3,2,1 Irelaunch

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 informat

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 Un

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.penguinran

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

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.

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/car

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 conversa

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