-series.
Kati Koenig is Senior Salesforce Business Analyst at Liberty IT Solutions, a Booz Allen Hamilton Company. Kati took a 20-year career break from a sales and marketing career in the hospitality industry, during which she spearheaded a number of fundraising efforts and initiatives around her community and within the local schools. Knowing her abilities and potential, Kati’s husband suggested she try out learning the Salesforce platform as a first step to relaunching her career. With no idea whether she would like it or have any aptitude for it, Kati dove in and ended up getting two Salesforce certifications. These credentials led to her career relaunch and success in a fulfilling new career path. Listen to the full podcast to get the details of how she did it.
Sirisha Kuchimanchi is a Global Engineering & Manufacturing Executive with Texas Instruments, as well as a podcast host. Sirisha took two career breaks in less than eight years, during which time she raised her family and earned her doctorate in Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Sirisha hosts the podcast "Women, Career and Life" and works in the tech industry, where she leads teams, drives change, and supports customers. In this episode, we talk about what she learned during her career breaks and how she relaunched at her pre-career break employer.
Lisa Fain is the CEO at the Center for Mentoring Excellence. She speaks with Carol all about mentoring and the role mentoring and being mentored can have in a relaunch, and once back to work. They discuss the “growth mindset” and the idea of “becoming” vs the “fixed mindset," why you don’t have to “have all the answers” to be an effective mentor, and how the best mentoring relationships are enabling instead of dependent. Fun fact: Lisa Fain’s mother, Lois Zachary, the founder of the Center for Mentoring Excellence is a relauncher! When Lisa was in middle school, her mother went back to school for a PhD and founded the Center subsequently. Today is a rebroadcast of an earlier podcast in honor of January designated as National Mentoring Month.
Elisabeth Galvin is a content editor at Diversity Network, an organization committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and creating a better workplace for all. We met Elisabeth when she invited Carol Fishman Cohen to join her in a fireside chat session at Diversity Network’s Inclusion 2021 virtual conference. Elisabeth has worked as a journalist and author in the US, London, Australia and Hong Kong and took a nine-year career break during which time she was a freelance writer and editor. Elisabeth discusses how she got her freelance jobs and expanded her network so that she could write for a range of magazines and newspapers. She also talks about her recent relaunch, how she overcame some initial challenges during her transition, and the work she does at Diversity network. (Shoutout to Loralee Hamilton of Oracle at timestamp 17:04)
Hear the “Best Piece of Advice” from ten episodes of the 3,2,1 iRelaunch podcast series:
Author Laura Zigman explains how to move forward through life’s most challenging time; Learn about angel investing and if it’s right for you with Nicole Cuellar-Lopez; Kathryn Troutman gives guidance on applying for jobs with the federal government; Dr. Ella Washington discusses how to have difficult and meaningful discussions with your team; LinkedIn Learning instructor Selena Rezvani explains how to have better executive presence; NY Times bestselling author Lindsey Pollak discusses navigating work in a virtual world; David Boehmer, founder of Banff Advisors, gives an insider’s view into executive search; Gabriella Bean and Sue Spillane rebounded from lengthy career breaks into high level engineering careers; Shannon Tymosko and Darci Spiteri as they explain their journey as women in the electrical trade; Parent educator Katherine Reynolds Lewis discusses how to involve your kids in your job search and relaunch transition.
Be sure to listen to the full podcast from each of these special guests!
Sarah DeLadurantey supports General Motor’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as a Talent Strategist for DEI Workforce Design. She is the program manager for Take 2, GM’s career reentry program, and led its recent transformation from a returnship to a direct-hire model. Sarah discusses how the Take 2 program has evolved and provides helpful guidance on how to answer an often-asked pre-screening question about whether an applicant has taken a career break. She also shares what the application process looks like, what to expect during the interview process, and gives specific tips on how to prepare for interviews.
Roles for the Take 2 program are currently closed, but are expected to re-open in the first quarter of 2022. Check GM's website at https://search-careers.gm.com/mentorshipandgrowth for updates on opportunities.
Sydney Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent. Syd also hosts his own podcast, The Sydcast, to share stories of people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life (Carol Fishman Cohen was a recent guest!). Syd defines what a superboss is, the unique traits of a superboss, why you want to work for one, and the specific questions to ask when interviewing to determine if your prospective boss is a superboss. He also shares his thoughts on the four characteristics of a great job and why these are so important for relaunchers.
https://thesydcast.com/
Renee Rudczynski is a human resources professional who has worked in HR consulting and led HR teams within a variety of environments, including higher ed, finance, and startups. After a seven-year career break, she recently began an organizational development role. Renee discusses her non-linear job search and how networking helped her land her dream job at a tech startup. She also shares how her experiences at the iRelaunch Return to Work Conference and as a member of the iRelaunch Return to Work Facebook Forum helped with her relaunch and how she is now giving back.
Eraina Ferguson is a Marketing & Communications Manager who spoke on our Successful Relaunchers Panel at our October 2021 iRelaunch Return to Work Conference. She is a special needs advocate, UX (user experience) designer, journalist, and TEDx curator who took a 10-year career break to stay at home with her four children before returning to work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eraina discusses her experiences freelancing during her career break and why it was important for her to share her journey about raising a daughter with special needs prior to her relaunch. She also shares her pathway to relaunching in a marketing and communications career, including how she upskilled by participating in a UX design program that ultimately led to her current full time role.
Karolyn Diamond-Jones is a registered nurse working in the area of healthcare compliance who took a 15-year career break to raise her four children. She rejoined the full-time workforce in 2017 as a case manager in the home hospice and palliative care field. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Karolyn pivoted and now works for a healthcare company focused on Medicare denials and appeals. Karolyn candidly discusses how her relaunch resulted out of financial necessity, the steps she took to leverage the helpful advice and resources in her community and on LinkedIn, and why positivity and curiosity are so important to her.
Misbah Sheikh is a Salesforce consultant who spoke on our Successful Relaunchers Panel at our recent virtual iRelaunch Return to Work Conference. She went on career break after the birth of her twins in 2009 – a story in itself. During a career break that was for childcare as well as eldercare, Misbah continued to be an active learner, completing an initial Salesforce certificate program and then moving on to complete a variety of others. Hear about the certificate programs she pursued, how she managed to do the work with all her caregiving responsibilities, and how the certificates ultimately led to her relaunch role. This is a story of perseverance and grit and we have a lot to learn from Misbah.
Mai Ensmann is the Senior Program Planner at Cyber Florida: The Florida Center for Cybersecurity. Previously Mai had worked as a program manager and trainer for international higher education programs and non-profit and humanitarian organizations in the U.S. and across Europe, Africa and Central Asia. Mai took an 11-year career break while raising her children in Belgium, Switzerland and Ghana. She spent many hours folding laundry and listening to the 3, 2, 1 iRelaunch podcast while planning her successful return to work. Hear Mai describe the unique strengths that expats/trailing spouses bring to the workforce and how she relaunched in Belgium. She also discusses her career pivot to cybersecurity, how that evolved, and why relaunchers should consider cybersecurity for their next career.
Note to Florida relaunchers: the application deadline for the Spring 2022 cohort of CyberFlorida is 11/21/2021. https://cyberflorida.org/
This is the first episode in our "Relaunchers in Senior Roles" mini-series.
Lori Taylor is head of America’s corporate lending and derivatives in Credit Risk at Goldman Sachs. She relaunched her Wall Street career by participating in Goldman’s Returnship program in 2015, which she joined shortly after attending our iRelaunch Return to Work Conference in the Fall of 2014. Lori advanced from her Goldman Returnship to a Managing Director role in less than five years. Hear about Lori’s experience at the Return to Work conference, the subsequent events that led to her getting hired for the Returnship program, her time during the program, and her career progression since then. Lori also discusses the valuable support she received throughout from her Goldman colleagues, family and friends -- including her best friend's perspective-setting advice that helped her make her return to work decision.
https://www.goldmansachs.com/careers/professionals/returnship/
Bryn Panee Burkhart is Principal and Founder of Next Evolution Leadership Coaching and Career Management, and currently serves as an Institute Fellow at Simmons University’s Institute for Inclusive Leadership. She previously oversaw Alumni Career Services at the MIT Sloan School of Management and was a speaker at our November 2020 Return to Work Conference. Bryn discusses compensation: how employers determine compensation structures, how relaunchers should prepare for compensation conversations, and exactly what to say during compensation discussions when relaunching via a return to work (RTW) program or hired directly. This discussion is full of practical, detailed advice and scripts that relaunchers can use with potential employers. Note at 27:14 Bryn gives specific language to use when negotiating compensation when "converting" to a permanent hire after a returnship or when discussing an offer that is not part of a return to work program.
https://www.nextevolutioncoach.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/nextevolution-coach
Lucy Chang Evans is a civil engineer who also worked as a U.S. Secret Service agent before going on career break to build a family. Ten years later, she found herself in the middle of a divorce with three young kids. She first relaunched by returning to her original career as a civil engineer. After nearly six years in that role, Lucy went on career break again last year to focus on the online MBA she was pursuing and to help her children navigate e-learning during the pandemic. Lucy describes the vulnerability she felt at the beginning of her relaunch and the steps she took to “put one foot in front of the other” to turn things around. She also discusses the valuable relationships she developed as a result of her unsuccessful bid to win a city council seat, her advice for people relaunching as a single parent, and why positivity is so important.
Time magazine article by Joanne Lipman in which Lucy is mentioned: https://time.com/6051955/work-after-covid-19/
Maria D’Agostino Crawford is the Associate Director of Alumni Relations at Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts who took an eight-year career break to care for her two daughters. Maria’s relaunch happened in a series of steps that first involved part time work and then a full time relaunch back at her pre-career break employer in a lower position than when she left. Since then, she has worked her way up to the Associate Director role. Maria discusses her part time to full time approach to relaunching and her career progression to where she is today. She also explains the benefits of intentionally taking a lower-level position when transitioning to a full-time role.
Faye Penn is the Executive Director of women.nyc, which is dedicated to helping New York City women succeed in their careers and businesses through innovative programs and partnerships. She is also an Executive Vice President of Initiatives at the New York City Economic Development Corporation, where she oversees the project startup team. Among her previous roles, Faye was an editor for titles including New York Magazine, The New York Post, The New York Observer and InStyle and an executive at Lifetime Television. Faye discusses her successful career transition from media to her work in economic development, including how she literally mapped out her skills and experience to form a cohesive and persuasive narrative describing how they transferred from one industry to another during the interview process. She also shares why it’s important to treat a career pivot as a job and the critical questions you need to consider when pivoting.
https://women.nyc/
Nicole Diamond is a rare disease pharmaceutical industry specialist focused on the business side of pharma. She left her successful career at Shire Pharmaceuticals and took a four year career break to care for her children. When former colleagues moved to other companies, they asked Nicole if she would be interested in consulting for them; she has now been consulting for seven years. Nicole discusses how she managed the evolution of her consulting business while maintaining the schedule control she wanted. She also shares her insights on the benefits and challenges of her consulting arrangement. This episode is full of helpful advice for anyone who may be thinking about starting their own consulting business.
Cynthia Corby was a financial analyst on Wall Street before taking a 17 year career break. She decided to pursue a masters degree in business analytics as a way to relaunch her career. We met Cynthia when she reached out to us to see if she could focus her final project for her degree on data analysis that would be helpful to us. A dedicated relauncher and looking for a way to pay it forward, she produced a remarkable analysis to update our estimate of the number of relaunchers in the U.S. We discuss Cynthia’s career path, her decision to relaunch by enrolling in a graduate school program and what it was like to be in the program. We also talk about the methodologies and results of the data analysis she did for us. Shoutouts to our own Shannon Amspacher, Director of Marketing and Strategic Partnerships, at timestamp 17:40 and Katharine Bradbury, Senior Economist and Policy Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, at timestamp 19:40.
Today’s episode of “3, 2, 1, iRelaunch” is a re-run of an interview Carol did in 2017 with Cheryl McGee Wallace, who later became Special Advisor and Guest Podcast Host for iRelaunch. Cheryl shares some of the pivotal moments from her relaunch journey, including the approach that she took with regards to informational interviewing and networking, and the three questions that she always asked. She also discusses the steps that she took to prepare for the iRelaunch Return to Work conference, how she strategically approached her discussions with the recruiters, and what happened after the conference. This interview is filled with actionable steps and advice for relaunchers, particularly for those who are planning to attend one of our upcoming virtual conferences.
Alison Cormack serves on the Palo Alto City Council and chairs its Finance Committee. She has relaunched twice - once at Google where she worked for almost five years and then in politics. During a 10-year career break, as a volunteer, she was behind the approval of a $76 million bond measure to rebuild Palo Alto libraries and was the President of the Palo Alto Library Foundation, which raised $4 million in private funding. She took a second career break of 3 years before running for office. Hear how Alison’s work and volunteer experiences in the private and public sectors led to her decision to run for office, helped her run her campaign, and prepared her for her current role. We’ll hear about what she does on the City Council as well as her advice for anyone interested in relaunching in politics.
Resources mentioned in the episode: Asking by Jerold Panas (https://www.amazon.com/Asking-59-Minute-Everything-Members-Volunteers/dp/1889102490) Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath (https://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/1400064287)
Jenny Brody is a partner at a law firm she co-founded, Brody Kling PLCC, which specializes in providing high quality, affordable legal representation in family law matters in the DC area. Jenny found her passion for this work while she was out on a 15-year career break. Jenny joined forces with two other attorneys on career break, Karen Marcou and Marla Spindel, to form the DC Volunteer Lawyers Project (DCVLP) which provides free legal help for domestic violence victims and at-risk children. Jenny talks about the origins, unique challenges, and growth of DCVLP, including their use of a job share arrangement that was critical for learning and contingency planning. She also discusses her work at Brody Kling and how it was created to fulfill an unmet need identified while she was at DCVLP.
https://www.dcvlp.org/ https://www.brodykling.com/
Kimberly B. Cummings is a leadership development expert, accomplished speaker and podcast host whose mission is to empower women and people of color in the workplace. Her personal and professional development company, Manifest Yourself, LLC, helps professionals looking to lead a dynamic career and life. Kimberly discusses the impetus behind writing her recently-released book, Next Move, Best Move: Transitioning into a Career You’ll Love. She also shares her career planning framework, the importance of strategically thinking about your career in terms of getting from where you are today to where you want to be in ten years, and breaking down the steps to bridge that gap.
