As layoffs, career pivots, and artificial intelligence reshape the job market, Jana Sanchez and Christopher Radliff have developed an online program to help experienced workers reposition themselves for what comes next.
Rusty to Ready is a self-paced career transition course designed to help seasoned professionals identify, reframe, and communicate skills that may not easily translate to outside government, nonprofit, academic, or other highly specialized work.
Sanchez has a background in executive coaching, communications strategy, and business development. She previously managed the Estes Park Economic Development Corporation’s BASE program and now leads Alchemy with Words, a consulting firm focused on leadership, messaging, and team development. She also serves as board chair of the Estes Nonprofit Network.
Radliff, a graphic designer and creative director with Curious Satellite, shaped the program’s user experience and presentation. He has worked with advertising agencies, startups, nonprofits, and major brands for more than two decades in design and marketing.
Sanchez and Radliff built Rusty to Ready with laid-off federal employees and other specialized workers in mind, including scientists, engineers, national park employees, and technical professionals whose job titles may have little meaning to others outside their current roles.
“The job market is insane right now,” Sanchez said in an interview with the Estes Valley Voice, adding that higher-earning professionals who have earned $75,000 a year or more can face job searches lasting six months or longer.
“The problem isn’t a lack of talent,” she said. “It’s a translation problem.”
“They’re incredibly capable, talented people who are being laid off, who probably can’t do the job they used to do — or may not want to do the job they used to do — or it may not exist now,” she said.
Two of the examples she offers are a National Park Service ranger and a federal meat inspector. “Like USDA meat graders — nobody else does that work. So when you get laid off from there, where do you go?”
With the help of Radliff, a graphic designer and creative director with more than 25 years of experience in branding and marketing for advertising agencies, Fortune 500 companies, educational institutions, startups, small businesses, and nonprofits, Sanchez’s ideas took form.
“I had a tremendous amount of content, but I didn’t have the user design experience to make that content simple and accessible to everyone,” said Sanchez.
The Rusty to Ready program includes video instruction and a 70-page interactive workbook designed to help users assess their skills, identify what work they want to pursue next, and develop stronger answers to common networking and interview questions.
A central tool is a skills matrix with a scoring system that helps participants rank both the skills they perform well and the ones they most want to use in the future, Sanchez said.
Rather than emphasizing resumes, Rusty to Ready focuses on how job seekers talk about themselves in interviews and professional conversations. Sanchez said that matters even more in a hiring environment where AI-assisted resumes can make applicants sound increasingly similar on paper.
“Jobs are now being decided almost entirely on the conversations you have in the interview, not on paper,” she said.
Rusty to Ready’s first module, “Map Your Narrative,” is aimed at mid- and late-career workers who suddenly find themselves back on the job market after layoffs, reorganizations, or career pivots. Many of those workers spent years in organizations where their roles were well understood, which rarely required them to explain their value in concise, marketable terms, Sanchez said.
The first module focuses on three main questions Sanchez said most job seekers will face: “Tell me about yourself,” “What are you looking for?” and “Tell me about a time when …”
Rusty to Ready is sold as a self-paced online course for $199, with an introductory launch discount that brings the price to $99. Sanchez said additional modules on networking and interviewing are planned, along with a coaching component.
The program is available immediately after purchase. Participants can begin the 11-video course, download the workbook, and start working through the material right away.
“That’s important because when people lose a job, it can be really disorienting,” Sanchez said. “Sometimes you wake up at 2 in the morning and think, ‘I need to do something.’ If someone buys the program at 2 a.m., they can start at 2:01.”
Sanchez and Radliff are pursuing institutional clients, including workforce centers, community colleges, and professional associations, where people often turn when they find themselves experienced but needing to press an employment reset button.
Sanchez said the long-term goal is to help experienced workers navigate career disruption with greater clarity and confidence.
“Being rusty doesn’t mean you’re behind,” she said. “It means your experience grew inside systems that didn’t require this kind of translation.”