3,2,1 iRelaunch

Cedric Layton is the Global ReEntry Program Co-Ordinator at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., responsible for all facets of their long running, rapidly growing, global career ReEntry Program - including all executive champions, managers, other internal stakeholders and especially the relauncher "Fellows" themselves. We discuss what to expect when applying to and participating in the ReEntry Program, and the major features of the program.

The ReEntry Program is one of the oldest career reentry programs, having launched in 2013. Fellows from the earliest cohorts are now senior enough to be managing the newest participants, something we could only dream about back in 2007 when iRelaunch was founded.

Betsy began her career as an occupational therapist before making a career shift into sales and ultimately into pharmaceutical sales. After taking a career break to raise her three children, Betsy discovered her passion for organizing, rearranging, and re-doing furniture and decor. She began in her own home and soon was getting requests to do the same at her friends’ homes. After discovering there was actually a professional name for her work - "staging"- she pursued a home staging certificate and subsequently launched her real estate residential staging company, PorchLight Home Staging. We speak with Betsy about her career shifts, finding her passion, the importance of upskilling, and hear Betsy’s valuable advice on entrepreneurship.

Market researcher Prabha Kannan took a seven-year career break before relaunching at Apple, ultimately as the Managing Editor for Siri – which means, as Prabha describes, “head writer and character lead for Siri”. After four years in this role, Prabha published a LinkedIn post that went viral, talking about her decision to take a second career break. This post has over 95,000 reactions, 2,000 comments and more than 1,500 shares. She was also recently featured in a Business Insider article writing about her career journey. We will discuss how Prabha relaunched her career at Apple, how she progressed once there, and hear more about her decision to take a second career break and write about it.

Elizabeth Bader was a Team Effectiveness Coach at Red Hat at the time of this recording and has since been promoted to North American Regional Advocate in Sales! Over the course of her career, Elizabeth has taken three career breaks – one to obtain a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership, one to start her own company, and one for family care. This year, she is celebrating the twenty-second anniversary of her first return to work. In this episode, we will discuss lessons learned by Elizabeth during her career breaks, the importance of professional development, and tips on how to handle restarting in a new location where you don’t know anyone.

At the time of this podcast recording, Mariany Polanco-Cruz was a Vice President on the Global Diversity Recruiting Team at Goldman Sachs. She discusses the recent innovations to the Goldman Sachs Returnship program which was completely overhauled, as well as last Fall’s newly-introduced COVID-19 Career Relaunch Initiative. Mariany describes who is eligible, including important guidance for interested applicants who are unsure whether they meet eligibility requirements, and what the application process looks like. She also discusses the key role that Goldman’s community of relaunchers have played since the first returnship cohort began in 2008.

Applications are currently closed but interested relaunchers can learn more at https://www.goldmansachs.com/careers/professionals/returnship/

Richard Eisenberg was, until recently, the Managing Editor of Next Avenue, the PBS’s website for people 50+, and the editor of the site's Money & Policy and Work & Purpose channels. Richard was a previous guest for Episode 197 of the 3,2,1 iRelaunch podcast, when we discussed career progression trends for the 50+ worker, how COVID impacted those trends, and his predictions about what working behaviors will look like post-COVID. Since that conversation, Richard has retired from Next Avenue to start his "unretirement." In this episode, we ask him to turn the lens on himself and discuss his personal career journey, his thought process and expectations for this phase of his life and career, what “unretirement" looks like for him and some advice on how others might navigate it as well.

Relauncher Nuala Murphy is a professional marketer, entrepreneur, community builder and connector. As a marketer she has worked with some of Northern Ireland's most successful companies internationally, selling and marketing products, services and technology across many industries for 15+ years. As President of the Lean In network in Belfast, Nuala has led and scaled the Lean In movement across Ireland over the past nearly 8 years and she spent three years launching a company with a health tech solution offering early intervention to pre and post natal depressions. These pursuits overlapped with a 7 year career break. As interim head of business at Diversity Mark, Nuala is channeling her expertise, leadership and passion into building a more equal and inclusive society working with companies from all sectors across Ireland and the UK.

Shay Baker is Program Manager of Return Utah, Utah’s career reentry program. Utah is the first state to launch a career reentry program. Shay was a participant in the inaugural cohort of Return Utah that launched in fall 2021, and was subsequently hired to run the program. The second cohort launched in January with almost three times as many participants as the first. Shay is a relauncher herself, leaving her career as a reporter and producer for KTVX, the Salt Lake City ABC affiliate TV station, for what turned out to be an eight year career break. In this episode, Shay shares the unique and varied scope of the Return Utah program, her mandate to grow the program, and her future vision for it.

Bef Ayenew is Director of Engineering at LinkedIn where he leads the Search and Profile engineering teams focused on helping LinkedIn members express their professional identity. In this special edition of our podcast, Bef announces the launching of the significant, new LinkedIn profile feature that is particularly relevant to relaunchers, the career break designation. Now, a career break can be presented as an integral part of members’ profiles, as any job listing would, with opportunities to explain and list pertinent efforts during that time. Listen in as Bef explains the background, evolution and impact of this brand new profile feature, and how best to utilize it.

Marion Viray is Program Manager of the Technology Leadership Development Program

at Baruch College and Advisor for the Starr Career Development Program. Marion moderated our Successful Relaunchers Panel at the October 2021 iRelaunch Return to Work Conference. Marion stepped away from full-time employment to focus on childcare. In the years since, he has held a variety of freelance, adjunct, and part-time positions in higher education, many of which focus on career counseling. In this episode, Marion talks about these roles and his experience relaunching in higher education and career counseling.