Kimberly's advice is relevant for anyone looking to make a career transition, whether relaunching or already in a job.
https://www.kimberlybcummings.com/
In this milestone 200th episode, Carol speaks with Michael Madowitz, an economist for the Center for American Progress whose work includes a focus on labor markets and household budgeting at different life stages. Note: this episode was recorded in June 2021 and commentary is based on that point in time. Michael discusses the full cost of career breaks taken due to the pandemic (it's way more than forgone salary alone), how this may impact relaunchers going forward, the “silver lining” as to how career breaks may be perceived post-Covid, and the trends he’s seen so far in the economic recovery. Relaunchers and relaunchers-to-be should also listen to Episode 60 to hear Michael discuss the CAP Calculator he created, and which he used in a recent Newsweek article to estimate lost income to a woman who left the workforce during Covid.
Helpful note when listening to this episode: Economists' definition of "Unemployed" is "did not work for pay or profit in the last week and actively looked for work in the past four weeks."
Center for American Progress: https://www.americanprogress.org/
CAP Calculator: https://interactives.americanprogress.org/childcarecosts/
EP 60: “The Cost of a Career Break” with Economist Michael Madowitz https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-60-cost-career-break-economist-michael-madowitz/id1202049234?i=1000422614506
Miriam Berkowitz started her career as a software developer and returned to work as a data analyst after a 20 year career break. To update her technology skills, she enrolled in a 6-month intensive Data Analytics & Visualization bootcamp. She is thriving in her role and has been an active member of our private Facebook group, the iRelaunch Return to Work Forum, where she has shared her valuable inspiration and advice. In this episode, Miriam shares the specifics of applying to and attending her bootcamp as well as the steps she took to prepare and apply for jobs. She also discusses the importance of perseverance and overcoming imposter syndrome when starting her new job.
Koseli Cummings is a self-taught content strategist and copywriter. She returned to the workforce full-time after seven years of being a stay at home mom by sending “one brave email" to almost every woman she knows. That email turned into a six figure job that altered the course of her career. Now she’s passionate about helping other women get brave and send that one scary email that could change everything. We discuss the details of Koseli’s career path, her career break, her famous email, her blog post about her relaunch, and where she is today. Shoutout to Sheila Marcelo at care.com (https://www.care.com) at 39:07.
Link to Koseli’s blog post with the email: https://koselicummings.medium.com/the-email-that-got-me-a-six-figure-job-after-seven-years-as-a-sahm-5e6ab0f557d7
Richard Eisenberg is the Managing Editor of Next Avenue, the PBS site for people 50+, and the editor of its Money and Work & Purpose channels. He aims to help people manage their personal finances, find jobs, switch fields, volunteer and find purpose in their lives. He’s also the author of two books focused on helping people to manage their money. Richard discusses career progression trends for the 50+ worker in the past several years, how Covid has impacted those trends, and his predictions about what working behaviors will look like post-Covid. He also shares his perspectives on how these trends have impacted the timing of retiring -- including why some people are choosing to “unretire” -- and what that decision entails.
In this episode, a special shoutout to Charlotte Japp of CIRKEL and a 2020 Next Avenue Influencer in Aging at 31:57. (She is our podcast guest in Episode 171)
Winifred Ereyi has two engineering degrees, including a masters degree in systems engineering. She spent almost 15 years in the field, including three years as an oil rig engineer - the only female among over 500 men. After a four-year career break, Winifred founded the non-profit ThinkSTEM Foundation, and her own business, eWirecommunications in 2019. She is active in WITI -- Women in Technology International -- and in her local SWE Chapter – the Society of Women Engineers. Winifred describes the day when, as a 14-year-old in Nigeria, she heard a talk by a female engineer that would inspire her lifelong passion for STEM. She also discusses her career path, her advocacy for minority girls and women in STEM, and her work with ThinkSTEM Foundation and eWirecommunications.
Combining the "Best Piece of Advice" from 8 episodes of "3, 2, 1, iRelaunch," you'll hear from Anandi Krishnan on relaunching in scientific research with an NIH Career Reentry Grant; relaunching veteran Ashley-Bria Leo at the start of her Return to Work program; military spouse Karen Golden on the critical role of volunteering in her relaunch; Hang Tran on relaunching in market research; Lori Banov Kaufmann on being a "serial" relauncher; Amy Impellizzeri on relaunching as a published author; relauncher Rochelle Nemrow on the growth and sale of her company; and Charlotte Japp on navigating the intergenerational workforce when relaunching. Be sure to listen to the full podcast content from each of these special guests in previous episodes.
Amy Schmidt is an award-winning podcast host, author, TEDx Speaker, motivational speaker, and founder of the brand Fearlessly Facing Fifty™. She launched her business and brand six months before turning 50. Her mission is to encourage women over forty to push fear aside and create their highlight reel of accomplishments to propel them forward. Amy describes a milestone moment from when she started her business, the challenges of the entrepreneurial journey, and the role marketing and branding have played in building her business.
Natasha Slaughter relaunched initially after a four-year career break due to health issues by starting her own professional services consulting firm NEx Chapter Media Group. A year later, she added a part time role in Human Resources at Dynamic Corporate Solutions, Inc. (DCSI). Natasha is the immediate past president of the Jacksonville chapter of the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) professional association and was also the recipient of the HR Florida State Council 2020 President’s Award.
Natasha discusses how she approached her health and work goals after her diagnosis, how she developed her leadership skills through volunteer work, why your network is your cheerleader, and how professional associations and LinkedIn are important components of your network.
Note: this interview runs a little longer than our typical episode. It is full of great advice for relaunchers!
Amy Miller is a PR and communications expert who wrote to us a few months ago after relaunching her career following an eight year career break and a three year effort to relaunch. Despite doing all of the recommended steps to find a new job, she only got a couple of phone interviews and got to the point where she became so demoralized that she had to stop because she was becoming depressed. Things changed when Amy took a break from her job search, updated her skills, and made the decision to go into business for herself -- a decision which led to a new job opportunity. She shares how she has progressed in her new role and discusses the importance of trusting your gut when relaunching.
This is part of our mini series on relaunching in religion, whether in the clergy, in a non-clergy role as part of spiritual life, or in an administrative role within a place of worship.
Pioneering relauncher Mary Ann McLaughlin worked for over 40 years at the Office of Spiritual Development within the Archdiocese of Boston, which is the fourth largest archdiocese in the United States. After starting her career as a teacher in the Boston Public Schools, Mary Ann was forced to leave when she was pregnant with her first child (yes, those were the rules in the 60's). She had five more children over the ensuing 16 years and returned to work in 1981, over two decades before anyone was talking about relaunching. We are honored to hear about her journey, including the important roles that volunteering and family support had on her relaunch and incredible career, and how she's still really working even though she's technically retired.
Combining the "Best Piece of Advice" from 10 episodes of "3, 2, 1, iRelaunch," you'll hear from guests including Liz Thorne on relaunching in sustainable investing; Cynthia Siemens on recruiting video introductions & interviews; Susan Samuelson on relaunching in academia after a career in corporate law; Mimi Kahn on relaunching in a social work career; Ellie St. John on relaunching as a human resources professional; Pam Waterman on returning to engineering after a 31-year career break; Diane Keane on returning to work in finance in non-profits; Global Head of Recruiting Miranda Kalinowski on Facebook's Return to Work Program (with Guest Host Cheryl McGee Wallace); Becca Rosenthal on transitioning to a technical role from a non-technical background; and Sue Hoppin on relaunching as a military spouse and her role with the National Military Spouse Network. Be sure to listen to the full podcast content from each of these special guests in previous episodes.
Robin Gorman Newman's multiple professional pursuits are the definition of a "portfolio career." We’ll discuss how adopting a child later in life impacted her life and career path, and how her interest in theater evolved into her work as a Broadway producer. In addition to her producing work, Robin is the founder of three organizations; marketing communications and PR firm RGN Marketing, Motherhood Later Than Sooner, a worldwide organization whose mission is to support, connect, and empower later-in-life mothers and fathers, and lovecoach.com, which encompasses a dating website and two related books. We also talk about the post-pandemic theater world.
Caytha Jentis is a successful, independent comedy writer/producer/director who started filmmaking in-between driving carpools in suburban New Jersey as a mother of two. Her stories are character-driven, heightened-reality comedies. Caytha has an MFA in screenwriting from UCLA. She has many credits to her name, including Bad Parents which is currently running on HBO, Apple TV and other platforms. Her most recent film, Pooling to Paradise, is what we discuss, among many other topics. Caytha put her dream career, the one she has now, aside for 10 years when her children were younger. Hear Caytha discuss everything to do with writing, directing, and producing after taking a career break. In this episode, special shoutouts to Lesley Jane Seymour at 21:20 and Lisa Heffernan & Mary Dell Harrington of Grown & Flown at 25:09.
https://www.foxmeadowfilms.com/
Krystal Shorts is a civil engineer and a military spouse working on her master’s degree in civil engineering at the University of Kansas. Currently stationed in Kansas with her husband, a Navy Officer, she is relaunching her career after a 4 ½ -year career break because of childcare decisions and military moves. Krystal is working in an internship with Apex Engineers that almost didn't happen when the COVID lockdown occurred and work went remote. We are going to learn exactly what Krystal said to keep the internship opportunity, how she is relaunching her technical career while moving locations every few years, and the creative way she used LinkedIn to expand her professional network and learn about her industry.
This is Part Two of two episodes and a part of our mini-series on relaunching in religion.
Rabbi Suzanne Offit was ordained at the Hebrew College Rabbinical School, which she entered enthusiastically as one of its founding students in 2004. She started her deep Jewish learning in earnest at 40; and she experienced tremendous guilt when glorious hours of Jewish learning took her away from her children. She is a Board-Certified Chaplain and served as the Palliative Care chaplain in post-acute services at Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston for 14 years. Her focus is geriatrics and end-of-life work with patients and families. Rabbi Offit is dedicated to understanding through her many experiences and research how best to serve vulnerable populations in our society and how substance use disorder, moral injury, chronic illness and racism affect families. She holds leadership positions on the boards of a number of non-profits. In addition to caring for patients and families, Rabbi Offit cares for 12 beehives, 4 chickens, 3 adult sons and 1 husband.
This is Part One of two episodes and a part of our mini-series on relaunching in religion.
Rabbi Suzanne Offit was ordained at the Hebrew College Rabbinical School, which she entered enthusiastically as one of its founding students in 2004. She started her deep Jewish learning in earnest at 40; and she experienced tremendous guilt when glorious hours of Jewish learning took her away from her children. She is a Board-Certified Chaplain and served as the Palliative Care chaplain in post-acute services at Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston for 14 years. Her focus is geriatrics and end-of-life work with patients and families. Rabbi Offit is dedicated to understanding through her many experiences and research how best to serve vulnerable populations in our society and how substance use disorder, moral injury, chronic illness and racism affect families. She holds leadership positions on the boards of a number of non-profits. In addition to caring for patients and families, Rabbi Offit cares for 12 beehives, 4 chickens, 3 adult sons and 1 husband.
Arlene Willis relaunched into a demanding role in the transportation industry after a 13-year career break. She has been at the Florida Department of Transportation for over two years now, her first full time role after her career break, following a shorter period in a part time role while taking courses in aviation. Pre-career break, Arlene built her career in transportation systems, policy, technology integration, enterprise software development and planning for 9 years. Arlene has a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and a master’s degree in transportation and highway engineering. She gets into detail about the resilience she needed during her relaunch and discusses upskilling in terms of having to “unlearn old ways and relearn new ways.” A great conversation with an inspiring relauncher.
After a divorce and becoming a single parent, Samantha Kranyak was looking to relaunch close to home in order to gain financial independence and provide stability and consistency for her family. Sam shares how she first went into real estate, then added an adjunct teaching role at a nearby university and was later offered the opportunity to join the university as a non-tenure track professor, which is full time. We originally connected with Sam when she wrote to us to let us know our iRelaunch Return to Work Conference and Back on the Career Track Book “were instrumental in helping me rediscover myself as a newly divorced woman who had given up a wonderful financial business to stay home. I walked away with a polished resume, a story to share with potential employers regarding my work gap, and more confidence after being MIA from the workplace for a few years.” It is gratifying to know our Conference and resources were valuable to Sam at a critical time, and we want to extend our thanks to Sam for getting in touch and sharing her story.
Katherine Reynolds Lewis is a certified parent educator with the Parent Encouragement Program (PEP), an award winning journalist and the author of the popular parenting book, The Good News About Bad Behavior, which brings the tools of narrative journalism to the question of why kids don't do what you want. Katherine is the perfect person to speak with us about parenting and relaunching. Many relaunchers are returning to work after childcare career breaks and need to transition their kids of all ages to new routines at home when they relaunch their careers. Katherine gives advice on how to involve kids in the job search, when to introduce new childcare arrangements, how to manage new routines in the household, and how transparent to be on the ups and downs of the relaunch process, both before and after starting the job. This podcast will be especially useful to parents who took Pandemic-related career breaks and are planning their career reentry.
To learn more: https://www.katherinerlewis.com/
Shannon Tymosko and Darci Spiteri are both electrical apprentices with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, or IBEW, local 105, in Canada. They are friends and colleagues. Shannon made a career transition from short term lending to become an electrical apprentice and she is also an Ambassador for KickAss Careers, a Canadian organization promoting the trades to young people as a career choice. Darci is a relauncher who originally was a project manager in marketing. After a three-year career break, she received a Second Career Grant from the Canadian government, which funded her electrical apprentice training. Darci and Shannon talk about their path to becoming electricians and get into detail about what they do and how they are progressing.
Check out their recently-released video for International Women's Day: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/shannon-tymosko-b160b4a7_choosetochallenge-sistersdoingitforthemselves-activity-6774643966982807552-7Hbu
Gabriella Bean and Sue Spillane relaunched their engineering careers in Fall 2017 as part of the inaugural cohort of iReturn, Northrop Grumman’s return-to-work program, after career breaks of 22 years and 19 years respectively. Northrop Grumman launched iReturn as a member of the STEM Reentry Task Force, the groundbreaking multi-company return to work collaborative run by the Society of Women Engineers and iRelaunch. The iReturn program has now expanded to five cities. Gabriella is principal engineer, operations program manager and Sue is a manufacturing engineering manager at Northrop Grumman. We catch up with them about their return to work, whether they feel like they never left and their reflections on when they first relaunched through iReturn.
