In this final extended episode of Series 2, Karen and Liz chat to Caroline Deodhar who qualified as a doctor in the UK in 2013. She practiced medicine for a couple of years and began her GP training, just as her husband was offered a job opportunity in Singapore. Pregnant with her 1st child, the family took the decision to relocate to Singapore after the baby was born. They then later moved again to Australia where Caroline had her 2nd child. 

After a career break of 3 years, Caroline felt ready to return to medical practice. She found the career break helped build her confidence and gave her clarity and focus about her career direction in medicine. She reached out to contacts and was successful in securing a ‘Return to Practice’ Plan that enabled her to resume her career in Australia, “I became so much more confident than I ever was before….I became much more willing to try new things. And I learned a lot about myself and that’s definitely helped with planning my career going forwards”.

After two years of not seeing her family over the pandemic, Caroline chose to return back to the UK and has now happily resumed retraining as a GP.

At the end of this conversation, Karen and Liz chat over the key themes that emerged for them over this Series. These include gratitude for the career break; valuing the skills, strengths and experiences developed during your career break; taking time to reflect on what you might do next; and creating an action plan to help you get there which may include upskilling, volunteering, and networking. They reference earlier episodes in the Series, so do listen back if you’ve missed them! 

Thanks so much for joining us on the Career Returners podcast and we wish you the very best of luck with your return to work!

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For advice, support, opportunities, and connection, see our Women Returners website: https://bit.ly/3eAhKQH

Marianna Dooley is an experienced marketing professional who has built a successful career in marketing and brand management. Her experience lies within fast moving consumer goods, working with brands such as Waterford Crystal and Premier Foods. She thrived on the pace, challenge, relationship building, and international travel in an ever changing exciting career.

In 2009, Marianna took a 13 year career break to raise her young family and relocated many times during this period to support her husband’s specialist medical career – 20 times in as many years to London, Ireland and Australia.

As an expat in a new country, Marianna shares the challenges of uprooting her life, often with very little notice, and trying to build a new life in a new country with 3 young children in tow. She talks of how her professional skills came into play in helping her to manage these moves – research, planning, project managing and networking – and how reaching out to others in her new destination helped her to learn from their lived experience and smoothed the transition.

Once back home in Dublin and ready to resume her professional career, Marianna proactively reached out to people she’d been in touch with before her career break and took steps to get professionally and personally ready for her return. On a professional level she upskilled, and on a personal level she got fit and healthy, helping to ensure her return to work would be sustainable. “I do feel a big part is not just being professionally ready. I think that part is actually not as important as being personally ready and in the head space to really assess why it is you want to work and what it is you’re looking to get from work”

Marianna found success through the Deloitte Ireland Returnship Programme. 

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For advice, support, opportunities, and connection, see our Women Returners website: https://bit.ly/3eAhKQH

Hellen Muthoni Vostatkova is an experienced IT professional having worked across tech and change management programmes in Kenya, Southern Sudan, Germany and now the UK.

In 2010 Hellen decided to further her education and relocated to Germany to study for a Masters in Distributed Systems Engineering. During this time she also pursued a passion for cloud computing and worked part time on some projects to build her experience in this area.  She took a career break in 2012 to raise her son, during which time she completed her Masters, and the family relocated to London in 2016. 

Once she’d made the decision to return to work in 2018, Hellen found finding work difficult. She applied for a few roles but got nowhere and found the experience demoralising.  As well as helping her husband establish his business at this time, she decided to increase her chances of returning to work by brushing up on her tech skills and building her transferable skills through volunteering. In 2021 she secured a place on the FDM returner programme and has continued to work as an IT consultant with FDM ever since.

In our conversation, Hellen shares how she prepared practically for her return to work, getting ahead on family activities at the weekend and not overcommitting herself outside of work to help give her space to settle into her new role.  “There’s always new challenges, especially in the workplace and also at home as well….it’s just trying to make that balance and to just keep going with the flow and adapting, making the best of the situation”.

This is our last episode of 2022 – join us again on Wednesday 18 January for our next episode in this series.

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For advice, support, opportunities, and connection, see our Women Returners website: https://bit.ly/3eAhKQH

For details on the FDM returner programme, see here

Harriet Rogers qualified in the RAF in 2006, working as an Air Operations (Systems) Manager. She took her 1st career break in 2013 after the birth of her children and her 2nd career break in 2017 after she left the military and moved to the Middle East with her husband’s work.

Unable to work there, she kept herself busy studying and upskilling. When she was ready to return to work, she began to proactively explore how the areas she was interested in academically might fit with work opportunities. She took advantage of the many events taking place online which she could attend to build her subject knowledge as well as her understanding of different organisational cultures and values to get a feel for what might be a good fit for her.

Crucially, Harriet reached out to people. In our conversation, Harriet shares how contacting the presenter of one of the online events she attended ultimately led to her new role at BAE Systems as Head of Cyber Security Governance and Standards “Definitely reach out. People are so happy to share and that’s a really invaluable resource. And as you say, it can just lead you down little alleyways that you never expected”.

