3,2,1 Irelaunch

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 peaked 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.