The Unexpected Career Podcast
Real people’s stories to inspire at every twist and turn of building a career and a life.
Did you know what you wanted to be “when you grew up” when you were small? Is that what you are doing now? Most people don’t and yet there is so much pressure at every milestone in life to know exactly what you want to be doing and make the right decision, as if there are only a few “right” ways to create a life.
While there are cultural differences and systemic barriers that create real roadblocks and heighten this pressure for some, most individual decisions do not set your fate in stone. Most people I know have found themselves in a particular industry largely by accident and have built careers from there; taking steps forward, sideways and complete pivots around great (or terrible) bosses, company cultures that encouraged (or discouraged) them, changing life circumstances and evolving values. I’m excited to share the stories of people who have built their career and life on the winding road.
Episodes
40 episodes
Lulu Laidlaw-Smith: Seeing Beyond - From Hospitality to Tech
S4E6: Lulu Laidlaw-Smith's grandfather gave her her first introduction to reading between the lines and an education in hospitality developed her strategic holistic vision. Lulu is now Partner, Commercial Growth at The IMCC and Founder of Rip I...
Rob Saltrese: Entrepreneurial Graft - Recruitment to AI
S4E5: Rob Saltrese shares his journey into entrepreneurship and what he's building now (and what he learned from facing a divorce and a business divorce at the same time).Rob is Co-founder and COO at Lyra Labs. https://lyralabs.co/
Shemina Jiwani: It's not a straight line to CEO
S4E4: Shemina Jiwani shares her career journey and how it hasn't been a straight line to CEO. There were pivots to new industries and steps backwards on the way to stepping into the CEO role at Ascendant.
Ben Kinning: Corporate Life to Business Owner, Fractional Sales Leader, Trainer and Mentor
S4E3: Ben Kinning is a Business Owner, Sales Leader, Trainer and Mentor with Sales Geek, but after stepping off of the path that had been laid out for him he first created a path for himself in Corporate.You can learn more about the serv...
Susan Walsh: Finding Her Calling in Data
S4E2: Susan Walsh is Founder and Managing Director of The Classification Guru Ltd and turns chaotic business data into something businesses can trust.Following an early career in Sales and then rebuilding after bankruptcy after a retail ...
Nicole Baxby: Carving Her Own Path in Financial Services
S4E1: Nicole Baxby is Senior Vice President of Customer Success and Partnerships at Quantifind and she shares her career journey in financial services and how she has taken risks and showed a bit of gumption to carve her own path.
Season 4 Trailer
In Season 4 we share 10 more discussions with real people about their career journeys and the twists, turns, pivots and lessons learned along the way.
Megan Dunford: Physics Degree to Payments Leader
S3E10: Megan Dunford didn't know what to take in university and ended up getting a degree in Physics and ultimately built a career in international payments and foreign exchange.
Mary Kemp: Nurse to AI Consultant
Mary Kemp, started her career as a nurse and is now the co-founder of AI Potential which helps business leaders create a culture of high performance with AI.https://simplerwith.ai/
Yasmin Ulrich: From Professional Tennis to Emerging Payments Leader
S3E8: Yasmin Ulrich was pursuing a professional tennis career when injury had her face some difficult new career decisions.
John Turley-Ewart: Historian to Columnist and Banker
S3E7: John Turley-Ewart has a PhD in History and a MBA. He has built a career a columnist and a banker.
Geri Valova: Serial Entrepreneur
S3E6: Geri Valova is the founder and COO of MetaSim Learning Solutions, CEO, and founder of Youbee and co-founder of Magna Club, a club and community for executive women.Magna Club: https://magnaclub.circle.so/MetaSim: https://men...
Jennifer: From Entertainment Dreams to Diversity and Inclusion Leader
S3E5: Jennifer had dreams of a career in the arts when she was young, but with a desire for a more stable life she started her career in recruitment and has now found her passion as a leader in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Derrick Walton: Navy to Entrepreneur
S3E4: Derrick Walton started his career in the Navy before transitioning to the world of payments and is the CEO and co-found of Spheros, a data company that allows you to control access and share data across industries and applications.&...
Christina Brugger: Flutist, Engineer and B2B Product specialist
S3E3: Christina Brugger is an Engineer by training and an accomplished flautist. She is now a self-employed B2B Customer Insights and Product Launch Specialist at Insight Sprint and Founder and Coach at Keys to Impact, an academy to suppo...
Mike Dobson: History Degree to Senior IT Leader
S3E2: Before leaning into his passion for computers and creating a career as a Senior IT Leader, Mike Dobson had dreams of becoming a History teacher and rugby coach.
Lisa Ardley-Price: Lawyer and Coach
S3E1: Lisa Ardley-Price had dreams of the stage, and ultimately became a lawyer in the Banking sector while also co-founding Channel Your Serenity, a holistic coaching business that blends coaching, mindfulness, and movement.You can lear...
Season 3 Trailer
S3 Trailer: Sneak peek from another amazing season of incredible career journeys.
Suresh Vaghjiani: A Conversation at a Party Led to a Career in Payments
Season 2 Episode 10: Suresh is now the founder of Clowd9, but it was a conversation at a party that led to his first role in the Payments space. Clowd9 is the world's first cloud native, decentralized issuer processing platform. Che...
Ilona Brannen: Foreign Office to Executive Coach
Season 2 Episode 9: Ilona is a Leadership Coach and Consultant who found her way to her career with stops in Japan and Italy and stints in the Foreign Office and teaching along the way.Check out her website: https://ilonabrannen.com/
Aliya Dhalla: Finding her balance as a physiotherapist
Season 2 Episode 8: Aliya Dhalla is the founder of Box Wellness & Co and podcast host of "Not Your Mother's Pelvic Floor". Hear her journey from figuring out what she didn't want early in her career to ultimately finding balance and a...
Howard Young: Hospitality to Global Sales Leader
Season 2 Episode 7: Howard had dreams of becoming a Hotel Manager and followed that dream before ultimately pivoting and building a career as a Sales Leader.
Genevieve Dozier: Fashion to Banking
Season 2 Episode 6: Genevieve had dreams of working in fashion before finding herself in financial services. Now she's Product leader, speaker, coach and is writing a book!Checkout her website: https://www.warpaintconsulting.com/
Dr. Nadia Morozova: Researcher & Data Analytics Entrepreneur
Season 2 Episode 5: Dr. Nadia Morozova, Chief Analytics and Insights Officer, shares her journey from an early passion for research to launching a Data Insights company.Check out her TedX Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VU8wDa5gMo...
Christine LeLacheur: Corporate to Psychotherapist
Season 2 Episode 4: Christine pursued a winding corporate career, with some teaching along the way, leaning into roles and opportunities that allowed her to learn and build on her previous experiences ultimately taking her into a new career as ...