3,2,1 iRelaunch

Alex Mooney is Sr. Manager of DEI Talent Acquisition Programs and a 12 year Amazonian serving in increasingly senior HR roles, most recently in innovative talent pipelines and DEI talent acquisition. He is the founder of the Amazon Returnship Program and leads other global talent acquisition programs. Under Alex’s leadership, Amazon Returnship has committed to hiring 1,000 returners over the next few years. Join us as Alex describes the features of Amazon Returnship and shares excellent tips on how to frame the career break in an interview.

Nadia Gil is Head of Business Strategy at Google Cloud, where she is responsible for developing international strategic planning and transforming the operations for Google Cloud's cyber security products. Nadia has over 20 years of experience in strategic transformation and operations with a specialty in strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and integrations. She has an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. After the births of her each of children, Nadia considered taking a career break, but ultimately opted to remain in the workforce on her own terms by redirecting her experience and transferrable skills into new roles. We speak with Nadia today about her process of reinventing her career path to accommodate her changing priorities, and what that looks like today.

CFC & Nadia Gil approved 1/31/2022

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Nadia Gil is Head of Business Strategy at Google Cloud, where she is responsible for developing international strategic planning and transforming the operations for Google Cloud's cyber security products. After the births of her each of children, Nadia considered taking a career break, but ultimately decided to pivot her career path while remaining in the workforce successfully. Listen to our conversation to find out how she did it.

Mary Catherine Malley is Senior Corporate Counsel for Juniper Networks. Her route to this huge role for a global, NYSE listed, multi-billion company following an 11 year career break is the topic of our conversation. A surprising conversation with a neighbor jumpstarted her relaunch, and ended up in a returnship-like role for his company. Mary Catherine details the key role networking played in her relaunch, and how attending our iRelaunch Return to Work Conference twice and the iRelaunch Roadmap helped guide her relaunch. This episode is part of our "Relaunching in Senior Roles" mini-series.

Kati Koenig is Senior Salesforce Business Analyst at Liberty IT Solutions, a Booz Allen Hamilton Company. Kati took a 20-year career break from a sales and marketing career in the hospitality industry, during which she spearheaded a number of fundraising efforts and initiatives around her community and within the local schools. Knowing her abilities and potential, Kati’s husband suggested she try out learning the Salesforce platform as a first step to relaunching her career. With no idea whether she would like it or have any aptitude for it, Kati dove in and ended up getting two Salesforce certifications. These credentials led to her career relaunch and success in a fulfilling new career path. Listen to the full podcast to get the details of how she did it.

Sirisha Kuchimanchi is a Global Engineering & Manufacturing Executive with Texas Instruments, as well as a podcast host. Sirisha took two career breaks in less than eight years, during which time she raised her family and earned her doctorate in Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Sirisha hosts the podcast "Women, Career and Life" and works in the tech industry, where she leads teams, drives change, and supports customers. In this episode, we talk about what she learned during her career breaks and how she relaunched at her pre-career break employer.

Lisa Fain is the CEO at the Center for Mentoring Excellence. She speaks with Carol all about mentoring and the role mentoring and being mentored can have in a relaunch, and once back to work. They discuss the “growth mindset” and the idea of “becoming” vs the “fixed mindset," why you don’t have to “have all the answers” to be an effective mentor, and how the best mentoring relationships are enabling instead of dependent. Fun fact: Lisa Fain’s mother, Lois Zachary, the founder of the Center for Mentoring Excellence is a relauncher! When Lisa was in middle school, her mother went back to school for a PhD and founded the Center subsequently. Today is a rebroadcast of an earlier podcast in honor of January designated as National Mentoring Month.

Elisabeth Galvin is a content editor at Diversity Network, an organization committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and creating a better workplace for all. We met Elisabeth when she invited Carol Fishman Cohen to join her in a fireside chat session at Diversity Network’s Inclusion 2021 virtual conference. Elisabeth has worked as a journalist and author in the US, London, Australia and Hong Kong and took a nine-year career break during which time she was a freelance writer and editor. Elisabeth discusses how she got her freelance jobs and expanded her network so that she could write for a range of magazines and newspapers. She also talks about her recent relaunch, how she overcame some initial challenges during her transition, and the work she does at Diversity network. (Shoutout to Loralee Hamilton of Oracle at timestamp 17:04)

Hear the “Best Piece of Advice” from ten episodes of the 3,2,1 iRelaunch podcast series:

Author Laura Zigman explains how to move forward through life’s most challenging time; Learn about angel investing and if it’s right for you with Nicole Cuellar-Lopez; Kathryn Troutman gives guidance on applying for jobs with the federal government; Dr. Ella Washington discusses how to have difficult and meaningful discussions with your team; LinkedIn Learning instructor Selena Rezvani explains how to have better executive presence; NY Times bestselling author Lindsey Pollak discusses navigating work in a virtual world; David Boehmer, founder of Banff Advisors, gives an insider’s view into executive search; Gabriella Bean and Sue Spillane rebounded from lengthy career breaks into high level engineering careers; Shannon Tymosko and Darci Spiteri as they explain their journey as women in the electrical trade; Parent educator Katherine Reynolds Lewis discusses how to involve your kids in your job search and relaunch transition.

Be sure to listen to the full podcast from each of these special guests!

Sarah DeLadurantey supports General Motor’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as a Talent Strategist for DEI Workforce Design. She is the program manager for Take 2, GM’s career reentry program, and led its recent transformation from a returnship to a direct-hire model. Sarah discusses how the Take 2 program has evolved and provides helpful guidance on how to answer an often-asked pre-screening question about whether an applicant has taken a career break. She also shares what the application process looks like, what to expect during the interview process, and gives specific tips on how to prepare for interviews.

Roles for the Take 2 program are currently closed, but are expected to re-open in the first quarter of 2022. Check GM's website at https://search-careers.gm.com/mentorshipandgrowth for updates on opportunities.

Sydney Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent. Syd also hosts his own podcast, The Sydcast, to share stories of people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life (Carol Fishman Cohen was a recent guest!). Syd defines what a superboss is, the unique traits of a superboss, why you want to work for one, and the specific questions to ask when interviewing to determine if your prospective boss is a superboss. He also shares his thoughts on the four characteristics of a great job and why these are so important for relaunchers.

https://thesydcast.com/