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There are dozens and dozens of career development podcasts that dish out valuable advice from women who can teach you how to make the most of any opportunity. You can learn about interviewing, networking, career advancement, career changes, building a business, and even how to launch your career if you’re just starting out after college.
Whether you’re looking for a new job, transitioning into a different industry, or starting your own company to achieve financial freedom, you can gain inspiration and ideas from listening to these career development podcasts. Not all of the podcasts on this list still record new episodes, but they all have actionable and relatable nuggets of advice for women who want to take charge of their career paths.
Read more: 20 Best Motivational Podcasts for Women Who Want to Feel Inspired
Career development podcasts for early career women
1. 9 to 5ish with theSkimm
In this podcast, theSkimm cofounders Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg sit down with women leaders from every industry imaginable, chatting about helpful topics for women just starting out in their careers. Episodes cover things like how to build confidence, how to be patient in your career, and how to balance purpose and profit. In one episode, actress Kerry Washington discusses choosing work with intention and explains how side-hustles gave her creative freedom and why she’ll never compromise on roles that perpetuate stereotypes about women of color.
2. the bossbabe podcast
With 3.6+ million followers and 380k+ subscribers, bossbabe is one of the largest online communities of ambitious women entrepreneurs in the world. Cofounders Natalie Ellis and Danielle Canty aim to share a real, behind-the-scenes glimpse into building successful businesses, achieving peak performance, and learning how to balance it all. Funny yet actionable, this podcast is a must-listen for early career women looking to create success in their own way.
3. Advice To My Younger Me
Host Sara Holtz launched this career development podcast as a pay-it-forward project to help young professionals reach their highest potential and success. In each episode, Hotlz invites both experts and podcast listeners to discuss topics and provide advice to younger women on everything career-related, from skills you need to develop in your 20s to the importance of leaving a job gracefully.
4. The Early Career Moves Podcast
Latinx career coach and ex-recruiter Priscilla Esquivel Bulcha hosts this BIPOC-focused career strategy podcast that empowers listeners to make their next career move with confidence. Each week, topics include things like how to leverage LinkedIn during your job search, how to network properly, how to write a happiness formula, and how to target roles while job searching.
5. Millennial
Although this podcast no longer produces new episodes, Millennial’s 50 episodes are rich with valuable career lessons. Host Megan Tan explores the transition between college and working and shares advice on how to best navigate this foundational and often stressful period of life. She discusses topics such as finding meaningful work and the pressure of making a high income, and invites her coworkers and friends to offer perspectives on how to make the most of your 20s after college.
Read more: Milestones: Lessons Learned & Career Advice from Women in Their 20s
Career development podcasts for negotiation and advancement
6. Career Talk
Host and editor Stephanie Dennis is on a mission to empower people to take control of their careers by equipping them with the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need in order to crush their career goals. With a playful and funny approach, Dennis provides helpful advice on advancement topics like salary negotiation, navigating stock options, and selling yourself in an interview.
7. Your Next Move Podcast
If you want to be a leader at work, you need to listen to this podcast. Kimberly Brown, a career expert and the author of Next Move, Best Move: Transitioning Into a Career You’ll Love, teaches listeners how to create and follow a career strategy that achieves the promotions and opportunities you want while avoiding pitfalls such as burnout. Learn how to love your job again, hone your soft skills, expand your community, and make a career transition.
Read more: 5 Ways to Make a Difference & Find Meaning in Your Work Again
8. Phenomenal Grit, Career Conversations for Women of Color
This is the perfect inspiring, informative, and actionable podcast for women who want to move up their careers. In each episode, host Alia Kemet interviews women of color on career advancement, overcoming challenges such as imposter syndrome, tapping into your personal magic, and achieving your goals. Guests talk through a range of topics from imposter syndrome to turning your side-hustle into a main hustle.
9. The Clever Girls Know Podcast
This podcast is hosted by Bola Sokunbi, the founder and CEO of Clever Girl Finance, one of the largest personal finance media and education platforms for women that discusses eliminating debt, saving money, and building wealth. Each episode features conversations and interviews with women at different stages of their career and finance journeys. For example, one episode details a CFO’s career trajectory, the mistakes and hurdles she had to overcome on her career journey, the importance of creating a vision for your career path, and key tips women can leverage to find the courage to make bold career decisions.