For more on Northrop Grumman's iReturn Program: https://www.northropgrumman.com/careers/ireturn-the-northrop-grumman-returnship-program/
David Boehmer is the founder of career management advisory firm Banff Advisors. Prior to launching Banff Advisors, David headed up the Global Financial Services Practice for Heidrick & Struggles. David returned to the U.S. in 2017 after three years in the London office where he also led the Financial Services Practice in Europe and Africa, as well as senior client engagements across the sector. With his deep background in executive search, David gives us the "insiders" view, including what actually happens in executive searches and how best to position yourself to be considered.
To learn more: https://banffadvisors.com/ https://www.talent-beta.com/
Lindsey Pollak is the New York Times bestselling author of "Becoming the Boss: New Rules for the Next Generation of Leaders." Her 2019 book, "The Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workplace" was named a Book of the Month by both the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. Lindsey’s new book "Recalculating: Navigate Your Career Through the Changing World of Work," is a response to the Covid crisis and will be published by HarperCollins on March 23, 2021. We discuss “Recalculating,” and focus on Lindsey’s recommendations for how to navigate at work in a virtual environment. There’s even a teaching moment when Carol’s dog Wally starts barking! Lindsey was named to the 2020 Thinkers50 Radar List of global management thinkers.
Pre-order "Recalculating" now: https://lindseypollak.com/books/recalculating/
To learn more: https://lindseypollak.com/
Selena Rezvani is a popular Leadership Speaker and Inclusion Consultant as well as a LinkedIn Learning Instructor. In fact, her most popular LinkedIn Learning course is on Executive Presence, the topic of our podcast. Selena writes a column for Philadelphia Magazine on how to make work "work" and hosts a weekly show on LinkedIn Live, an invite-only platform, about ways to elevate women at work. About a year ago, Selena was our guest on 3,2,1 iRelaunch to discuss how to brag about yourself without sounding obnoxious, and reach out to people to help you in your job search without coming across as opportunistic. At the time, she told us that being able to do those things is all about demonstrating executive presence! Selena gives us her best advice on mastering this important skill for relaunchers, both when job searching, and once hired.
To learn more: https://www.selenarezvani.com/
Ella F. Washington, PhD, a professor of practice at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and the founder of diversity strategy firm Ellavate Solutions, is the lead author on the recently released Harvard Business Review article “How to Talk with Your Team About the Violence at the U.S. Capitol.” The article gave guidance to employers having discussions following the January 6th violent attack on our Capitol. We catch up with Professor Washington nearly six weeks later to discuss the points in her article in more detail, how she and her co-authors were able to write it “in the moment” of the national crisis, and hear her thoughts retrospectively. Today's relaunchers are tomorrow's leaders and managers. Dr. Washington's recommendations for fostering communication at work following the events of January 6th, are equally relevant for managers engaging with team members in the aftermath of traumatic, emotional and challenging situations more broadly. Find out more in this wide-ranging and informative conversation.
https://hbr.org/2021/01/how-to-talk-with-your-team-about-the-violence-at-the-u-s-capitol
To learn more about Ellavate Solutions: https://www.ellavatesolutions.com/
Dr. Washington's Twitter handle: @EllaFWashington
Kathryn Troutman is known as the Federal Resume Guru, and has over 30 years of experience helping thousands find jobs with the federal government. She is the author of several books including "The Federal Resume Guidebook," now in its 7th edition and “The Jobseeker’s Guide: Ten Steps to a Federal Job for Military and Spouses,” now in its 8th edition. Kathryn provides "10 Steps to a Federal Job" curriculum to career transition counselors at military bases, universities, veteran’s organizations and private industry. In other words, Kathryn knows the Federal hiring system inside and out and is an expert on getting a federal government job. She is passionate about helping people find great jobs with the government. We discuss the attributes of a career in the federal government, what unexpected or hidden opportunities there are in the federal government, special opportunities for military spouses at military bases, and a lot more.
For more information on Resume Place: https://resume-place.com/
Nicole Cuellar-Lopez is an angel investor with Pipeline Angels and she serves as Peloton Interactive's Senior Manager for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. She invests in early-stage startups which have a positive social impact and are led by women and femmes. An Uber alum, where she started in the early years in 2013 and worked there until 2019, Nicole held roles in rider marketing, operations & logistics, and diversity & inclusion. Nicole breaks down for us what angel investing is, what it means to be an angel investor and how to get started in angel investing. She also gives advice to those relaunching at a startup about what questions to ask when evaluating a job offer that includes equity. Finally, we discuss the value of sponsorship in becoming a good angel investor and in navigating a career path at a startup.
To learn more about Pipeline Angels, visit https://pipelineangels.com/ For more information on Time Study, visit https://www.timestudy.co/
Laura Zigman is the author of the recently released hit novel Separation Anxiety, her fifth. One of her earlier novels, Animal Husbandry, was made into the movie Someone Like You starring Hugh Jackman and Ashley Judd, and another, Piece of Work, features a relaunching publicist as the main character. Laura has taken career breaks for her own health issue and for eldercare reasons, both of which she discusses. Laura’s frank commentary is a gift; she covers difficult topics ranging from feeling shame when she didn’t replicate her initial career success for a long time, to writer’s block and financial stress. She shares how ghostwriting was a skill she developed and used to smooth the income swings of a writing career (even published authors with multiple hit books can experience these income swings), and she does so with humor and a healthy dose of dog reverence.
Laura Zigman website/book info: https://www.laurazigman.com/
To purchase Separation Anxiety: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780062909077
Laura Zigman is the author of the recently released hit novel Separation Anxiety, her fifth. One of her earlier novels, Animal Husbandry, was made into the movie Someone Like You starring Hugh Jackman and Ashley Judd, and another, Piece of Work, features a relaunching publicist as the main character. Laura has taken career breaks for her own health issue and for eldercare reasons, both of which she discusses. Laura’s frank commentary is a gift; she covers difficult topics ranging from feeling shame when she didn’t replicate her initial career success for a long time, to writer’s block and financial stress. She shares how ghostwriting was a skill she developed and used to smooth the income swings of a writing career (even published authors with multiple hit books can experience these income swings), and she does so with humor and a healthy dose of dog reverence.
Laura Zigman website/book info: https://www.laurazigman.com/
To purchase Separation Anxiety: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780062909077
Charlotte Japp is the founder of CIRKEL, a company that connects older and younger professionals for mutual personal and professional growth. Charlotte started her career in creative marketing and saw the consequences of age segregation in the workplace. Older and younger professionals needed to connect and learn from each other, but had no way to meet. CIRKEL enables networking across generations – working with both individuals and corporations to bridge the gap. Charlotte was named one of Next Avenue’s 2020 Influencers In Aging and a 2020 Gen2Gen Innovation Fellow. In the podcast, Charlotte discusses three critical areas of focus for an intergenerational workforce, the definition of ageism (and how it doesn’t only apply to “older” people), and the work Charlotte and CIRKEL are doing to connect the generations inside and outside of work.
For more information on CIRKEL: https://www.cirkel.world/
Rochelle Nemrow sold her company Family ID to Arbitersports in February 2020, 10 years after founding it. Family ID is an online program registration and marketing platform. As Founder and CEO, Rochelle was responsible for the strategic direction and growth for Family ID, which serves families and the educational, recreation, sports and other programs in which they participate. Not only is Rochelle a relauncher herself, having taken a seven year career break earlier in her career, but part of her business model relied on hiring relaunchers as Family ID was growing. We talk with Rochelle about her entrepreneurial journey and get a firsthand perspective on the full arc of relaunching as an entrepreneur.
http://www.arbitersports.com/arbiter-acquires-familyid/
Combining the "Best Piece of Advice" from 11 episodes of "3, 2, 1, iRelaunch," you'll hear from guests including Liz O’Donnell on relaunching after an eldercare career break, Ginny Brzezinski on her relaunch journey and “Comeback Careers,” Cynthia Stewart on relaunching as a systems engineer, Kara Goldin on building Hint into a $100 million business, Dorothy DeWitt on relaunching in financial regulatory compliance, Kendell Brown on relaunching and career transitioning, Lisa Fain on mentoring and relaunching, Selena Rezvani on being a fierce self-advocate, Kim Winsey Stevenson on relaunching in non-clinical medicine, Letitia Shen on relaunching as a hazardous substances engineer, and Salli Cobb on industry switching after a career break. Be sure to listen to the full podcast content from each of these special guests in previous episodes.
After spending thirteen years as a corporate litigator in New York City, Amy Impellizzeri left "big firm law" to write and work in a startup supporting female entrepreneurs. When her first novel, "Lemongrass Hope," debuted in October 2014 as an Amazon best-seller, Amy decided to pursue a writing career full time. She has just released her fifth novel "I Know How This Ends." We discuss how to make a living as a writer, the craft and discipline of writing a novel, agents, book contracts, publishers and more. Amy also has a non-fiction book published by the American Bar Association called "Lawyer Interrupted," a how-to guide for leaving the practice of law; something Amy says about half of all lawyers want to do. Amy is the Past President of the Women's Fiction Writers Association, and a proud member of the Tall Poppy Writers, a female writers' collaborative which played an important role in Amy's evolution as a published author. Amy is a frequent speaker across the country and a faculty member of the Drexel University MFA Program in Creative Writing. She lives in Reading, Pennsylvania (well scripted Amy, to pick the perfect place for a writer to reside). More on Amy and her books here. Fun fact - Amy is working on a sequel to "Lawyer Interrupted" with none other than former lawyer now relaunched as a tenured business law professor and "Life After Law" author Liz Brown, who we interviewed in Episode 59!
https://www.womensfictionwriters.org/
https://tallpoppies.org/
https://www.amyimpellizzeri.com/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e59-transitioning-from-law-firm-partner-to-tenure-track/id1202049234?i=1000422144889
As someone who, to quote Lori “has had about six careers," culminating as a published author with her first young adult historical fiction novel coming out February 2021, Lori Banov Kaufmann talks about her serial relaunching, including co-founding and running a tech strategy consulting firm, a corporate relaunch with Sesame Street, an exciting entrepreneurial venture involving a lice removal device, and now, her soon to be published book Rebel Daughter, through Random House. There were lots of starts and stops along the way and Lori will talk about how her career path ebbed and flowed with each successive relaunch. We will also discuss how she got the idea for Rebel Daughter, how she got her book contract, and what's next as she approaches her book publication date. Lori is talking to us from Tel Aviv, Israel, where she has lived for over 30 years. She is married and has four adult children. Read more about Rebel Daughter at https://www.lorikaufmann.com/.
Pre-order Rebel Daughter now: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/617059/rebel-daughter-by-lori-banov-kaufmann/
Hang Tran returned to work as a market research and consumer insights professional in 2016 after staying at home full time to care for her children for seven years. She told us “My story has many twists and turns. When I started telling my friends that I wanted to go back to work, they often assumed that because I have an Oxford MBA and good experience, things should be easy for me. I had a very challenging time when I tried to find jobs in Miami, Florida. Spanish is widely spoken, and as someone whose Spanish was basic, I didn't even pass the first screening for many marketing jobs. So I started by volunteering 30 hours per week for six months at a local start-up and at a hospital, helping them with marketing and research. It helped give me more recent work-related stories to tell hiring managers, and boosted my confidence.” Hang tells us how learning Google Analytics and joining Toastmasters were important steps in her relaunch, and how she went from “feeling like a dinosaur” and not knowing what she wanted to do, to where she is today. She also moved across the country in the process!
Military spouse Karen Golden walks us through her career path in detail as she moved her family 12 times. She is currently living in her 17th house! Karen discusses her failed attempt to get licensed as a social worker, and how she pivoted to relaunch as Deputy Director, Government relations, for the Military Officers Association of America. In this role, Karen covered military family issues in an advocacy and training role for military spouses, after years of volunteering in similar roles. Hear about her surprise phone call that she calls the most important call of her professional life, in the Walmart parking lot of a famous city around minute 18. Karen tells us how her advocacy and training skills and passion for the cause led her to her current role at the Alzheimer's Association.
Ashley-Bria Leo is a relauncher who spent four years in military intelligence for the US Air Force followed by an entrepreneurial venture. While on career break she moved to a new city, completed an accelerated, executive MBA program and discovered the brand new Wells Fargo Glide-Relaunch program. She applied and was one of the few accepted to this competitive return to work internship program. We speak with Ashley-Bria at a milestone moment- she is starting Glide-Relaunch the following week. Ashley also attended our virtual iRelaunch Return to Work Conference and reported on LinkedIn how valuable she found it. We will talk to Ashley-Bria about her career path, her relaunch and what she is thinking at this moment before she starts her return to work program.
From Stanford Medicine News Center: “Anandi Krishnan, PhD, was on the fast track to a promising academic research career. A research fellow at Duke University, she had earned a PhD in bioengineering from Penn State in less than four years and was the lead author of 11 scientific papers. But a complicated pregnancy, an illness in her family and time off to care for her newborn child led to a career break in 2011. While she feared that the extended leave might end her research career, she was awarded a National Institutes of Health career re-entry grant in 2016 that enabled her to move from a staff position at Stanford back into research.”
In this episode, Anandi discusses the NIH Career Reentry grant, exactly what was involved in being awarded one, and how it enabled her to relaunch her career in scientific research and led to the important work she is doing today.
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2017/10/stanford-staffer-jumps-back-into-research-with-help-of-nih-grant.html
https://orwh.od.nih.gov/career-development-education/re-entry-biomedical-research-careers
Military spouse Sue Hoppin is a nationally recognized expert on military spouse and family issues. Sue tells us about her own relaunch at the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) 15 years ago in an admin role that led to her becoming MOAA's first deputy director for spouse outreach. While moving every few years nationally and internationally while her husband was an active duty service member, Sue discusses her "strategic volunteering," and the role it has played in her relaunch and beyond. Sue is the co-author of “A Family’s Guide to the Military” for the popular Dummies series and the founder of the National Military Spouse Network (NMSN), a membership organization supporting the professional goals of military spouses. Sue comments on how the Covid threat has popularized virtual work environments and portable jobs, both of which favor the military spouse.
