Mailbag: “Can I Pivot Careers Without Starting Over?” Tips for Working Moms and Career Changers

Summary

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HerMoney with Jean Chatzky

Episode: Mailbag: “Can I Pivot Careers Without Starting Over?” Tips for Working Moms and Career Changers
Guest: Maha Abu Elinain
Date: January 2, 2026

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Episode Overview

This special mailbag episode dives into navigating career transitions—especially for women facing layoffs, new motherhood, or the search for extra income amid changing circumstances. Host Jean Chatzky is joined by Maha Abu Elinain, renowned communications strategist and author of "7 Rules of Self Reliance," to answer real-life listener questions. Their candid conversation delivers practical advice on pivots, personal branding, networking, and creative solutions for working moms and career changers.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What To Do After a Layoff (Big Tech Edition)

Listener Concern:
Recently laid off from a big tech company, the listener wonders what tasks are most time-sensitive while she still has access to company resources.

Advice from Maha Abu Elinain (03:05):

• “You’ve done all the right things for the company side, but now it’s time for you to build your personal brand and think about your life after this company.”
• Focus next on visibility and presence, especially on LinkedIn and other networks.
• Start building relationships, engage with your network, and narrate your career story.
• “People who are invisible are not visible” (03:28). Now is not the time to hide; leverage your skills and achievements publicly.
• Share hot takes and insights in your industry; this provides potential employers a window into your thinking and skills (04:36).
• You don't need to become an “influencer”—just start sharing what you know.

Notable Quote:

“People want your ideas and your insights more than you think they do... See something happening in the news related to the tech industry and say why this is important. People are going to be looking to hire you, so they’re going to want to know: how do you think, what are your skills, and what insights can you share? Start doing it.”
— Maha Abu Elinain (00:02 & 04:36)

Jean’s Support:

• Don’t feel shame—so many successful people have been fired or laid off. “It is a badge of honor. You haven’t lived until you’ve been fired or laid off.” (04:59)

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2. How to Find a Less Stressful Career After Motherhood

Listener Concern:
New mother Christine, a civil engineer, is worried about the stress level of her previous job and financial constraints of extending her leave.

Advice from Maha (06:16):

• Remote work is more viable than ever.

  “My entire company... we’re all remote.” (06:18)

• Skills like problem solving, project management, and communication are highly transferable.
• Use online job boards for gig/project work, but your existing network and LinkedIn are the most powerful places to start.
• Be visible about what kind of work you’re seeking and what you’re skilled at.
• Start with storytelling—share your expertise honestly and openly.

Notable Quote:

“People hire for skills today. They’re not looking for titles. They’re looking at skills that can transfer.”
— Maha Abu Elinain (06:31)

Navigating Current Job Risks (07:34):

• If you can’t be public, reach out quietly to your network for extra work or new opportunities.

  “The value of knowing how to build a relationship and having your own network is key.” (07:51)

Jean Adds:

• Consider negotiating a lower-stress arrangement with your current employer—remote, part-time, or adjusting responsibilities—especially in a tough job market. (08:29)

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3. Finding a Side Gig for Extra Income

Listener Concern:
A listener needs a second job to pay off unexpected debts but can’t work in legal, retail, or food service, at least for several months. She’s skilled at creating documents, spreadsheets, web/fact research, and summarizing data.

Advice from Maha (11:14):

• Explore online platforms like Stan Store to market your services directly (e.g., document creation, research, coaching).
• Opportunities are abundant for freelancers; promote your skills and services through your network or social media where appropriate.
• Consider developing a video course to teach others your niche skills, creating passive income streams.

