Her Career Unplugged | Career Advice for Women, Leadership & Real Stories

She left Tanzania at 15 with no safety net and no plan B. Today she's one of the highest-ranking women of color to serve as VP at IBM. Shelmina Abji, author of Show Your Worth and founder of ShowYourWorth.ai, joins us to break down how she built her career strategy from the ground up, and how you can too. If you've ever kept your head down instead of speaking up, or wondered if you need a...

You've been in your role for two years. You know the job, people respect you, nothing is on fire. But every few months, that little voice shows up and asks if you should be doing more by now. Is it right? Maybe. Or maybe it's just noise. This week, we (Joanne and Vimala) get into one of the most misunderstood moments in any career journey: the pause. Not every stall is a failure. Not every plateau...

There is no roadmap for when you decide to build something from scratch. But there are lessons that actually shape you as a founder, and they show up long before you ever write a business plan. In this episode of Her Career Unplugged, we sit down with Natesha Mortimer, Georgia Tech grad student, data entrepreneur, and founder of Data Swale, for a conversation about what building a company in your...

Nobody handed you a guide to office politics on your first day. But those unwritten rules? They were already shaping your career before you even knew the game existed. In this episode of Her Career Unplugged, we pull back the curtain on the workplace dynamics nobody warns you about: the decisions made in rooms you are not in, the informal power structures that run alongside the org chart, and the...

The career move that helped two introverts land jobs and find mentors had nothing to do with their resumes — and it's more accessible than you think. What if the biggest career investment you're not making costs nothing, doesn't go on your resume, and is available to you right now? In this episode of Her Career Unplugged , hosts Joanne Skiles and Vimala Pydi get honest about community building as...

Never feel ready for your next big career move? Neither did a former Army psychologist turned CEO. Here's what she did anyway. In this episode of Her Career Unplugged , hosts Joanne Skiles and Vimala Pydi sit down with Jennifer Solberg — CEO, entrepreneur, and former U.S. Army research psychologist — to talk about career reinvention, entrepreneurship, and why waiting until you feel "ready...

What does imposter syndrome actually sound like — and how do you fight back? This honest conversation might change how you hear that voice in your head. In this episode of Her Career Unplugged , hosts Vimala Pydi and Joanne Skiles sit down with Betty Dannewitz, founder and CEO of If You Ask Betty, for one of the most honest conversations about imposter syndrome you'll hear. Betty shares how sh...

Two women in tech share the unfiltered career journeys behind their titles — the pivots, doubts, and decisions that changed everything. What does a real career journey actually look like for women in tech and leadership? In this first episode of Her Career Unplugged , hosts Vimala Pydi and Joanne Skiles share their own stories — no highlight reel, no polishing the hard parts. They cover the pivots...