If you have wondered about how people with non-technical backgrounds can survive coding bootcamps and then thrive in a technical role, this podcast is for you. Becca Rosenthal is not a relauncher and she graduated from college in 2015, so she is much younger and much earlier in her career than the typical guests we have on our podcast. We asked her to join us today because of the unlikely route she took to what is now a highly technical career. After leaving her non-profit work and a period of exploration, she enrolled in a full stack immersive training bootcamp at Hackbright Academy. Becca is now a software engineer at Reddit, where she has been for almost three years. Listen to find out how she did it, what bootcamp was like, and what her work has been like since. "Hello my name is 'potential'", "Be shameless", and "Referrals are your friend" are just the tip of the iceberg of the excellent advice and commentary from Becca that is relevant for relaunchers making this kind of career transition.
Concluding our series on the nuts and bolts of the recruiting process, Guest Podcast Host, Cheryl McGee Wallace speaks with Miranda Kalinowski, Global Head of Recruiting at Facebook to discuss their re-entry program. With more than 30 years of recruiting experience, Miranda shares practical advice for relaunchers on the importance of a “crisp” message, mapping skills to requirements throughout the recruiting process.
This episode is a rebroadcast from a podcast interview Carol did in 2017 with Mac Prichard, the Founder and Publisher of Mac’s List, where he writes regularly about job hunting, leads classes on job search skills, and hosts the "Find Your Dream Job" podcast. Mac also owns and operates Prichard Communications, a public relations agency that serves non-profits, public agencies, and foundations across the United States. In this episode, Carol discusses the various challenges that relaunchers face when returning to the workplace and strategies to address these challenges. Her interview is followed by a discussion with the Mac’s List team, where they share their thoughts about her conversation with Mac. Get more information about the "Find Your Dream Job" podcast on the macslist.org website, and listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud, and anywhere else you listen to podcasts!
Currently the Vice President at The National Math and Science Initiative, Diane Keane has one of the best LinkedIn profiles we’ve ever seen. Here’s her summary: “Rather than resting comfortably in the middle, I gravitate to the edges … the most challenging situations, stickiest business problems, and organizations where I can change things for the better. In my career, that meant transitioning from Wall Street deal-making to a startup operations to internal finance.” After a 15 year career break, Diane relaunched as Vice President, Finance at TNTP - The New Teacher Project - a non-profit in the education arena. She subsequently moved to her current role at The National Math and Science Initiative. Diane talks about her thought process of figuring out exactly what she wanted to do in her relaunch, by focusing in part on what she was NOT willing to do. She also discusses how long it took her to be back in the role before she had the “I can still do this” moment. Tune in for an engaging and instructive conversation.
This episode is the second in our mini-series on relaunch success after extra-long career breaks. 3D printing application engineer Pam Waterman describes herself having “the enthusiasm of an intern and the insight of an industry veteran in the field of additive manufacturing.” What is most unique about Pam’s career history is that she took a 31 year career break for childcare and eldercare reasons, which is a record breaking long career break. After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in astrophysics and microwave engineering, she worked in technical and engineering roles and then went into technical writing, which she used to keep connected professionally on and off during her career break. Find out exactly how she got her current engineering role after such a long career break in this wide-ranging conversation.
Ellie St. John is a Human Resources professional who relaunched her career after a nearly 18 year career break. Ellie wrote to us a few months ago about how much Back on the Career Track, the “Bible of career reentry” co-authored by Carol Fishman Cohen and Vivian Steir Rabin, was helpful to her: “Three years ago, I was finally in a place in which I could focus once again on my career, and I picked up your book. Since I read it, I have: · Relaunched my corporate career · Received a promotion · Moved to a higher paying position at a different company · Earned three professional certifications (aPHR, CSM and SHRM-CP) · Started a Master’s degree and will graduate in December with my MHRM” We were thrilled to hear from Ellie and knew we couldn’t wait to get her details on how she accomplished all that has been part of her relaunch. We also discuss the definition of “success,” our feelings about lost career progress during the career break compared to working peers, and what it means to be a “relaunch success story.”
This episode is the first in our mini-series on relaunch success after extra-long career breaks. Mimi Kahn, a bilingual, licensed social worker, relaunched at the Families Forward social services organization in Orange County, CA after a 25 year career break – one of the longest we have on record! Mimi, a mother of four, tells us how she almost didn’t finish getting her social work license before her career break, how she kept it up during her many years out of the field, and the person who had the biggest impact on her decision to relaunch. We do a little of the interview in Spanish too! (plus we translate)
Combining the "Best Piece of Advice" from 11 episodes of "3, 2, 1, iRelaunch," you'll hear from guests including our very own Shannon Amspacher whose podcast was on what the next generation of career breaks look like, Kerry Schrader on her Mixtroz entrepreneurial venture after a 25 year career in HR, Mike Montague on sales training, Chris Donovan on his journey from telephone repairman to luxury shoe designer, Laura Persky on the career switch into academia, Leah Vickers Marincovich on relaunching in media sales, Stewart Friedman on parenting and relaunching, Lisa Damour on managing families at home during Covid, Judaline Cassidy on relaunching in the trades, Wendy Durica on relaunching in software development, and Mary Beth Barrett-Newman on job searching during Covid. Be sure to listen to the full podcast content from each of these special guests in previous episodes.
Following her graduation from law school in 1977, Susan Samuelson went immediately into big firm law where she was progressing well. After having two children however, the relentless schedule of corporate law transactions combined with the demands of family life forced a reckoning for this high achiever. She left the firm, having no idea what was to come next. Hear how a chance encounter nearly 40 years ago sparked a years-long journey into the teaching side of academia – first by teaching courses as an adjunct instructor and later becoming a top-rated, tenured professor at Boston University. Also learn how Professor Samuelson grew the BU business law department by hiring more relaunching lawyers to join her.
Are you wondering about those video introductions and interviews that are becoming a more regular part of the recruiting process? Cynthia Siemens, Communications Director for HireVue, a leader in video interviewing and AI-driven video and game-based assessments breaks it down for us. Not only is Cynthia an expert on this topic, but she is also a relauncher. Cynthia talks about HireVue’s new video rehearsal practice tool, and the range of ways employers are using video interviews in their recruiting efforts. Video interviewing has exploded in recent years and is becoming the cornerstone of recruiting processes, especially in the age of Covid. Learn more about video interviews before you have one yourself, from someone who truly understands the relauncher perspective.
Sarah Mills is Senior Director of Events for iRelaunch, which means she manages all iRelaunch conferences and events. She is a relauncher who took an 8 year career break but has now been back in the workforce for 10 years. Sarah had to embrace uncertainty and fearlessness when iRelaunch pivoted hard and changed its three in-person 2020 iRelaunch Return to Work Conferences to two virtual conferences. On relatively short notice, Sarah had to evaluate and recommend the best virtual conference platform, and then dive in and learn the technical platform for the virtual event well enough to train our employer representatives on how to set up on it. Sarah would not describe herself as a “techy” person, yet she embraced the need to change and figured it out. We discuss what it takes to be flexible and fearless at a time when we had to flex and pivot in our corporate conference and events business due to Covid, and Sarah’s key role in that effort.
Finance and sustainable investment professional Liz Thorne relaunched her finance career via an executive fellowship in Massachusetts Governor Patrick’s administration, with a role that continued and expanded in Governor Baker’s administration. Her work in the state’s top finance agency led to her current role in the private sector focusing on clean energy and sustainable investing. Hear Liz recount the story about contacting her old boss from 14 years before for a reference for the fellowship, whom she wasn't sure would remember her (partial spoiler: “Reading what he wrote reminded me who I had been professionally”). She also shares advice on how to get into the sustainable investing field and how her experiences as a foster parent and the strategic volunteering she took on in the final years of her career break played a role in the redirection of her finance career.
Salli Cobb is now a Product Manager for a major HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) manufacturer. A mechanical engineer, Salli left her plant engineer role at a coal and natural-gas fired power plant to move with her family when her husband got an overseas assignment. After an eight year career break and a lot of job searching, she initially relaunched in an engineering role in a brand new field for her - HVAC. After 4.5 years, she remained in the HVAC industry and switched to the role she has today. Salli talks with Carol about specific steps she took to relaunch successfully, and the importance of perseverance in getting both her first relaunch job and her second, to which she applied THREE TIMES. Listen to find out how she met the person who was key to connecting her with her first relaunch opportunity - someone she barely knew - and how she ended up in her current role without ever actually applying for it.
Letitia Shen is a Hazardous Substances Engineer at the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, a role she got after a career break of over 20 years. She has been an active member of our largest private Facebook group, the iRelaunch Return to Work Forum. Letitia tells us how to navigate a state employment process, and the wide range of opportunities within state environmental agencies – including related to cannabis production, food safety, enforcement, schools, and others in addition to hazardous waste. She also discusses the resilience involved in engaging in more than 30 interviews, how she met the person who was most helpful to her job search (spoiler – it had to do with a church event), and how she was rejected for the job she has now.
Dr. Winsey Stevenson talks with Carol about her initial relaunch as an on-site physician advisor following an extended career break after leaving her clinical general surgery practice, and her subsequent move to medical director at an insurance company. Kim will talk about what it was like to re-take and pass her medical boards, how she made the decision to return to non-clinical medicine and why non-clinical medicine is such a good option for physician relaunchers, especially after long career breaks. We will also find out exactly what she does in her medical director role.
When Carol asks for Selena Rezvani’s best advice on how to “be a fierce self-advocate” as Selena says, and how to reach out to people to help in a job search without coming across as opportunistic, Selena explains this is all about demonstrating executive presence! Selena is a popular Leadership Speaker and Inclusion Consultant as well as a LinkedIn Learning Instructor. Her book “Pushback” addresses how self-advocacy is critical for professional success. Selena hosts a weekly show on LinkedIn Live, an invite-only platform, all about ways to elevate women at work. Tune in for a dynamic conversation.
Combining the "Best Piece of Advice" from 13 episodes of "3, 2, 1, iRelaunch," you'll hear from guests including Randi Childs who returned as a creative; seasoned recruiter Donnie Watson on relaunching; Corporate Council for TheRealReal, Liz Logie; Theresa Harris who relaunched in the arts; Chris Rudnicki on maintaining mental health during your relaunch, and many more. Be sure to listen to the full podcast content from each of these special guests in previous episodes.
Lisa Fain is the CEO at the Center for Mentoring Excellence. She speaks with Carol all about mentoring and the role mentoring and being mentored can have in a relaunch, and once back to work. They discuss the “growth mindset” and the idea of “becoming” vs the “fixed mindset," why you don’t have to “have all the answers” to be an effective mentor, and how the best mentoring relationships are enabling instead of dependent. Fun fact: Lisa Fain’s mother, Lois Zachary, the founder of the Center for Mentoring Excellence is a relauncher! When Lisa was in middle school, her mother went back to school for a PhD and founded the Center subsequently.
Center for Mentoring Excellence
Kendell Brown, Founder of Ascension Careers, first transitioned her career from finance to brand management after she got her MBA. Later, after her career break, she transitioned her career again when she took a role in career services at a major university. Finally, she used all of her accumulated skills to develop a career and executive coaching business alongside her university work, and then on her own. Listen as Kendell tells us how she convinced the university that she would be an excellent candidate for a role for which she had no prior experience. As the resume expert for the iRelaunch coaching team, she explains why she recommends being “accurate but not proportionate” when recounting work history on a resume. At the close of the conversation and as we witness the rise of the pivotal Black Lives Matter movement, Kendell comments on her relaunch experience as a Black woman and mother.
Dorothy DeWitt, Director of the Division of Market Oversight at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, grew up on a Texas farm and later graduated from University of Texas at Austin and Harvard Law School. She successfully relaunched her career in 2014 in a much more junior role than the one she left before her career break, and after a job search that was prolonged by the 2008 recession. Dorothy’s career soared after her relaunch. She candidly discusses what led to her current senior role and dispenses excellent advice for all relaunchers along the way.
Kara Goldin, Founder and CEO of Hint, talks to Carol about how she left a powerful career to be home with her kids, and got the idea for Hint when looking for a healthy, good-tasting alternative to diet drinks. They discuss Kara’s early career at Time magazine, CNN and AOL, being an entrepreneur within a company versus on your own, risk profiles and naysayers. Kara has been named to Forbes “40 Women to Watch Over 40” and Fortune’s “Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs.” Kara’s book Undaunted will be released in October 2020.
Read more about Kara here: 7 Questions with Kara Goldin
EP 140: Best Advice for Relaunchers Special Memorial Day Compilation Episode by iRelaunch
Cynthia Stewart, Director of System Engineering at Science and Engineering Services, LLC, talks with Carol about her engineering start at NASA, her 17-year career break raising her four children, and how her attendance at a job fair led her back into the engineering world with no up-skilling. Cynthia shares how a temporary job as the Children’s Director at her church gave her the communications skills to re-enter the workforce. She discusses how she relaunched as a Systems Engineer, a different type of engineering than what she did before her career break, and how it was the perfect fit for her when she relaunched.
More on Cynthia’s career path and relaunch can be found in this article written last year.
Ginny Brzezinski is a former Capitol Hill press secretary, writer, speaker, iRelaunch Advisory Board member and co-author, with her sister-in-law, Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, of the recently released Comeback Careers. Ginny talks with Carol about her own career break, relaunching in real estate which gave her some flexibility while raising her children, and now co-authoring Comeback Careers. Ginny explains the value of relaunching later in life and how the resilience and maturity you bring to the table makes you “stronger, wiser, better.”
Carol speaks with Liz O’Donnell, Founder of Working Daughter, a community of women (and men) balancing their careers and caregiving of an elderly parent or loved one. Liz has firsthand experience holding down a busy career, raising a family and then taking on a caregiving role out of the blue with both of her parents. Liz and Carol discuss the importance of “showing up” at work now, in order to gain trust and equity with your co-workers for the future when you may need some flexibility; the tough conversations that every family should have before there is a health crisis; and if you are on career break and then your circumstances change, how to position your caregiving time to your advantage.