Notable Quote:

“People want to buy your services and people need your help and want to hire contractors and freelancers... You can start selling your services. There’s so much access out there now. The Internet is abundant with opportunity.”
— Maha Abu Elinain (11:24)

Additional Platforms Mentioned for Courses & Coaching (12:29):

• Kajabi, Stan Store, School

Jean’s Suggestion:

• If you have a specific niche, “you could actually create a course where you teach other people to do it and you put that course on video.” (12:11)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Personal Branding Post-Layoff:
  “You were a person who has skills, who has power, who has knowledge. Now you’re just going to take it elsewhere.”
  — Maha Abu Elinain (03:41)

• On Making Yourself Visible:
  “People who are invisible are not visible.”
  — Maha Abu Elinain (03:28)

• On the Value of Network:
  “It’s the people that you serve over time that are willing to serve you when you need it.”
  — Maha Abu Elinain (07:58)

• On Entrepreneurship and Freelancing Opportunity:
  “The Internet is abundant with opportunity and people want to buy your services and people need your help and want to hire contractors and freelancers.”
  — Maha Abu Elinain (11:24)

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Key Timestamps

| Time | Segment | |--------------|----------------------------------------------| | 00:02 | Maha’s advice on sharing ideas publicly | | 01:34 | First listener question: post-layoff steps | | 03:28 | Maha: Importance of visibility | | 04:59 | Jean: No shame in being laid off/fired | | 05:34 | Christine’s “less stressful career” question | | 06:18 | Leveraging remote work and transferable skills| | 07:51 | Navigating discreet job search | | 08:29 | Adjusting current jobs to lower stress | | 11:14 | Listener on needing a second job/gig | | 12:11 | Creating courses for passive income | | 12:29 | Platforms for coaching and selling courses |

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Overall Tone & Takeaways

Jean and Maha create a frank, empowering, and positive space for women in transitional moments—whether by necessity or by choice. Their consistent messages:

• Leverage your skills and accomplishments
• Invest in your network and visibility
• Don’t shrink after setbacks—own your journey
• Use today’s flexible work and digital opportunities
• Take incremental, smart steps when uncertain

Listeners leave with practical strategies, encouragement, and a renewed sense of control over their career paths.

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Transcript

[Maha Abu Elinain]

People want your ideas and your insights more than you think they do. And so how can you take an article and give your hot take on it? See something happening in the news related to the tech industry and say why this is important and people are going to be looking to hire you so they're going to want to know how do you think, what are your skills and what insights can you share? Start doing it.

[Jean Chatsky]

Hey everyone, I'm Jean Chatsky. Welcome to Her Money. We've got a special mailbag episode today that's all about change. Change. It's about navigating career pivots, stepping back into the workforce, figuring out how to keep moving forward even when the path feels uncertain. I am so thrilled to be joined once again by Maha Abu Elinain. You have just heard her in our main episode this week where we talked about her Incredible new book, 7 Rules of Self Reliance. Maha is a global communication strategist, a branding expert, someone who really understands how to find your power, especially in moments of transition. And she is here to help answer your real life questions. Practical, honest advice about what to do next. How to do it with confidence. So whether you are bouncing back from a layoff, making a shift after having kids, or wondering how to find a gig job that you can do from home, today's conversation is full of guidance and encouragement to help you take that next step. Maha, so good to see you again. You ready to dive into our first question?

[Maha Abu Elinain]

I'm so excited. Let's get into the mailbag. All right.

[Jean Chatsky]

This one comes from an anonymous listener which we are always okay with by the way, who was recently laid off. Hi Maha and Jean. What do you wish you had done immediately after a layoff? I was laid off on Tuesday along with about 25% of my department. So I thought I would check to see if there's anything I'm missing from my checklist. But before I lose access to company resources in a few days, I work in big Tech. The layoff was not performance based and so far here's my list. Download employee records, annual reviews, peer partner feedback, pay stubs, proof of employment, stock awards Document my impact, non confidential exhibits of my work, stats, projects, products that I've directly impacted Review internal job search resources that includes role descriptions, requirements, ask for informational interviews, engage with HR network before signing off. Update all my contact info to personal versus work. What am I missing? What would you add? I'm most focused on activities I can only do while I have access to the corporate network. Since that's most time sensitive, I'll also update LinkedIn, my resume and the like. So you come out of big tech. You are the perfect person to answer this question.

