Retro | One Year On Podcast
Our year of conversations on career change
If you were to ask me do I consider talking to strangers “fun”, my answer would most definitely be “NO”. But here we are, a year after our first podcast episode with horrible audio was published, we’ve managed to ask 28 people about their experiences in career transitions and learned a whole lot. Here is a short and sweet retro.
Here is what we are doing for our one year old birthday:
- Take stock
- Reflect
- Plan forward
WHAT DID WE DO IN THE PAST YEAR?
First of all, we published interviews on 28 amazing humans who switched from careers that no longer serve them to ones that make them happier and more fulfilled. While taking a closer look, we found that there are three main clusters of careers we happened to stumble upon
1. Entrepreneur: 18 of our 28 guests switched from working in a corporate setting to starting their own businesses. These can be found in the following episodes:
WIPp 003 Avery Roth: Hedge Fund Analyst, Startup Founder, Career Change Coach
WIPp 004 Goli Kalkhoran: Lawyer, Podcaster, Blogger, Business Owner
WIPp 006 Lucybloom Webb: From Makeup Artist to Yoga Instructor
WIPp 007 Leo Gong: From Management Consultant, Founder, Business Operations to Product Manager
WIPp 010 Lauren Aitken: From Restaurant Manager, Director of Hospitality to Ceramic Artist
WIPp 012 Masha Zvereva at Coding Blonde: From Marketing to Tech and Entrepreneurship
WIPp 013 Amanda Armstrong at Athari Career Coaching: From Nonprofit to Sales to Entrepreneurship
WIPp 014 Rosie McCarthy from Badass Careers: From Human Resources to YouTube to Career Coaching
WIPp 016 Louise Robbins: from Nursing to Nutrition coach & CrossFit Trainer
WIPp 017 Jennifer Nagel: from Higher Education to Fitness Coach
WIPp 018 Dr. Christie Lewis: from Medicine to Health & Life Coach
WIPp 019 SAM & LANCE: from Advertising and Fashion to Conscious Shopping
WIPp 022 Neha O’Rourke: From Advertising to Coaching
WIPp 024 Vanessa Rezende: From Law to Yoga Instructor
WIPp 025 Malak Sharaf: From Engineer to Movement Teacher & Business Owner
WIPp 027 Brittany Ramsey: From Clinical Therapist to Recruiter and Entrepreneur
WIPp 028 Albert Pujol: From Mechanical Engineer to Data Scientist and Entrepreneur
WIPp 029 Emily Padan: From Teacher to Business Owner
2. Coaches (this includes fitness, career and health/lifestyle coaches): 10 of our 28 guests became coahes. These can be found in the following episodes:
WIPp 003 Avery Roth: Hedge Fund Analyst, Startup Founder, Career Change Coach
WIPp 006 Lucybloom Webb: From Makeup Artist to Yoga Instructor
WIPp 013 Amanda Armstrong at Athari Career Coaching: From Nonprofit to Sales to Entrepreneurship
WIPp 014 Rosie McCarthy from Badass Careers: From Human Resources to YouTube to Career Coaching
WIPp 016 Louise Robbins: from Nursing to Nutrition coach & CrossFit Trainer
WIPp 017 Jennifer Nagel: from Higher Education to Fitness Coach
WIPp 018 Dr. Christie Lewis: from Medicine to Health & Life Coach
WIPp 022 Neha O’Rourke: From Advertising to Coaching
WIPp 024 Vanessa Rezende: From Law to Yoga Instructor
WIPp 025 Malak Sharaf: From Engineer to Movement Teacher & Business Owner
3. Tech: 9 of our 28 guests moved to tech. These can be found in the following episodes:
WIPp 002 Shawn Wang: From Finance to Tech
WIPp 005 Amy Ng: Pharmacist, UX Designer
WIPp 007 Leo Gong: From Management Consultant, Founder, Business Operations to Product Manager
WIPp 008 Stephanie Sakamoto: From Teacher and Regulatory Affairs Business Lead to Tech
WIPp 009 Anne Huynh: From Social Worker and Customer Service to Front-End Web Developer
WIPp 012 Masha Zvereva at Coding Blonde: From Marketing to Tech and Entrepreneurship
WIPp 020 Lauren Lee: from English Teacher to Tech
WIPp 026 Xenia: From Political Science to AI and Aging Research
WIPp 028 Albert Pujol: From Mechanical Engineer to Data Scientist and Entrepreneur
What’s worth mentioning is that the later half of the interviews happened when COVID started, so we dived into how COVID impacted our guests’ careers/businesses. Particularly, from episodes 20 and onwards is where you can find these. A lot of people actually have their own businesses so it was interesting to see how they coped (and continue to cope) with the vastly changing times
Besides on our podcast and here on Medium, we are also on YouTube. Aside from the podcast and blog posts, we have put sound bites on our Instagram page.
Fun fact, the blog has actually been going for a while — for almost two years now! Our very first post on Medium is a review/comparison of the different kinds of pumpkin flavored coffee you can brew at home. And we introduced our favorite coffee brewing method — the super easy and unfussy French Press. There’s just something so relaxing and easy about making a cup of coffee using a French Press.
One thing noticeable is that we’ve only invited 3 men onto our podcast. What happened here? We don’t know. But for the next year, we will have more male guests on our podcast.
WELL, WHAT DO WE THINK?
Between the two of us, we both really enjoyed connecting with our guests and learning about them; it really feels like we are getting to know them on a personal level. Second is the “flow” of being creative while generating content, whether it’s writing or creating artwork. They do take painstakingly long, but so worth it.
Something we’ve struggled with is writing, we wish it could’ve been easier! But practice makes perfect so it will only get better going forward. Also, something we could’ve done better was to interact with people more on social media.
Another thing we struggle with is to edit audio, it is not an easy task and it takes almost longer than writing. But just like writing, it gets easier the more you do it!
WHAT’S NEXT FOR US
- Continue to do more interviews!
- Here are some ideas:
- Turn the podcast into something more informative by grouping the interviews into mini series focusing on specific careers
- Review career related books or useful resources
- Have more targeted conversations with hiring managers to get you the first hand deets on what they look for when hiring someone with nontraditional background.
CHEERS!
