Returning to work after a career break? Here’s what stay-at-home moms get told: the years home don’t count, you’ll come back at a lower title, and you should take whatever salary is offered. Leah Tilstra rejected all three — and walked back into engineering at Abbott with a senior title and a sign-on bonus after twelve years raising four kids.
How did she pull it off? She refused the apologetic part-time re-entry, used one old work relationship to land the right R&D team at Abbott, and walked into salary negotiations with a clear number and the willingness to be told no. The mantra she carries into every high-stakes room: “They didn’t know me yesterday, but they’ll remember me tomorrow.”
🎧 A NOTE ON THIS EPISODE: This is a replay of Leah’s original conversation — with a brand-new life-and-career update from Leah at the very end. Stick around after the interview for where things stand now, on both the family and career fronts.
ABOUT THE GUEST: Leah Tilstra is a mechanical engineer and senior R&D engineer at Abbott, working on artificial heart valves in the TAVI space. Early in her career, she climbed quickly through medical device roles at Abbott, Zimmer Spine, and Boston Scientific, then made the intentional decision to step away for twelve years to raise her four children and support her family’s move from Texas to Minnesota. During her career pause, she didn’t just stay at home — Leah ran a nonprofit preschool, built a sewing business, coached middle school athletes, and led a moms’ community group.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:
[00:14:59] The pharmacy wake-up moment that pushed Leah from “testing the waters” to returning to work full-time
[00:22:18] The networking move — an old cube neighbor spotted in an org chart — that helped a stay-at-home mom return to engineering after a 12-year break
[00:38:03] How to negotiate salary and a sign-on bonus after a long career pause — even when the company offers less
[00:40:34] The one-line confidence script she repeats before any high-stakes room or interview
[00:27:46] The “Shit My Wife Does” Google Doc that names the mental load every mom is carrying
[00:54:53] Life update: dropping her oldest at the Air Force Academy, and a hard-won promotion to staff engineer
GUEST LINKS
Instagram: @illegallyblondie — https://www.instagram.com/illegallyblondie/ Facebook: @illegallyblond — https://www.facebook.com/illegallyblond LinkedIn: Leah Tilstra — https://www.linkedin.com/in/leah-tilstra/
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About the Show:
Her Intentional Reset is a midlife podcast for women navigating career change — honest, deep-dive conversations about career pivots, second acts, and reinvention with women who’ve actually lived it. This women’s empowerment podcast speaks to women in 30’s, 40, women over 50, Gen X women, working moms, empty nesters, and corporate women dealing with burnout — women redefining success and finding their why after a layoff, a career wall, or the moment work just stopped feeling right. Each episode traces a real transition story: the catalyst for change behind it, whether that’s a layoff story, career burnout, or hitting a wall; the steps and timeline behind how she actually made the change — quitting a corporate job, leaving corporate America, starting over professionally, and/or going from employee to entrepreneur; and an inside look at her industry along the way.
The conversations also get into the practical side most career-change content skips: transferable skills, upskilling and reskilling in midlife, starting a business with no experience, and career change without a degree. And because money is always part of the story, guests talk financial planning for a career change — paying yourself first, building a financial runway and safety net, income gaps, self-employed health insurance, saving for retirement while self-employed, and the money mindset it takes to trade a paycheck for financial freedom in midlife.
Guests share the career pivot lessons learned, the advice for career changers, and what they wish they’d known before quitting — then close out with a Rapid Round covering the real-life stuff: family recipes, book and show recommendations, a life motto, and a wellness or self-care tip for midlife women, because women are often each other’s best guides and teachers. It’s never too late to make a change, follow your intuition, and listen to that quiet voice — every episode leaves listeners feeling inspired and empowered to explore their own career pivot, second act, or next chapter, on their own terms. New episodes of this career change podcast and midlife podcast for women release biweekly on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.