3,2,1 Irelaunch

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

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

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

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/