[Maha Abu Elinain]

I worked at Google and Netflix and I worked in a lot of tech companies. I think the biggest thing I would say to advise you is you've done all the right things that you need to do for the company side, but now it's time for you to build your personal brand and think about your life after this company.

[Jean Chatsky]

Right.

[Maha Abu Elinain]

I want you quickly to get onto LinkedIn and your social media and really maintain and start building relationships.

[Jean Chatsky]

Right.

[Maha Abu Elinain]

I want you to be visible. I always say people who are invisible are not visible. And it sounds like a simple thing, but, like, keep your visibility up. I know you've been laid off, so you might think, oh, I don't want to be out there right away. This is the perfect time. You've taken your accomplishments, you know, your skill set. You know what, you were the secret sauce at that company. You were a person who has skills, who has power, who has knowledge. Now you're just going to take it elsewhere. So I want you to really be intentional about spending more time on LinkedIn and spending more time on building those relationships and those bridges. You downloaded everything you need. You took your contacts, you got your accomplishments, you got all your employee files. I think you're really good there. Now I want you to start focusing on your next chapter and your next narrative and your next move. And it's going to take time for you to probably figure out what you want to do. So in the meantime, start being a thought leader. Start sharing your ideas and you don't need to create content. I'm not telling you to go from, you know, being an employee to being a social media influencer. I want you to share your hot takes, your insights, things you're seeing. People want your ideas and your insights more than you think they do. And so how can you take an article and give your hot take on it? See something happening in the news related to the tech industry and say, why this is important. And people are going to be looking to hire you, so they're going to want to know, how do you think, what are your skills and what insights can you share? Start doing it.

[Jean Chatsky]

I love that. And I would also just add, I've been fired. Same. So many women have been fired. Please do not feel like you can't wear this as a badge of honor. It is a badge of honor. You haven't lived until you've been fired or laid off. And if you need proof of that go back and listen to our podcast with the authors of all the Cool Girls Get Fired. It was just such a fun conversation and reminded me that there is absolutely no shame in that.

[Maha Abu Elinain]

Yes, I love that book too. And I love the episode I listened to.

[Jean Chatsky]

It was great. Thank you. All right, next up, a question from Christine. She's wondering how to find a less stressful career path postpartum. She writes, I'm a mom and civil engineer in New Jersey with two kids and I'm three months postpartum. I don't think my health can handle going back to the high stress environment I was in, but I also don't have enough savings to stay home longer without dipping into my retirement. I've always heard that my skills like problem solving, project management and client communication can transfer to other careers, but I don't know where to start and I don't have a ton of time right now to do the research. What are some good steps for making this kind of shift?

[Maha Abu Elinain]

Yeah, well, the good news is you don't need to go back full time. People are still working. Remote. My entire company, I have 10 employees. 11. We're all remote, right? So you can work from home at your time and your speed in your environment. So you can still take care of your baby but also still earn income. So a couple of things. People hire for skills today. They're not looking for titles. They're not looking for your educational background. They're looking at skills that can transfer. Problem solving skills, people solving skills, communication skills, project management skills. You are in the right business to start promoting yourself. So I want you to go to a couple of things. There is a lot of online boards that like indeed or any of these. They're looking for gig workers, people who want to work on projects. You can post that you have this availability that you want to take on special projects. But honestly, your answers are all sitting on LinkedIn. Sharing with other people hi, I'm looking for work. These are the types of things I'm really good at. If you're interested, reach out. Really trying to share your expertise by doing storytelling yourself is you'd be shocked at how effective that is and how opportunities can come to you. If you're just visible and you're being active on LinkedIn talking about what you're looking for, talking about the things you're good at. People are looking for people as your skills and hit me up, maybe I can help you.

[Jean Chatsky]

How does she do this without boy without jeopardizing the job that she has right now, Right I mean, worse comes to worse, if she needs the income, she's got to go back at least in the short term till she figures something else out. How do you maneuver that without.