In this episode, Carol speaks with Mary Beth Barrett-Newman, Founder and President of 2nd Career Consulting, a moderator on the iRelaunch Return to Work Forum private Facebook group, frequent iRelaunch Return to Work Conference speaker, and a member of the iRelaunch coaching team, about the challenges of returning to work during COVID-19. Mary Beth gives advice on using this time to update your resume and LinkedIn profile, take a new headshot and practice video interviewing with a friend, former colleague or the alumni career services office of your alma mater. She also discusses the importance of setting realistic goals during this time, putting yourself on a schedule, and sharing that weekly schedule with your family. Find out what Mary Beth means by making yourself "camera-ready” and hear her comments on staying resilient during this uncertain and unprecedented time.
Wendy Durica relaunched as a senior software developer at global advertising agency Kantar. Wendy has a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and later, while she was relaunching, got her Master’s degree in Computer Science at night. After an extended career break, Wendy took a lower level technical support role at a bank and moved up over an eight year period to the senior role she has now. A self-described “shy person,” Wendy discusses how her confidence grew, how she was able to overcome her shyness as she advanced professionally, and the important role getting her Master’s Degree
In this episode we discuss relaunching or transitioning to a career in the trades with one of the leaders in the field, Judaline Cassidy. Judaline Cassidy is a feminist plumber, Tradeswomen activist, and public speaker. She was one of the very first women accepted into the Plumbers Local Union 371 Staten Island, and the first woman elected on the Examining Board of Plumbers Local Union 1 New York City. Prior to her relaunch, which began with her acceptance into the Union's five-year apprenticeship program, Judaline worked as a nanny and housekeeper. She's been a proud member of Plumbers Local Union 1 New York City, for the past twenty years. From her bio: "Being a qualified Plumber has drastically changed her life, and the lifestyle of her family. Financially, it has afforded her and her family upward mobility in society. She cares deeply for her fellow sisters in the trades and serves as a mentor and big sister to anyone who needs her stewardship." Judaline was a speaker at the 2017 Makers Conference and is featured on their website, and is also the founder of Tools and Tiaras, a non-profit introducing girls to the trades. For more information on Tools and Tiaras and Judaline’s upcoming podcast: https://www.toolsandtiaras.org/
Carol is honored to welcome Dr. Lisa Damour as our guest in part 3 of our series on the COVID-19 pandemic. Lisa Damour, Ph.D. is a psychologist, author, teacher, speaker, and consultant. Dr. Damour writes the monthly Adolescence column for the New York Times and is a regular contributor at CBS News. She serves as a Senior Advisor to the Schubert Center for Child Studies at Case Western Reserve University and as the Executive Director of Laurel School’s Center for Research on Girls. Dr. Damour is the author of two New York Times best selling books: Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood and Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls. She also maintains a private psychotherapy practice. As we head further into uncertain times, with a growing number of us in our homes with children of all ages, including adult children as they are sent home from closed colleges, shuttered abroad programs and rescinded job offers, we are in completely new territory. And for those of us in the middle of a relauncher job search, things are even more complicated given the economic forecasts we are facing. We turn to Dr. Lisa Damour for her guidance and wisdom. More information about Dr. Damour's work can be found at drlisadamour.com
In part 2 of our series on the COVID-19 pandemic, Carol welcomes back Matthew Temple, Senior Director of Alumni Career & Professional Development at the Kellogg School of Management and an iRelaunch Advisory Board member. Carol and Matthew talk about building and maintaining resilience when job searching in a downturn; how to best use your time while at home; tips on video interviewing and other elements of the remote job search and more.
Carol and our new Managing Director, Jennifer Howland, former executive, manager and engineer at IBM who built the IBM Tech Reentry Program from scratch into a global program, discuss ways relaunchers can stay involved in their relaunch even in these uncertain times. They discuss the importance of relaunch buddies and circles, why you should and how to create a bio, remote opportunities for updating skills and experiences, and maintaining your mental health at this vulnerable time for so many. For more detailed advice on this topic, read our blog post.
Organizational psychologist, Professor of Management Practice, Emeritus, at the Wharton School, co-author of the new book, Parents Who Lead, and author of the best seller Total Leadership Stewart D. Friedman talks about the importance of bringing your whole self to both your work environment and home life. Professor Friedman discusses leadership at home when engaging with your children to find out what they need, getting them to open up, and what is important to them about your job, especially in the context of relaunching in which the parents' working status is changing. Click on ParentsWhoLead.net for more information about the new release Parents Who Lead.
In this lively episode Carol talks with Leah Vickers Marincovich. A relauncher with an extensive career in media sales, most recently in the aviation industry, Leah explains media sales and how it has changed through the years. From monthly newsletters, mainly in print format, to the booming industry of webinars, social media and digital content, Leah discusses the fearlessness it takes to embrace new technology, the challenge and motivation of working on commission, and the need to engage with your boss, your competitors and your customers.
In this compelling episode of "3, 2, 1, iRelaunch" Carol talks with Catherine Duffy, Country Manager at AIG Insurance in Bermuda. Cathy and Carol discuss navigating the global world of insurance with Fortune 500 and 100 companies both in the insurance and re-insurance markets. Cathy shares her experience entering and rising to the top of a mostly male field, and the difficulties she faced (and conquered) upon relaunching.
Today Carol welcomes Dr. Laura Persky, an Associate Dean at Manhattanville College School of Professional Studies. Laura built her career in corporate advertising, marketing and brand management before taking a 10-year career break. Laura and Carol discuss her relaunch back into a senior marketing role followed by her pivot into academia, first as an adjunct professor and ultimately to where she is today. Laura walks us through her career journey, including how she got her Ed.D along the way. For more information on Manhattanville College School of Professional Studies programs and workshops please visit mville.edu
A 2016 ManpowerGroup study found that 84% of Millennials are considering a future career break, meaning Millennials are anticipating career breaks in greater numbers than we've ever seen before. In this episode, Carol talks with our very own Manager of Strategic Initiatives, Shannon Amspacher. Shannon discusses the word “pre-launcher,” which she coined, and her perspective as a Millennial on taking intentional and unintentional career breaks. Carol and Shannon also cover the cost of taking a career break, the changing conversations within Millennial households pertaining to “The Second Shift” division of at-home responsibilities, and implications for employers.
For more information on Michael Madowitzs' "Calculating the Hidden Cost of Interrupting a Career for Child Care please click here
Career pivoter and relauncher Chris Donovan shares his remarkable career journey and evolution. Chris worked as a telephone repairman for 25 years, retired at 54, and pursued his dream of creating a designer shoe line. In order to fully realize his dream, he not only went back to school and apprenticeships in shoe design and production, but he had to learn the business side too. Hear how Chris earned his Masters degree in Footwear at Polimoda Fashion Institute in Florence, Italy, and his amazing experience with Tim Gunn of Project Runway. To learn about Chris and see his full shoe line, click here web sitP. Other organizations mentioned in this podcast. Massachusetts Small Business Development Center SCORE
Global Head of Content at sales training experts Sandler Training, Host of Sandler Training’s “How to Succeed“ podcast, and co-author of “LinkedIn The Sandler Way,” Mike Montague joins Carol for a lively discussion about effective sales techniques and relaunching in sales. They cover the art of consultative sales, the importance of being a good listener when selling, and how sales training can help relaunchers.
After 25 years steeped in the HR arena, Kerry Schrader took a step out of the field for a much-needed sabbatical to spend time with her family and reflect on her future. Together with her daughter, Ashlee Ammons she did a total 360 and founded Mixtroz, an entrepreneurial adventure raising over 1 million dollars to “strengthen social networks." Find out more at Mixtroz.com
Today’s episode features Carol’s conversation with Kristy Wallace, CEO of Ellevate Network, host of the Ellevate podcast series, speaker, advisor, and diversity advocate. Kristy shares her best advice on goal setting in the new year, surrounding yourself with a supportive community, the importance of seeing networking opportunities in your everyday activities, and much more. Tune in for this refreshing exchange on making the most of new beginnings.
Carol talks with Whitney Johnson, CEO of WLJ Advisors, Author, Keynote Speaker, Lecturer, iRelaunch Advisory Board member and longtime friend of Carol’s about Whitney’s books “Dare, Dream, Do,” “Disrupt Yourself” and her latest, bestseller “Build an A-Team,” and how their themes and messages relate to companies and relaunchers. They also delve into the importance of “how you tell your story.” Finally Whitney talks about her podcast conversation with the beloved Brene Brown and recommends particular “Disrupt Yourself” podcast episodes for our relauncher audience.
References in this conversation include: https://whitneyjohnson.com/meet-whitney/ https://whitneyjohnson.com/disrupt-yourself-podcast/ - Episodes 130, 120, 111, 100, and 22 https://hbr.org/2016/04/what-its-like-when-a-stay-at-home-dad-goes-back-to-work https://hbr.org/search?term=whitney%20johnson&loaded=1 https://whitneyjohnson.com/build-an-a-team/ https://whitneyjohnson.com/disrupt-yourself-book/ https://whitneyjohnson.com/category/dare-dream-do/
iRelaunch Chief Marketing Officer, Nikki Steingold, has been through two relaunches during her more than 40 year career in communications. During that time, she has not only adapted to new marketing media, but has been the catalyst for new communications platforms at iRelaunch, including the Return to Work Roadmap and this podcast series. With a solid foundation and background in her field, and a fearlessness for identifying and learning new software and communications vehicles, Nikki represents a combination of confidence and curiosity that is a proven formula for any successful relaunch.
We have once again put together a “Valuable Advice for Relaunchers” special episode from 12 previous episodes of 3, 2, 1, iRelaunch. You’ll hear top advice from jobs expert Mac Prichard, one of the first returnship participants Kathy Preble Bayert, supply chain relauncher Lisa Fenton, women’s career path expert Michelle Friedman, networking expert Kelly Hoey and many more. We hope you enjoy this special compilation edition podcast.
In this episode of 3, 2, 1, iRelaunch Carol talks with Carla Bass, Colonel in the United States AirForce (Ret) and author of “Write to Influence”. In a mock interview and a discussion about performance reviews that require the relauncher to write about accomplishments on the job, Carla advises how to highlight those accomplishments without having it feel like bragging.
Today’s episode of “3, 2, 1, iRelaunch” is a rebroadcast from an interview Carol did earlier this year with Joseph B. Fuller, Professor of Management Practice and Co-Director of the Project on Managing the Future of Work at Harvard Business School. In this episode (also entitled “Managing the Future of Work”) Carol shares her relaunch story as well as her insights and experience on returning to work after a career break, the challenges faced by relaunchers, and the talents and expertise the career returner brings to the workplace. You can listen to the HBS Managing the Future of Work podcast on their website, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and anywhere else you listen to podcasts!
Author, Speaker, Educator and Coach Steven Campbell joins Carol to discuss the power of the brain and how destructive negative self-talk can be, especially during a prolonged job search. Steven points out “your brain believes everything that you tell it” and having a more positive discussion with your brain can change your life. He will also discuss how his personal experience changing a negative narrative into a positive one led to the work he’s doing today. For more information on Steven’s work and courses, click here
As relaunchers, we focus almost myopically on the critical first role post-relaunch. While that is of course crucial, it is also important to consider longer term issues as well. In this episode, iRelaunch Guest Host and Special Advisor Cheryl McGee Wallace speaks with Dr. Sylvia Ann Hewlett, founder and president of the Center for Talent Innovation, about her research on executive presence, the crucial distinction between mentorship and sponsorship, and the importance of building relationships throughout one’s career.
Seasoned editor and journalist Grace Bennett joins Carol to discuss her career path and time off to raise her family. Despite having reached the top of her field prior to her career break, Grace had the “nobody wanted her” experience so many of us do when looking to relaunch after our career breaks. Grace is Founder and currently Publisher/Editor in Chief at Inside Press Inc. a community/regional group of magazines focused on northern Westchester, NY
Theresa Harris is the director of the Edgewater Galleries, two Middlebury, VT galleries and one in Boston, MA. She began her career as a designer of custom rugs for Stark Carpet, then went into freelance design work, and following an eight year career break, relaunched as a teacher and mentor to an artist with a disability. When she and her husband downsized and moved to Vermont as empty-nesters, Theresa literally walked into one of the Edgewater Galleries to talk about her interest in working there. With her background as an artist, plus her superb organizational skills and excellent eye for where interior design and art converge, she was hired and ultimately promoted to the role she has today. Hear the inside story of how Theresa relaunched her career in the arts in this engaging conversation. For more information on the Edgewater Galleries go to https://edgewatergallery.co
Today, Carol talks with Liz Logie about her amazing relaunch story. Liz began her legal career as a "big firm law" corporate/banking attorney in New York City, and then took a 10 year career break. She relaunched as an entrepreneur in the fashion business for 15 years, ultimately joining online luxury consignment site The RealReal in the early days of the company in a sales role. Liz returned to legal practice through the OnRamp Fellowship in Sidley Austin, LLP's NYC office in the corporate/M&A group following her participation in Pace Law School’s New Directions Program. In late 2018, Liz moved across the country to re-join TheRealReal as Corporate Counsel. The RealReal went public in July 2019 and has a valuation of almost $2B
We contacted Chris after reading his powerful and compelling article in Medium about his father’s depression during a prolonged period of unemployment, and the risks of ignoring mental health issues during the job search. We see signs of depression and anxiety in our own community of relaunchers; when people post in our private Facebook groups, when they write to us, and when we meet them face to face at our conferences and events. Carol explores this critically important topic in her conversation with Chris, who co-founded Project Tugboat, “which empowers professionals to overcome the social and emotional challenges of unemployment.”
In this special 3, 2, 1, iRelaunch series on the nuts and bolts of the recruiting process, we speak with recruiters from firms with and without back-to-work programs to provide you with the broadest perspective possible. iRelaunch Special Advisor and Guest Podcast Host Cheryl McGee Wallace talks with Donnie Watson, Talent Acquisition Manager at ZoomInfo/DiscoveryOrg. Donnie stresses the need for relaunchers to be pro-active and appropriately assertive in their dealings with recruiters. In part 2, we discuss relauncher questions on negotiations and post-interview silence.
In this special 3, 2, 1, iRelaunch series on the nuts and bolts of the recruiting process, we speak with recruiters from firms with and without back-to-work programs to provide you with the broadest perspective possible. iRelaunch Special Advisor and Guest Podcast Host Cheryl McGee Wallace talks with Donnie Watson, Talent Acquisition Manager at ZoomInfo/DiscoveryOrg. Donnie stresses the need for relaunchers to be pro-active and appropriately assertive in their dealings with recruiters. In part 1, we discuss how to address your break, determining level and fit, and position descriptions.
