Ep 222: How to Navigate Intentional and Unintentional Career Breaks, with Sirisha Kuchimanchi

01/20/22 • 32 min

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.

Previous Episode

EP 221: How Mentoring Can Help Your Relaunch, and Beyond – with Lisa Fain, rebroadcast

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.

Next Episode

EP 223: Using Salesforce to Career Transition after a 20-Year Career Break, with Kati Koenig

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.