Many women workers pivoted careers, found success after major ‘perspective shifts’: Podcast host

Yahoo Finance

Emily Tisch Sussman, ‘She Pivots’ Podcast Host and Contributing Editor of Marie Claire, discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic effected women in the workforce and details how women can pivot in their careers.

Video Transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: Well, the pandemic was particularly painful for female workers, losing 12 million jobs compared to just 10 million for men. But women are staging a comeback in that regard, having now gained more jobs than men for four straight months and clocking in a shade below 50% of nonfarm payrolls, a number of women last tipped in 2019. Emily Tisch Sussman is the host of the "She Pivots" podcast and a contributing editor of "Marie Claire." Nice to have you here. Season 2 of the podcast rolls out today. We're going to get to that in a minute. It's about the pivot. Are more women making the pivot? And is that partly what we're seeing in these jobs numbers?

EMILY TISCH SUSSMAN: It's exactly what we're seeing. What happened in the pandemic is that it broke all of us to some degree. And a lot of women, particularly those that had children at home, young children in particular, felt like what I thought, the base I thought I had, it doesn't exist. It's not working for me. But now they're coming back into the workforce, and they're rethinking their lives. They're rethinking their engagement. If I'm going to be spending my time outside of the home, if I'm going to be having my children see me breadwinning, it needs to mean something. And so they've tried to figure out what they want to keep in their careers and what they have to get rid of. So they're rethinking their careers.

SEANA SMITH: And you did it. You pivoted your career, and you were very successful at it. What did you do? What was it like? And what-- any advice? What did you do? Start with that.

EMILY TISCH SUSSMAN: So I did political strategy for about 15 years. So I actually did segments like this on cable news almost every day for a long time. And I'm one of the women. I know that it broke women because it broke me. I had three kids in 3 and 1/2 years in a very busy presidential election. I could not do my job, and I left Washington. And so I started to think about what are the stories that I needed for inspiration. I had done everything professionally right, and I was at the top of my field, and I still couldn't do it.

So I needed to hear stories of inspiration of women who had changed their careers for personal reasons, not because they weren't professionally cutting it. So I thought, well, how do I get all of my idols to talk to me? Put them on a podcast.

[LAUGHTER]

DAVE BRIGGS: Now I think politics broke you because it broke all of us, quite frankly. So your podcast, you have everyone from Kathy Hochul, the New York governor, the vice president, Kamala Harris, and even the social media star turned businesswoman, Kristin Cavallari. Is there a common thread among these women when you interview them in terms of their resolve or characteristics or--

EMILY TISCH SUSSMAN: Well, the reason that we bring women on the show is because they made a career change for a deeply personal reason, not a professional reason. So now we look at them and we say, oh, they're so successful. Everything must have lined up for them. But we have them walk through their journey and their perspective and show how something that had been, oftentimes, traumatic, or, at least, quite dark for them, really led to their perspective shift. And it's only because of that perspective shift that they found the success that they found. They couldn't have done it without it.

SEANA SMITH: I think a lot of women are struggling with this. They're trying to figure out the right time to make that career shift. If it's one of the women out there who are listening, what would your advice be in terms of the timing? When is the time right? Is there ever a right time?

EMILY TISCH SUSSMAN: That's exactly the right question to be asking, is that everybody has something in them that they can change. If it's not working for you, you absolutely should change it. But everybody has to be realistic about their financial circumstance, their time commitment, their bandwidth. So it may not be walking in Jerry Maguire, like throwing it all, burn it down, walk out. That may not be realistic for you right now. Maybe it starts as a side hustle. Maybe you need to learn more about the industry, the terminology, the calendar of the industry before you can jump into it. So mapping that out and seeing that as a legitimate part of the journey I think is an incredible first step, and it's realistic for women to actually make the jump that way.

DAVE BRIGGS: Step two is make your coffee rounds. What do you mean? And how does that play out?

EMILY TISCH SUSSMAN: I love a coffee round. I think that everybody needs to put--

DAVE BRIGGS: I had four today.

EMILY TISCH SUSSMAN: [LAUGHS] Look, everybody needs to put together their group that they go to that helps them understand not just the industry that you're breaking into, but also the people that really know you. Like, you may have skills that you don't consider to be skills. Right? Like, it's part of this LinkedIn, put motherhood on the resume. Look, I had three kids in three years. I can multitask like you cannot believe. Like, I thought I was good at it in the workplace. I'm on another level right now. And that's something that I can take into a job, and I could take-- but I don't think I would have recognized it in myself had my coffee round, had my personal cabinet, not pointed it out to me.

SEANA SMITH: I'm with you. I'm a mother of two, and I never realized the benefit and the ability that I had to multitask until I did have those two boys. Emily, when we're talking about success, how long it could potentially take, because I think a lot of people are hesitant about that, how much time should someone give themself when they are looking to meet that pivot?

EMILY TISCH SUSSMAN: Well, it totally depends on what your version of success is. And I actually think that that's a key piece of it. A lot of people just want to be able to have flexibility now and own their time and not have long commutes. And that is their version of success right now. So I think it's totally circumstantial. Of course, it will take time to break into any new industry. You won't necessarily have to start at intern coffee level, but you may have to do a little bit of work, like a little bit of pro bono work into the industry, to get your footing in it, both to understand the industry and for people in the industry to know you. So I think you can anticipate taking a little bit of time in there. But again, it really does matter what that version of success is for you. Like, an Etsy shop might be your dream. You can jump right in there.

DAVE BRIGGS: I want to be a TikTok influencer, but that's a whole 'nother show.

EMILY TISCH SUSSMAN: I'm not sure I have that for you.

DAVE BRIGGS: How important is it to evaluate your financial obligations before you make that pivot?

EMILY TISCH SUSSMAN: It's an incredibly important piece of it. It goes to the point of, you know, can you take something full-time? Do you take something part-time? What level may you have to start at? If you're pivoting into a new industry, not just a new job, you're likely not going to start at the same compensation that you have been at a place that you have more background. So figuring out what you can take on and what you-- how much work you can do to get your foot into the industry is a big piece of it as well.

We had a guest on this season who I think is really interesting, where she was going through-- she had a job where she traveled a ton-- was going through a very contentious divorce and felt that not pivoting was actually riskier for her than pivoting. If she stayed in the job with a lot of travel, she probably would have lost custody of her children. So she ended up becoming an entrepreneur, being place-based, creating a business that has now done incredibly successfully well. So it really is very circumstantial.

SEANA SMITH: Well, it sounds great. I will be listening to this podcast very soon. Emily Tisch Sussman, great to have you here, host of "She Pivots" podcast. Season 2 out today. Thanks so much.