A well-crafted resume is an applicant's calling card. Whether applying for a job or seeking an informational interview, it's a critical first impression, often judged at a glance. In this special edition of 3, 2, 1 iRelaunch, we talk to career coach Kendell Brown of Ascension Careers about resumes, including drafting accomplishments vs. responsibilities, reflecting keywords, addressing career gaps and leveraging social media. For more information on the work that Kendell does please visit https://www.ascension-careers.com
A professional photographer specializing in individual and family portraits, headshots, nature and lifestyle photos, Randi Childs talks with Carol about the exhilaration, fear and passion she experienced when she started her own business after an extended career break. Note: Randi will be speaking at the iRelaunch Return to Work Conference at Columbia on October 3, 2019. For more information visit our web site.
EP 105: “Recruiting for the JNJ Re-ignite #ReturnToWorkProgram" with Elizabeth Markus by iRelaunch
Carol speaks with Nancy Eberhardt, Executive Director of Pro Bono Partnership, a nationally recognized provider of free business and transactional legal services to nonprofits. The organization recruits and supports volunteer attorneys with a range of specializations to help nonprofits achieve their goals, avoid risk, and better serve their constituencies. Carol and Nancy discuss how skills-based volunteer work can better position relaunchers for return to work success, and examples of legal work provided by the Pro Bono Partnership. For more information please visit www.probonopartnership.org
Carol is joined today by Katia Vlachos, Expat Transition Coach and Author of “A Great Move: Surviving and Thriving in Your Expat Assignment." Being a trailing spouse or partner can be an exciting experience but is also challenging from a personal and professional standpoint. Katia shares advice for those re-patriating back to their home countries after time abroad.
Lisa Fenton, Professional Supply Chain Manager at Rapala/VMC (Canada) gives our audience a firsthand look at the Supply Chain field. From procurement and operations to logistics and transportation all the way to trade, consulting and senior management, Lisa discusses opportunities for relaunchers to enter and advance in supply chain careers.
Today 3, 2, 1, iRelaunch reaches a milestone! This is our 100th episode and we are delighted to showcase Carol’s conversation with Claire Shipman, Co-Author, with Katty Kay, of “Womenomics”,“The Confidence Code”and “The Confidence Code for Girls”,and former national news correspondent for ABC, NBC and CNN. Claire and Carol discuss how to build back confidence after experiencing the diminished sense of self so common to relaunchers on extended career breaks.
Carol talks today with Sharon Gala, Investment Vice President, Chief Investment Office, Global Portfolio Management at Prudential Financial. After a six year career break Sharon let all of her friends and colleagues know that she was looking to get back into the work force. Even though her new role was different from her pre-career break roles, the fundamentals of the industry had not changed. Sharon discusses the experience that she emphasized on her resume, not her career break. She also talks about building up a “cheerleading” group to help build confidence.
Jacqueline Welch, a two time relauncher and one of the most senior relaunchers we know, talks candidly about her relaunch success and shares wide-ranging advice, including the value of silence in negotiating, "closing the loop" with those who helped you during your relaunch, and for those currently working who are anticipating a future relaunch, the call you should always take (more on that in the podcast!).
Alex Grodnik hosts the “Moving Up” podcast that lives on the popular Wall Street Oasis website, and is the Co-founder of fintech startup Payclub, "a next-generation banking platform for Gen Z." This lively conversation highlights Alex's thoughts on "chasing prestige” and “rejection therapy," which are relevant for Millennials and relaunchers alike.
Kelley Rogers, a PhD research scientist who took a 14 year career break, relaunched at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where she is now Technical Program Director for Biosciences. Kelley talks with Carol about how she kept up with developments in her field during her career break, and how a volunteer role ended up as the basis for a personal reference that was an important factor in her relaunch.
Carol speaks with clinical psychologist and Chicago Bulls Performance Coach Dr. Wendy Borlabi about how she builds trust with her pro-athlete clients and advice she gives them that is also relevant for relaunchers. A relauncher herself, Dr. Borlabi explains how keeping a “toe in the water” during her 14 month career break led to her relaunch with the Bulls.
After a nine-year break from her healthcare sales career, Cheryl Payne documented her relaunch journey in our private iRelaunch Facebook Forum group in an effort to help other relaunchers. Her raw and honest essay on the ups and downs of her relaunch journey was one of the most popular posts to date. "Persevere, prepare, practice, take notes, follow-up, ask questions" are some of Cheryl's steps discussed in this candid conversation with Carol. (And if you are a relauncher, please join our private FB group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/iRelaunchReturntoWork/ (note: there are a few questions you need to answer in order to join the Group).
Our own Mindy Berkower, Chief Client Officer and General Counsel, talks with Carol about her legal career, her 18 year career break and her relaunch, which began when she became our first iRelaunch Executive in Residence (our periodic return to work internship) after attending the 2012 iRelaunch Return to Work Conference in New York.
Entrepreneur and Relauncher Jules Pieri, Co-Founder and CEO of The Grommet, and author of the newly released “How We Make Stuff Now,” joins Carol to discuss the the key steps involved in starting and growing a product-based business.
Author of “That’s What She Said”: What Men Need to Know (and Women Need to Tell Them) and former Editor in Chief of USA Today and Deputy Managing Editor of the Wall Street Journal, Joanne Lipman talks with Carol about unconscious bias in the workplace, and how men and women work together in an environment reeling from sexual harassment scandals.
Michael Watkins, author of “The First 90 Days” and the companion book “Master Your Next Move” talks with Carol about the principles and techniques of transitioning to a new role as it pertains to relaunchers when returning to the workforce. How to regulate a “sink or swim” mentality in a new position, and striking the right balance when learning new tasks and completing them in a timely manner are among the many topics explored.
EP 88: "How I Have Maintained Career Continuity as a Military Spouse" with April Keating by iRelaunch
Suzanne Wall, Chief Operations Officer at iRelaunch is the mother of four, including her youngest who has Down Syndrome. She talks with Carol about the unique challenges faced when relaunching with a child with developmental disabilities, how to know when you are ready to return, and lessons learned post-relaunch.
EP 84: A Career Break Can be an “Explosive Time of Growth” with CNN Producer Kuae Kelch Mattox by iRelaunch
Carol has a lively conversation with social influencer and iOS Developer Kate Rotondo. Kate shares tips and advice as she describes her personal journey from moving out of the country with her family, to coming back to the States but to a totally different geographic location, to the self-taught process she went through to become an iOS Developer. Kate and Carol also discuss the importance of tenacity in the process, and that the relaunch doesn’t end with getting the job. Relaunching is a continuous process of learning and developing
Singapore based Helle Priess, Founder and CEO of Doerscircle, discusses the creation of her fast-growing member based support platform for self-employed people, entrepreneurs, free-lancers and start-upers. Doerscicle provides healthcare and insurance solutions at no cost. This unique model operates primarily in Asia. It has not yet come to the U.S. We are intrigued by this model for U.S. freelancers and get an early glimpse of what it looks like in action in this conversation with Helle. We estimate 30% of our relauncher community is interested in freelancing, entrepreneurial ventures and less than full time contractual work arrangements.
Description: In this episode of 3, 2, 1, iRelaunch Carol talks with Jennifer Bewley, Founder of Uncuffed. Uncuffed provides detailed research on companies, far beyond the company website and social media. She shares details on how relaunchers can get information on companies, both public and private, including sources we bet you have never heard of before!
Lisa Burns, Relauncher and 2018 iRelaunch Return to Work Conference attendee joins Carol to talk about the toughest parts of her relaunch, and how the Conference changed her outlook and job search approach. They discuss persisting when discouraged, the pitfalls of only applying for jobs online and combating age discrimination. Lisa attributes attending the Conference to her newfound confidence level and ability to do the networking necessary to land her new job.
In this episode of 3, 2, 1, iRelaunch!, iRelaunch Chair and Co-Founder Carol Fishman Cohen talks with "Serial Relauncher" Susan Smith Ellis. Smith Ellis' stellar advertising and marketing career includes career breaks along the way. Hear how a forward thinking recruiter back in the mid-1990's changed how Susan viewed herself as a relauncher. Listen to Susan discuss how she made decisions about when to leave the workforce and later relaunch. Susan and Carol also discuss how relaunchers with traditional marketing backgrounds not only can relaunch, but thrive, in today's digital marketing world.
Relaunching can involve career transition. What’s the thought process and re-entry strategy when relaunching and career transition happen at the same time? In this episode of 3, 2, 1, iRelaunch Chair and Co-Founder, Carol Fishman Cohen speaks with high school Spanish Teacher Judy Scinto, who was a hedge fund financial analyst before her career break. Listen as Judy describes her career journey in detail and gives a revealing look at how she did it.
In this episode of 3, 2, 1, iRelaunch, Author, Former Capitol Hill Press Secretary and iRelaunch Advisory Board Member, Ginny Brzezinski, interviews Carol Fishman Cohen about “Disrupternship.” They discuss how mid-career return to work programs have disrupted traditional University internships and how the use of mid-career internships have disrupted the way employers engage with relaunchers.
Has the world become more self-centered and inconsiderate? Do we treat people like we would like to be treated? Certified Business Etiquette Trainer and Founder of “The Etiquette Network” and “Professional Moms," Jacquelyn Flesner discusses business etiquette with Carol Fishman Cohen in this episode of “3, 2, 1, iRelaunch.” From the “Art of Business Dining” to “Politely Resolving Conflict,” from “Appropriate Verbiage of Titles of Respect” to “Cyber Civility and the Effect of Social Networking,” Jacquelyn and Carol discuss how listening to others and respecting their role and opinions can go a long way in the business world as well as your personal life. http://www.theetiquettenetwork.com/ http://www.theetiquettenetwork.com/professional-moms/
Jill Kravetz, CEO at iRelaunch, reviews the five top rated 3, 2, 1, iRelaunch podcasts since our first episode posted on Jun 28, 2016. We’ve produced 74 podcasts so far - all relating to getting back to work after a career break. Our guests have ranged from relaunchers just like you, to economists, magazine editors, start-up founders, career coaches, authors and other experts in the return-to-work field. Please go to SoundCloud, iTunes and Stitcher to listen to all of our information packed podcasts to help relaunch your career.
Networking expert, speaker, and author of “Build Your Dream Network” , Kelly Hoey joins Carol to discuss the meaning of networking and how to bring your networks back to life after a career break. Kelly explains how she went from corporate attorney to a management role, landing in a newly created position after a conversation unexpectedly turned into a job opportunity. Kelly explains how networking should be a researched, focused and specific process, and how to thoughtfully ease back into networks that have gone dormant.
Whether dusting off expertise mastered before a career break, or practicing a newly acquired skill, relaunchers are likely to experience a learning curve once back on the career track. Learn about the four stages of mastering new skills and why there is often a "dip" in the learning process early on. Understanding and expecting these stages to occur can help with keeping a patient mindset as the learning takes place. In this podcast, Carol speaks with executive coach Michelle Friedman, founder of Advancing Women’s Careers and special advisor to iRelaunch, about the four stages of competence, and how relaunchers can pace themselves when faced with a wave of new learning demands and opportunities within a short time frame. https://awcny.com/
When Lisa Fenton attended her first supply chain professional event upon deciding to return to work, she told herself, ‘you are just like them. The only difference is your pass doesn't have a company listed under your name. Now let’s go get a job to add to your pass.” Armed with a new haircut and suit, a gap-analysis of skills, updated references, and a vision of the job she wanted, Lisa’s strategy gives us a rare play-by-play glimpse at a successful relaunch. For example, her strategy of treating interviews like research projects made them less stressful. Lisa’s website propelledbypossibility.com features articles she wrote for a leading supply chain industry publication about her relaunch.
Kathryn Sollmann, author of “Ambition Redefined: Why the Corner Office Doesn't Work for Every Woman and What to Do Instead,” joins Carol to discuss the importance of finding your own definition of ambition and success. Using lessons learned from her own career progression, as well as discussions and anecdotes from her career coaching practice with women nationwide, Kathryn explains how women can make career choices that can not only provide the flexibility they want but can help ensure financial security. https://www.kathrynsollmann.com/
One of the earliest relaunchers to go through a formal career re-entry program (Returnship@SaraLee), Kathy Preble Bayert describes her return to work journey after having children. Hear how Kathy believes her career path choices have shaped who she is as leader and as parent, and about her husband's subsequent decision to take a career break. Don't miss this inspiring example of how families can successfully negotiate their roles and responsibilities.
Are you spending your job-searching time wisely? Mac Prichard, founder and publisher of the “Mac’s List” job board and host of the "Find Your Dream Job" podcast joins Carol for an instructive discussion about the importance of defining your career goals and developing a solid job-search strategy before you look for your next job. Learn about the “hidden job market” and the most effective way employers search for the best talent. macslist.org/irelaunch https://www.macslist.org/books/land-dream-job-anywhere-book
E68 Best Advice for Relaunchers Special Holiday Compilation Episode
Combining the "Best Piece of Advice" from 14 episodes of "3, 2, 1, iRelaunch," you'll hear from guests including NBC's TODAY show financial editor, Jean Chatzsky; former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, Kate White; Ladders Founder and CEO, Marc Cenedella; "The Lawyer Whisperer," Julie Brush; authors of The Ambition Decisions, Elizabeth Wallace and Hana Schank, co-founder of "Grown and Flown," Lisa Heffernan; and many more. Be sure to listen to the full podcast content from each of these special guests in previous episodes.
Seasoned entrepreneur and two-time relauncher Barbara Warren, founder of the successful brands White + Warren cashmere and B3.0 luxury activewear, always defined herself through her career. But when Barbara decided to take a career break at a crucial time in her children’s lives, it gave her the opportunity to explore and embrace the person she was becoming as well. Considering how women in their “mid-point in life” meet the physical, emotional, and professional challenges they face daily, Barbara started “The Perennial Project,” a multi-media resource that is redefining aging with a kinder and more gentle perspective.
