The Left Turn

A career change podcast about the part most stories leave out: the doubt, the burnout, and what it feels like when your work stops fitting.

In this first episode, co-hosts Deborah Schaal and Julie Rajaratnam share why they started The Left Turn and how it works.

Deb spent nearly twenty years in corporate leadership. Julie built her career in global health and nonprofits. Different worlds, same quiet belief: if work wasn't working, the problem must be them.

A left turn can mean leaving your job, changing careers, staying differently, or questioning a path you always took for granted. This isn't a push to quit. It starts with noticing what doesn't fit.

If you're feeling stuck, burned out, or unsure what comes next, start here.

Know someone with a left turn story we should hear, or want to hear about new episodes? Email us at theleftturnproject@gmail.com.

Hosts: Deborah Schaal, Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and career coach, and Julie Rajaratnam, career coach and public health professional.

Delila was the colleague everyone thought had it together. She was really just good at holding it together, and it cost her more than anyone could see.

Delila Katzka Dale spent sixteen years at Boeing before leaving corporate work to make art. From there, her path runs through long-haul truck driving, a return to corporate, burnout, retirement, a move to Ecuador, and a move back to the Pacific Northwest to be near family. Through all of it, she kept painting.

This isn't a story about one clean career change. Delila talks with Julie and Deb about why "productive" feels like pressure, going back to a corporate job for the money and calling it survival, and how she kept taking on more, even in retirement.

Her advice for anyone in a job that doesn't fit who they are: money matters, but it comes second to keeping who you are sacred.

Know someone with a left turn story we should hear, or want to hear about new episodes? Email us at theleftturnproject@gmail.com.

Guest: Delila Katzka Dale, abstract painter.

Hosts: Deborah Schaal and Julie Rajaratnam, career coaches.