3,2,1 iRelaunch

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...

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 Rochell...

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 regu...

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...

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 devi...

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 c...

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...

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...

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...

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 sh...

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...

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 acros...

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 fro...

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...

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...

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...

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 s...

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...

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...

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 conference...

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 recou...

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 bran...

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 –...

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...

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” address...