Read more: 4 Women Founders & Business Owners on Creating Their Unique Career Trajectories
10. The Marie Forleo Podcast
New York Times bestselling author and entrepreneur Marie Forleo focuses on personal and professional development in this podcast, and she hosts guests who share business, marketing, and career advice, as well as how to tackle failure, disappointment, and fear. The show seeks to help women develop their careers, grow financially, and discover new workplace passions.
11. Brown Ambition
Hosted by career coach Mandi Woodruff and personal financial educator Tiffany Aliche, this podcast aims to help women of color build wealth and pursue career goals. Guests include inspirational women like Stacey Abrams and Farnoosh Torabi, and the 20–30 minute episodes tackle relatable issues like figuring out how to best negotiate for the first time and level up your career to earn more.
One reviewer raves, “Over this past year, I’ve learned so much and have made financial, career, and wellness plans that work for me—not someone else’s box for me. I’ve completed my emergency fund, got my retirement on track, and am rethinking my career and location. Thank you for giving me the tools to pursue financial wellness in healthy work environments.”
Career development podcasts for entrepreneurs and working moms
12. Second Life
Second Life focuses on the stories of women who’ve mastered pivots at all stages of their careers. Host Hillary Kerr, a journalist turned entrepreneur, speaks with artists, mothers, founders, writers, visionaries, designers, and CEOs about how they found their version of success and fulfillment. Kerr dives into their successes, failures, and lessons learned to help motivate you during your first, second, or third life.
13. Moms Who Create
Every week, host Kelli Heil chats with motivational mom artists and writers who are balancing motherhood with passion projects. One Apple reviewer says, “I love this series because it deep dives into the topics that creative moms think about, in a bite size way. I listen to these episodes as I’m going back and forth for school drop off/pick up, and it’s just the right amount to get me energized and motivated to continue to create!”
14. Abundantly Clear Podcast
In this podcast rated 5.0 stars overall, performance coach and host Malorie Nicole’s mission is to empower entrepreneurs by breaking the hustle culture and grind mentality and helping them to create a new set of norms to decrease stress, enjoy life, and become more profitable. She discusses how to maintain your long-term vision, why perfectionism is overrated, and how to enjoy your career journey, no matter where you are.
15. Side Hustle Pro
In this helpful career development podcast for entrepreneurs and moms who want to expand their careers, side-hustler turned full-time entrepreneur Nicaila Matthews Okome spotlights other Black women entrepreneurs who have scaled from side-hustle to profitable business. Through interviews, you’ll learn actionable strategies to start small and get to the top of wherever you want to be. In one episode, Okome discusses how to manage balancing motherhood and building a business.
16. The Double Shift
The Double Shift hosts Katherine Goldstein and Angela Garbes challenge the status quo of motherhood in America by diving into what it means to be a working mother. In one particularly inspiring episode, Double Shift listeners share stories of fiercely standing up for their career development and advocating for—and securing—better paid family leave at their companies.
Read more: How Radancy’s Women in Leadership Group Changed the Company’s Parental Leave Policies
Career development podcasts for women in tech
17. Women in Tech
Host Espree Devora wants every woman to walk away from this podcast with a feeling of actionable empowerment and confidence. Women in Tech features stories from women founders, engineers, UX/UI designers, investors, and more, explaining how they got where they are today.
Read more: Considering a Career in UX or UI? These 9 Women Want You to Go for It
18. Career Queens
Hosted by former Meta marketer Teti Lekalake, Career Queens features conversations with millennial women who are figuring out their career journeys in tech. Hear how consultants from companies like Google and TikTok got where they are today, and learn how to successfully negotiate as a woman in tech, navigate a career change, and more.
19. Women in Business & Technology
This podcast by Microsoft was created to highlight amazing women in business and tech and empower other working women, no matter where they are in their careers. Although it officially ended streaming in January 2020, there are still dozens of interesting episodes available to stream featuring interviews with women tech trailblazers who discuss believing in yourself, building a personal brand, being brave at work, and more.
20. Ladybug Podcast
Hosts Emma Bostian, Sidney Buckner, Kelly Vaughn, and Ali Spittel are software developers with various focuses who decided to start a podcast to represent women in tech. On the show, they talk about things like how to start coding, what a day in the life of a software developer looks like, and how to land your first developer job.