Relauncher and career transitioner Dawna Levenson joins Carol in this lively and informative look at how 18 years at Accenture and a 5-year career break ultimately led to Dawna's current role as Assistant Dean and Co-Lead of the Admissions team at MIT Sloan School of Management. Hear how Dawna's career break provided a time to reconnect with family, friends and herself, to think about what she really wanted to do when she returned to work, and to position herself for her dream opportunity. http://mitsloan.mit.edu/
Can someone with no prior experience start and run a successful business? If you are shoe and apparel designer and entrepreneur Kara Mac, the answer is yes! And in this episode Kara tells you how she did it. Describing her journey to host Carol Fishman Cohen, Kara discusses learning to sew at eight years old, her education and 20-year design experience in fashion, and her ultimate success creating “ShoeCandy by Kara Mac.” Kara explains the importance of making opportunities happen rather than waiting for them to happen to you. https://karamac.com/ https://www.facebook.com/ShoeCandyShoes/
Combining the "Best Piece of Advice" from 14 episodes of "3, 2, 1, iRelaunch," you'll hear from guests including the author of "Meet 100 People" Pat Hedley, LinkedIn staff instructor Oliver Schinkten, divorce coach and co-founder of "SAS for Women" Liza Caldwell, Senior Product Manager at MobileIron Maureen Byrne, founder and principal at Advancing Women's Careers, LLC and special advisor to iRelaunch Michelle Friedman, two-time relauncher and Senior Manager for Systems Engineering at Raytheon Jane Pastoor, President of 2nd Career Consulting and iRelaunch career coach Mary Beth Barrett-Newman, and many more. Be sure to listen to the full podcast content from each of these special guests in previous episodes.
The career break can often be a gift. It’s the first time we allow ourselves to step back and reflect on whether we were on the right career path to begin with. In this podcast, Carol speaks with relauncher Linda Lautenberg, CFA, Director of Return with Purpose Outreach at Inspiring Capital about how she became interested in the social sector space through the “Return with Purpose Fellowship” and ultimately became its director. For more information about the Return to Purpose Fellowship or upcoming Return with Purpose Summit opportunities, please click here. Inspiringcapital.ly
In this second podcast installment, Janet Simpson Benvenuti, relauncher, eldercare expert, founder of Circle of Life Partners, and author of “Don’t Give Up on Me! Supporting Aging Parents Successfully” describes the information and documents that all eldercare providers should assemble, including legal documents and medical documents. She discusses eight strategic decisions that are the basis for caring for aging parents and the six factors that contribute to your, and your parents’ longevity. For more information about Janet Simpson Benvenuti and her work, go to Circle of Life Partners and sign up for their newsletter, follow Janet on Twitter, read “Don’t Give Up on Me! Supporting Aging Parents Successfully,” and follow her blog, Dontgiveuponthem.com http://colpartners.com/ @colpartners http://dontgiveuponthem.com/
"An Eldercare Primer for Relaunchers and More" with Janet Simpson Benvenuti – Part I
In this two-part podcast, Carol talks with Janet Simpson Benvenuti, relauncher, eldercare expert, founder of Circle of Life Partners, and author of “Don’t Give Up on Me! Supporting Aging Parents Successfully” about how we can best prepare for future eldercare responsibilities and managing the care of our elders once in the eldercare role. In this first installment, Janet describes what she learned from her personal experience on career break caring for her aging parents, and her subsequent relaunch as a subject matter expert, eldercare coach and guide. http://colpartners.com/ @colpartners http://dontgiveuponthem.com/
Whether you are currently on a career break for caregiving purposes, or considering one in the future, did know there’s a calculator to help you determine the full financial cost of taking that break? In this episode, Carol speaks with Michael Madowitz, Economist at the Center for American Progress and creator of the CAP Calculator. With a curiosity born of his dual role as an economist and new parent, Michael and his mathematician wife sought a quantitative answer to their question about the long-term financial consequences (over and above the cost of childcare or eldercare) of a decision to leave the workforce. Follow Mike at mikemadowitz@twitter and access the calculator at http://interactives.americanprogress.org/childcarecosts/
Liz Brown was a patent litigation partner at a prominent intellectual property law firm when she took a career after her daughter was born. She used her time off to evaluate what career success meant to her at this new juncture. An invitation to teach one class as an adjunct professor of business law at Bentley University ultimately led to a tenure-track position. In her “free time,” Liz also wrote and published her book, ‘Life After Law: Finding Work You Love with the J.D. You Have,” and advises other attorneys looking for alternate careers to traditional law practice. https://lizbrownjd.com/consulting/ https://www.amazon.com/Life-After-Law-Finding-Work/dp/1937134644
Over 10 years ago, Monica Marquez was instrumental in creating the Goldman Sachs Returnship® program, the first formal return to work internship program. At that time, as a member of Goldman's “Experienced Hire Diversity Recruiting Team," Monica recognized the need to bring talented employees back to the workforce, but found that resume gaps were a hurdle to hiring managers. In this podcast, you’ll hear how Monica designed a program that would not only change the mindset of hiring managers but would become a template for mid-career internships on Wall Street and beyond. Hear how Monica, now Global Head of Community Advisory at Google, is shaping the professional internship culture in technology.
Making important life decisions can be overwhelming. How can you ensure that the decisions you make are free from bias? How can you effectively research the important aspects of your decision to reach a conclusion about which you feel confident? In this episode Carol talks with Cheryl Strauss Einhorn, adjunct professor at Columbia University, author of, “Problem Solved: A Powerful System for Making Complex Decisions with Confidence and Conviction” and creator of the AREA Method, about her problem-solving process and how relaunchers can use the AREA Method to make reliable complex decisions.
In this episode, Carroll Welch, iRelaunch Coach and Founder of Carroll Welch Consulting talks with Carol Fishman Cohen about crafting the perfect response to the “tell me about yourself” prompt. What information should you include, what does your body language add to the conversation, and how would you answer differently depending on the context and people to whom you’re talking? Don’t be caught off guard the next time you’re asked. Learn how preparation can ensure you make a great first impression.
In this “Life After Relaunch” series within a series, Carol speaks with relauncher Nicole Young, Director of Public Relations and Communications at Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting. Describing her six-year career break and subsequent seven years back in the workforce, Nicole describes the lessons learned during her break that she now uses on the job, how she dealt with her initial “imposter syndrome” feelings, and whether or not being a relauncher affects her work or relationship with her colleagues.
Julie Brush, founding partner of Solutus Legal Search and the voice of “The Lawyer Whisperer” blog joins Carol for this episode filled with practical advice and tips for dealing with ageism when interviewing (not just in the legal field). Carol and Julie engage in a mock interview to address scenarios including 1) being called overqualified, 2) an employer expressing concerns about higher salary expectations, 3) hints that the job pace “might be a little too fast” and more. The answers will leave you feeling optimistic and well-prepared – not just for your next interview, but for how you present yourself in any professional situation.
www.thelawyerwhisperer.com
Did you know that your Alumni Career Services Office might be the hidden treasure for your return to work? In this episode, Carol speaks with Matthew Temple, Director of Alumni Career & Professional Development for the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University about the resources that Alumni Career Services Offices provide for their former students. Although the benefits can vary among institutions, offerings include professional self-assessments, job search groups, webinars, workshops and so much more. Hear Matthew’s tips about how to approach reunions for maximum benefit (and comfort!) and how to reach out to your alumni association for more information.
What does the career path look like for a relaunching attorney? In Erin Gibson Allen’s case, the path went from law school to full-time attorney, stay-at-home mom, freelance writer, volunteer in a federal judge’s office, community organizer, reduced-hour attorney, to full-time attorney at Marcus & Shapira in Pittsburgh, PA. In Erin’s words, by its very nature, the path of a relauncher is unclear. But as you’ll hear in this inspiring and instructive episode, Erin’s organized approach to networking, her flexibility in direction, and her commitment to her community (both professional and non-professional) paved a path to her relaunch success.
Does our sense of ambition change as we grow older? Do our life experiences affect the dreams we imagined for ourselves when we were younger? In their book, “The Ambition Decisions - What Women Know About Work, Family, and the Path to Building a Life,” authors Hana Schank and Elizabeth Wallace explore these questions through interviews with their former Northwestern University sorority sisters. They examine the career trajectories of the “High Achievers, Opt-Outers, and Flex-Lifers.” In this episode, Carol asks Hana and Liz to reveal what they learned with a special focus on the (surprise!) Opt-Outers.
A two-time relauncher, Lesley Jane Seymour’s achievements and longevity in the publishing world practically guaranteed her successful return. But when the former editor-in-chief of YM, Redbook, Marie Claire, and (most recently) More magazine (in addition to Beauty Director of Glamour, and copywriter and senior editor at Vogue) recognized that the magazine publishing world was changing, and More closed its doors, she faced what many relaunchers face – the need to reinvent. In this entertaining and affable conversation, Lesley describes what led to her creation of “Covey Club,” and her respect for life-long learning. https://www.coveyclub.com/
Sometimes, a career break is an opportunity to reassess your career path and consider something new. In this episode, Rebekah Rombom, Vice President of Student Success at Flatiron School, speaks with Carol about how Flatiron School’s in-person and online courses have helped career changers all over the world find rewarding work in software engineering. For those who are not sure whether coding is the right path, Flatiron offers students free coding introductory courses to help figure that out. Hear more in this encouraging episode.
https://flatironschool.com/
In this episode, Carol talks with Shanda Hinton, Global Diversity Talent Attraction Leader at United Technologies (UTC) and one of the leaders of the United Technologies Re-Empower return to work program. A member of the Society of Women Engineers/iRelaunch STEM Re-entry Task Force, UTC is starting their third cohort of this successful program. Hear details about Re-Empower and some of its participants in this informative episode. http://www.utc.com/Careers/Work-With-Us/Pages/ReEmpower_Program.aspx
Marc Cenedella, best-selling author and Founder and CEO of Ladders, Inc. the website connecting $100K+ professionals with employers and recruiters throughout the US, is a renowned thought leader on job search, career management and recruiting. In this dynamic and candid episode, Carol and Marc cover everything from what you can do during your career break to help you win the job, what to say in an effective elevator pitch, to how to convey the right attitude about learning new technology, and so much more. https://www.theladders.com/ "Ladders 2018 Resume Guide" http://amzn.to/2DIImuc "Ladders 2018 Interviews Guide" https://amzn.to/2H8S6iQ
Jean Chatzky, financial editor of NBC’s TODAY and weekly podcast host of “HerMoney with Jean Chatzky” answers the financial questions surrounding a relaunch in this must-listen episode. Jean and Carol discuss how to calculate the financial impact of a career break, what you can do during your career break to offset the loss of income, how to look at the bigger picture when weighing the costs of returning to work against the income you’ll receive, and how to plan for your retirement. https://www.jeanchatzky.com/
Mara Feldman was a multiple award-winning pharmaceutical sales representative and regional sales trainer at GlaxoSmithKline when she left to become a stay-at-home mother. Mara decided to return to work eight years later. In this podcast, Mara describes how she knew it was time to go back to work, the difficulty in finding a job during the recession, and how contacts and experience gained by taking a lower-paying contract sales position opened doors that were originally inaccessible when she started her relaunch.
Best-selling author, international speaker, and former editor-in-chief of "Cosmopolitan" magazine, Kate White knows what women can do to get ahead and achieve their goals. In this episode, Carol talks with Kate about her latest book, “The Gutsy Girl Handbook: Your Manifesto for Success,” Kate’s inspirational guide to career success. Touching on topics including “picking a lane and knowing your brand” and asking for what you want “even if you can come up with reasons why you shouldn’t,” Kate and Carol cover relevant tips for relaunchers who are looking for an infusion of confidence. http://www.katewhitespeaks.com/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0756BSZ3D/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Lisa Heffernan, co-founder with Mary Dell Harrington of "Grown and Flown," and best-selling author of “Goldman Sachs : The Culture of Success,” joins Carol to discuss her varied career path and the motivations that led to her professional decisions (here’s a hint: sometimes the answers come to you – you just have to listen). A mother of three, Lisa describes her decision to be a “stay-at-home mom” and what she wishes she’d known at the time. You’ll also hear about Grown and Flown’s participation in the UT Austin “Foundation Scholars” program to help first-generation college students. https://grownandflown.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P24UAxg5VYA
"You don't unlearn what you already know!" Jane Pastoor, two-time relauncher and Sr. Manager for Systems Engineering at Raytheon shares her relaunch story in this informative episode. Jane talks with Carol about what led to her career break (and her perception that it would mark the end of her technical career) and how a former co-worker reached out about returning. As Ambassador to Raytheon's "ReLaunch," Jane shares information about this new return to work opportunity.
The interview process has become more and more complex over time. Are you ready to answer even the toughest questions with confidence? In this podcast Carol speaks with Mary Beth Barrett-Newman, the founder and President of 2nd Career Consulting, a moderator on the iRelaunch Return to Work Forum private Facebook group, and frequent iRelaunch Return to Work Conference speaker about how you can prepare for the “next level” of interviews, including salary and compensation negotiations, behavioral interviews, case interviews and the three “questions” that are at the root of every good interview.
Lesley Jane Seymour, former More magazine Editor In Chief and creator of CoveyClub.com, interviews Carol Fishman Cohen on the secrets to re-entering the workforce. Lesley and Carol discuss the growing number of re-entry internship programs and employers’ recognition of the high-caliber value of relaunchers. Carol offers the “two most important things you should do right away if you’re thinking of relaunching.” A rebroadcast from “Covey Cast.” https://www.coveyclub.com/
What are the 5 most important phases of your relaunch and how can you best break them down into actionable steps to ensure your success? Join iRelaunch Chair and Co-Founder Carol Fishman Cohen as Jill Kravetz, iRelaunch CEO talks to her about the foundation of the iRelaunch Return to Work Roadmap.
Join Carol and Oliver Schinkten, LinkedIn Staff Author, Business, Education & eLearning for this informative episode detailing how relaunchers can best use all that LinkedIn offers. Whether it’s learning how to portray yourself in your Profile, using LinkedIn Learning resources to build your confidence and skills, expanding your networking opportunities, or maximizing the Newsfeed, Oliver and Carol explain how LinkedIn can help you send the message you want potential employers to see.
If you’ve ever considered relaunching in a new career but feel discouraged by the lengthy training and interviewing path ahead, you’ll find this podcast with Diane Lindsey-Adler inspiring. A successful marketing professional with Revlon, Diane took a 7-year career break to raise her children. The serious food allergies her second child suffered with led Diane to independently study nutrition and how it affects the body. With the encouragement of her husband and friends, Diane turned her love and dedication to help her daughter into a successful new career path she loves.