[Maha Abu Elinain]

Yeah, if you already have a job that's very difficult to do in public like that. So I think it's just you really need to reach out to your relationships and ask people like, I'm looking for some extra work, I'm looking to earn some extra money. Is that something you can introduce me to or connect you to Again, Jean, the value of knowing how to build a relationship and having your own network is key. It's the people that you serve over time that are willing to serve you when you need it. So that making the deposits in the trust bank, making sure you're showing up for people, making sure you're being intentional when you need it, that's when you can call on that network to help you without having to do it through social media or any public means.

[Jean Chatsky]

And I would also say maybe there is a way to make this high stress job a little lower stress. Right? You can talk to HR about the possibility of working remotely or working part time or figuring out just a way for you to potentially hold on to a little bit of the job security that you have but still get what you need out of that job. And I say that because, boy, I don't think I've been in this position at this podcast at a time before when the job market has felt as precarious to me. We're hearing from a lot of our listeners who are feeling like it's taking them longer to get that next job or they are not getting the offers that they want to get. And I think all of this advice is going to help them tremendously. But I also, I just don't want to see you give up the income, give up the job before you've got that next thing. That feels risky, risky to me. We are going to take a quick break, but when we come back, one more question about how to find a second job.

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[Jean Chatsky]

She is the author of seven rules of self reliance. We've got a question from a listener who's wondering how best to use her skills to find a job to supplement her income. She writes, I'm looking for a second job to supplement my income to pay down some debt after a string of unexpected expenses. Do you have recommendations or ideas I should consider? I'm really good with creating documents and spreadsheets, doing web and fact research, and summarizing data into clear, useful formats. I can't take on anything in the legal field because of restrictions with my current job, but I'm open to just about anything else. And for a few personal reasons, I can't take a retail or food service job for another five or six months. But I will if I need to. In the meantime, I'd really like to find something I can start now. What do you think?

[Maha Abu Elinain]

Well, what about if she's good at doing she does web research or she does stuff? She could start a stand store. It's just basically an online store, stand store. And she can start to coach people and help people and say, are you interested in this? I can charge you 100, $150 an hour to do this work, whatever the price she wants to put. And she can have an online store and she can start selling her services. There's so much access out there now. The Internet is abundant with opportunity and people want to buy your services and people need your help and want to hire contractors and freelancers. So you can either put yourself out there on social media that you do this if people want to reach out to you to hire you for your project, or you can sort of create a coaching program or an online program where like you can do hourly and they can hire you to do it. And it's easy. You connect your credit card, people can go online, they can hire you, they pay for it, and you're done.

[Jean Chatsky]

And if you have a specific niche in document creation or in research, that you could actually create a course where you teach other people to do it and you put that course on video, then you can just put the course out there and sell the course as.

[Maha Abu Elinain]

Well and have recurring revenue on ongoing. Kajabi is a good platform if you want to build an online course. Stan Store is another one. But there's so many great ways that you can go school is another one and use the power of the Internet. Everyone listening, it's free, you have access to it and you can make money today.

[Jean Chatsky]

I love it. Maha, thank you so much for coming back with us.

[Maha Abu Elinain]

So great to be here.

[Jean Chatsky]

We love your questions. Please keep them coming. Send them to [e-mail] and we'll see you next time. If you love today's episode, please take a moment to leave us a five star review on Apple Podcast. Your feedback means the world to me. If listening to this episode has you thinking, all right, I am ready to get serious about growing my money, but I still don't feel a hundred percent confident about investing. I want to personally invite you to check out our Investing Fix program. It's a live weekly investing club designed for women by women, where we break down what's happening in the markets, explain how different investment works, and give you all the tools that you need to build your own own confident long term strategy. And now is a great time to start while the markets are still showing strength and interest rates are shifting. So if you want to make 2026 the year you finally feel in control of your investments, go to investingfix.com that's Fix with two X's. I'd love to see you there. Her money is produced by Hayley Pascalides and our music is provided by Video Helper. Thanks so much for listening and we'll talk soon.