Recently retired from her position as Special Advisor on Gender Diversity for the Certified Financial Planner Board, Eleanor Blayney, a long-time advocate for women in financial planning, speaks with Carol about the role of Certified Financial Planners in providing 360-degree guidance in personal financial management. She and Carol discuss the “Financial Planner Re-entry Initiative,” a program developed by The CFP Board Center for Financial Planning in partnership with iRelaunch, that connects firms in the financial planning sector with experienced professionals seeking to reenter the workforce after a career break by establishing return-to-work internships. https://www.cfp.net/career-center/resources-for-job-seekers/financial-planner-reentry-initiative Tune in to hear how relaunchers can be particularly attractive candidates in this professional re-entry opportunity.
In this episode, Carol speaks with Pat Hedley, author of “Meet 100 People: A How-to Guide to the Career and Life Edge Everyone's Missing.” https://www.amazon.com/Meet-100-People-How-Everyones/dp/0998651508 A relauncher herself, Pat shares specific tips about the importance of being proactive and consistent about networking and how you can become more successful with a request for help. Inspired to write “Meet 100 People” when a relauncher friend credited Pat’s advice to reinvigorating her network and landing the job, this episode includes exact language on how to ask for help, guidance about using vulnerability to your advantage, and the single most important thing you can do to maintain the support of your contact.
Maureen Byrne, a Product Manager at MobileIron, relaunched after a 10-year career break raising her three children. Despite stellar credentials including a master’s degree in software engineering, work experience in the field prior to her career break, website development during her break, iOS development classes at Stanford, and Toastmasters training, Maureen candidly describes her initial return to work as a time filled with self-doubt and “fear of exposure.” Hear how Maureen learned to appreciate the perspective she gained from her career break, how it became a part of what she brings to the table as an employee, and how she “found her voice” after relaunching.
How can relaunchers ensure they are making the best impression while networking, at a professional conference, and even in an interview? Today’s guest, Julie Holunga, executive coach and founder of Chinook Executive Solutions, http://chinookexecutivesolutions.com/, asserts that relaunchers should be deliberate about the words they use – presenting themselves with confidence and thereby projecting confidence about themselves onto others. Noting mirror-neuron studies that suggest that our body language and vocabulary have a mirror effect on those with whom we interact, Julie provides numerous examples of weak vocabulary and replacement words that will help employers focus on what you are, not what you’re not.
In this special episode, Carol speaks with LinkedIn Instructor Oliver Schinkten. Author of more than 35 LinkedIn courses, Oliver remarks on how relaunchers can most effectively use the LinkedIn “Summary” section, suggestions for using the “Headline” strategically, and listing volunteer work. Oliver will be a speaker at the upcoming iRelaunch Return to Work Conference with the Stanford Alumni Association, May 1, 2018 at Stanford University. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn more in his breakout session, “LinkedIn: Upgrade Your Profile and Your Skills.” For more information about the conference please visit https://www.irelaunch.com/viewconference/2459
In this empowering episode, Carol talks to Liza Caldwell, co-founder and director of SAS for Women, an organization that provides divorce support and coaching for women who are considering, in the process of, or recovering from divorce. “Divorced and happily single” herself, Liza discusses divorce topics including the timing of a return to work, reinforcing your values and enhancing your sense of self-worth, and the importance of information gathering as a first step in designing an educated divorce strategy with the greatest integrity.
How can women overcome their reluctance to let people know how talented they really are? What makes networking so hard, and what’s the simple way women can redefine this opportunity by using skills that come naturally? In this podcast, Wendy Sachs, author of "Fearless and Free: How Smart Women Pivot and Relaunch their Careers," speaks with Carol about how she turned to Silicon Valley to find out how relaunchers can develop a more entrepreneurial spirit when returning to their previous careers or pivoting into new ones. Wendy discusses embracing failure, networking, the difference between “branding and bragging” and how to maximize the effort you make in finding your next job.
Guest: Jill Kravetz, Special Projects Advisor to iRelaunch Are you intimidated by technologies that have come into prominence since you left the workplace? If so, you’re not alone. In this episode of 3, 2, 1, iRelaunch, Carol speaks with Jill Kravetz, special projects advisor to iRelaunch and our “go-to guru” on a variety of social media and technology questions. Jill shares the six tech tools of which everyone should have a basic understanding before starting a new job. She touches on social media, file sharing, team collaboration, personal productivity and advancement, company-specific tools, and ends with must-have workplace tools. By taking a small amount of time to understand these tools, you’ll return to work on a more equal footing with your peers.
Shelley Zalis built her career on a foundation of purpose and a passion for "driving change - and making the new, the new norm." In this episode, Carol speaks with Shelley about her pioneering work in migrating market research from a central location or telephone to the Internet, at a time when the medium was new and untested. Ten years later, Shelley sold that company, Online Testing Exchange (OTX) for $80 million. Her desire to "give back with generosity what I wish I had rising the ranks" then led her to create "The Female Quotient" and "The Girls' Lounge." Hear how Shelley is "committed to advancing equality in the workplace through collaboration, activating solutions for change and creating measurements for accountability" and how her passion and fearlessness can drive your return to work.
In this episode, Carol speaks with LeeAnn Dance, co-producer/director of “My Dear Children,” a documentary about one woman’s quest to learn more about her father’s past in Eastern Europe following World War I. A former CNN producer, LeeAnn took a 10-year career break and returned to work as a documentary film producer. LeeAnn explains her journey back to work including how her former career provided a foundation for her relaunch, her initial fear of learning new recording and editing technologies, doing some non-paid work to build her portfolio and a following, and finding a career that meets her and her family’s needs. LeeAnn also explains how the career break itself provided much-needed experience and perspective.
Carol talks with Jen Scott, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and co-lead of the STEM Re-Entry Task Force. Since its inception in 2016 the STEM Re-entry Task Force has been a pipeline for more than 200 female technical professionals to return to the workforce. In this podcast, Carol and Jen discuss how the Task Force was initially conceived, its substantial growth over the past few years, how returning professionals can find out more about these programs, how to apply, and what to expect in these programs. Companies considering developing a re-entry internship will hear about how these internship programs are set up, the support from SWE and iRelaunch, and the nearly 90% average hiring rates after program completion.
We've compiled the best advice shared with us in interviews with business leaders, career experts and relaunchers over two seasons of podcasts. Enjoy! And thank you for listening.
Carol Fishman Cohen speaks with Manisha Thakor, host of the MoneyZen podcast about her personal relaunch, how it led to the creation of iRelaunch and how she draws inspiration from her new career.
Learn how to be more effective and powerful in your next interview as Tammy Marzigliano, a partner at Outten & Golden LLP in New York, discusses the legal aspects of relaunching with Carol Fishman Cohen. Hear how to determine the difference between what's considered illegal conduct and what is just "bad business," how to use the right terminology to trigger legal protection, and discover the secret behind redirecting uncomfortable interview questions.
From her job in Israel's Ben Gurion Airport Coordination Center to managing director at wealth management firm Boston Private (with a few stops and other careers in between), Susan Black understands the path of a relauncher. In this podcast she speaks with Carol Fishman Cohen about her circuitous pathway and discusses the three main drivers when contemplating a career reinvention.
Carol Fishman Cohen speaks with Alex Klemmer, co-founder of Cyclebar, an indoor cycling gym with franchised locations throughout the US and Canada. Alex talks about the challenges and rewards of relaunching her career as an entrepreneur.
Carol Fishman Cohen speaks with Michaella Kurdziel, Director of Customer Experience at MM.LaFleur about how to "dress for success" in today's work world. Learn tips on how to scope out the dress code at a company before your first interview, how to "shop your closet" for timeless wardrobe staples and how to selectively rebuild a career wardrobe after years of wearing yoga pants and hoodies.
Carol Fishman Cohen interviews Caren Ulrich Stacy, Founder & CEO, Diversity Lab & OnRamp Fellowship. Learn about the OnRamp Fellowship, a program that matches returning women lawyers to law firms, legal departments, and banks for a 1 year paid fellowship. Hear the inside scoop on the program, as well as its history, growth, success and challenges.
Description: Sometimes, just telling your story can lead to a new career. For Ginny Brzezinski, that moment came when she texted her sister-in-law, "Morning Joe" co-anchor Mika Brzezinski, asking her to speak up for women wanting to return to work after a career break. Mika's reply? Let's write a book together. Now, after countless interviews with women in all stages of relaunch, Ginny and Mika are sharing these stories in "Know Your Value: Comeback Careers" (due for fall 2018 release). Learn about Ginny's personal relaunch story and the insights she's learned from these compelling relauncher interviews.
Carol Fishman Cohen talks with a pioneering technology relauncher, Dinny Stearns Taylor, retired CTO at Williams College. Dinny shares her career path, relaunch story, how she updated her skills, and some important advice for relaunchers.
Carol Fishman Cohen interviews her iRelaunch Co-Founder and co-author of Back on the Career Track, Vivian Steir Rabin. Vivian now runs VSR Advisors, a retained executive search firm focused on commercial real estate and financial services. Vivian shares her relaunch story with us and helps us navigate the executive search / staffing / recruiting landscape as relaunchers.
In the first episode of our second season, Matthew Temple, Director of Alumni Career and Professional Development at the Kellogg School of Management and an iRelaunch Advisory Board member, interviews Carol Fishman Cohen about the history of iRelaunch and its Return-to-Work Conference. From its early days following the publication of the book, Back on the Career Track, iRelaunch has grown to become the leader in career reentry initiatives helping employers identify and recruit professionals looking to return to work after career breaks and helping those professionals gain the confidence and skills they need to be successful in today's workforce. Carol talks with Matthew about the value of the one-day Return-to-Work Conference as a way to bring employers and relaunchers together for inspiration, education and networking. The day is more than inspiration and motivation. Carol talks about the concrete tips and advice employers and career relaunch professionals share with relaunchers such as what to say when an interviewer asks about an employment gap. Listen to learn more.
In our final podcast episode for this season, iRelaunch CEO Carol Fishman Cohen speaks with Tamara Dowling, resume-writing expert and Owner of SeekingSuccess.com about that killer resume that best positions you for the jobs you are interested in.
For more info on Tamara and her services at SeekingSuccess.com, please visit: https://www.irelaunch.com/resource_partners
iRelaunch CEO Carol Fishman Cohen speaks with iRelaunch Coach Carroll Welch about social media tips for relaunchers. Figure out what the critical components are of a relauncher's LinkedIn profile, how to describe a career break and / or career transition, and how to get the most out of yours and prospective employers' social media feeds.
Carroll Welch is a bootcamp coach for iRelaunch. Learn more about our bootcamps at www.iRelaunch.com/bootcamp
In this episode of 3,2,1 iRelaunch, Carol Fishman Cohen talks with Michelle Friedman, Founder of Advancing Women's Careers and Special Advisor to iRelaunch about how best to approach your relaunch plans with your family. Carol and Michelle explore both conceptual and practical ways to deal with some of the most common issues in returning to work for family life including household management, your partner's career goals, and dealing with the loss of time at home and with children.
For more from Michelle, go to: https://www.irelaunch.com/node/2048
Is going to back to your pre-career break profession always the best choice? Not always. Here is how to evaluate the best fit for you now as you relaunch your new career.
Ensure you're getting what you're worth. Salary negotiation expert, Katie Donovan of Equal Pay Negotiations LLC, shares tips with iRelaunch CEO Carol Fishman Cohen. Katie is a founding member of the MA Equal Pay Coalition and a co-president of the Massachusetts branch of American Association of University Women (AAUW). Katie and the MA Equal Pay Coalition were honored with the Be the Change Award at the 12th Annual Massachusetts Conference for Women which was held on December 8, 2016.
For more info, please visit https://equalpaynegotiations.com/negotiating-for-irelaunchers/.
iRelaunch CEO Carol Fishman Cohen speaks to successful relauncher Cheryl McGee Wallace about networking and maintaining the confidence you need to pursue return-to-work opportunities.
How do relaunches differ (or do they?) when the traditional roles are reversed and the father takes the career break? Hear one father's relaunch journey as iRelaunch CEO Carol Fishman Cohen interviews Dave Carty, father of three who took a 13 year career break to be home with his kids. He left an international business development role to go on career break and relaunched in a strategy role for a K-12 independent school.
We are on career breaks for a reason - usually child care, eldercare or another reason of equal importance. However as we prepare to relaunch, taking a course, engaging in volunteer work, or working occasionally on a paid special project can be great resume and conversation material. In this 4th episode of 3,2,1,iRelaunch, Carol Fishman Cohen talks with career coach Arjan Eenkema van Dijk about what you can do during your career break (whenever that timing is good for you) to prepare for your relaunch. Listen here>>
What's the most important step you can take when you're thinking about returning to work? It may not be what you think.
iRelaunch CEO Carol Fishman Cohen interviews relauncher Mindy Diamond, Founder and CEO of Diamond Consultants. Carol and Mindy discuss the sometimes circuitous route to career passion and relaunching in a new career.
If you're feeling intimidated about getting out there and talking to potential employers, you're not alone. It is quite common for relaunchers to feel a lack of confidence. iRelaunch CEO Carol Fishman Cohen interviews executive coach Valerie Cherneski about how to regain and project confidence while in the job search. Regain that fearless professional image!
Check out our breadth and depth of services for return to work professionals, corporations, academic institutions, and professional associations at www.irelaunch.com.
Read about Valerie Cherneski at: http://bit.ly/2lfjqzT
What's the best way to handle rejection when you are relaunching your career? Tips and advice from Carol Fishman Cohen, CEO iRelaunch, and Valerie Cherneski, Founder Cherneski Coaching and iRelaunch Coach.
Join us for tips and advice on how to bring your best performance to your job interviews with CEO of InterviewMastery.com, Michael Neece. Michael talks with iRelaunch CEO Carol Fishman Cohen about a range of interview and prep techniques including how to describe paid and unpaid experience, how to prepare for that dreaded "tell me about a weakness" question, and best practices for following up.
InterviewMastery.com is an iRelaunch Resource Partner. For more info, go to: https://www.irelaunch.com/resource_partners