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For advice, support, opportunities, and connection, see our Women Returners website: https://bit.ly/3eAhKQH

Claire Neuman is an experienced banking and consulting leader with a background in Financial Services, Commercial Banking and Financial Technology, built over her years working in Asia and the US.

Married to a diplomat, living and working in different countries has become an intrinsic part of Claire’s life. Over the course of her career, Claire has taken 2 career breaks after the birth of each of her children and in 2020, she successfully returned to work in New York through the J.P. Morgan global ReEntry Program.

A key theme emerging from our conversation with Claire is the importance of aligning your interests and values with an organisation that shares those values. Hear Claire talk about the importance of organisational culture to her and in particular one that values diversity and inclusion, “It’s so important to have a fit between what your personal values are and where you’re going to end up working – if there isn’t that fit, then it’s just not going to work”. Claire also shares some very valuable tips about staying up-to-date during a career break, the practical steps she took as she planned her return to work, and the milestone checks she set for herself to acknowledge her progress and keep moving forward.

Click here for more info about the J.P. Morgan global ReEntry Program 2023 – applications are open until 28 January 2023.

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For advice, support, opportunities, and connection, see our Women Returners website: https://bit.ly/3eAhKQH

This episode, we’re delighted to bring you our first conversation with a male returner. Derek White enjoyed a fascinating and varied career which equipped him with a broad mix of people, business, technical, marketing, procurement, and project management skills.

After making the decision to follow his wife’s diplomatic career, Derek took a career break of 7 years to care for their young family when they relocated to Canada. He describes this period as a precious time in his life and talks about the valuable transferable skills he gained through various entrepreneurial projects, despite the career sacrifices he made due to the interruption in his career trajectory. 

As the children grew older and the family relocated to London, Derek decided the time was right to return to work. The route back to work was not easy though, with ‘confidence destroying’ rejections before finding success.

Hear how Derek secured a 3-month returnship which gave him valuable experience and networks in a new country, and then went on to find a fulfilling role at the Department for International Trade. In our conversation, Derek talks of the value you build through all the activities you do throughout your career and career break; “I have definitely found that being a bit older and having a broad background, I can add in many different ways”. 

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For advice, support, opportunities, and connection, see our Women Returners website: https://bit.ly/3eAhKQH

Helen Tunstall enjoyed a very successful career in banking, firstly in Australia and then in the UK. In 2015 she took the leap to leave her corporate life and pursue her passion for the creative industries.

She took a career break to set up a successful photography business which she loved. However, after 5 years, she began to miss the intellectual challenge of corporate work. “I really miss talking about finance and economics…..I realised I missed that part of me, which was 20 years of my life”.

In our conversation, Helen talks of her pride in taking a career break to pursue her creative ambition and build a successful business. Hear how she found her route back to corporate life through Moody’s Re-Ignite returner programme and how she was able to bring a whole host of new skills developed during her break to her new role as Associate Director within the Customer Services Management team.

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For advice, support, opportunities, and connection, see our Women Returners website: https://bit.ly/3eAhKQH

This episode is dedicated to our much-missed colleague Liz Mason, Women Returners Client Director from 2018, who died suddenly in February 2022.

Juhi is an experienced Technology Consultant. Having spent her early career working in technology roles in India, she relocated to the UK in 2010, continuing her career at the same international company. Juhi decided to seek out more flexibility, and after a period of consulting, she took a three-year career break to spend more time with her young son. 

She credits this time with equipping her with many transferable skills including boosting her communication skills and problem-solving ability, key areas which have been immensely valuable on her return to work. 

In our conversation, Juhi talks about the importance of self-belief as you return to work, something which was boosted after attending London Business School’s Returner Event (organised by Liz Mason in a previous role). Here, Juhi heard different women discussing the ‘game changing’ emotional and other benefits of returning to work. 

“If you don’t believe in yourself, then no one will. You’ve got to feel from within that you can do it … otherwise it’s not going to work.” 

Hear how Juhi navigated her own return to work as an analyst through Fidelity’s New Horizons Returner Programme in 2019, how her professional confidence has soared over the last few years and how she has continued to protect precious family time.  

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For advice, support, opportunities, and connection, see our Women Returners website: https://bit.ly/3eAhKQH 

Aliaa Hajjeah is a qualified Civil Engineer who built a successful career in construction before her career break. Originally from Iraq, Aliaa lived and worked in Iraq under the backdrop of war, an experience she speaks of movingly and one which helped build her resilience and ultimately her positive outlook on life.

After the war, she moved to London for work, and met her husband. Together they moved to Dubai with his work, and Aliaa then took a 10 year career break to raise their 3 girls.

On moving back to the UK, Aliaa looked to return to her professional career but encountered many obstacles and rejections along the way.

In our conversation, Aliaa talks about how in the midst of all the rejections she considered settling for lower skilled roles, but found the inner strength to keep driving forward for the right role, “Surround yourself with the right people…who really care for you, they will remind you you’ve done this before, you lived in a war …all of these things …were like a wakeup…I shouldn’t give up…it’s not so hard”.

Hear how Aliaa rebuilt her confidence and found the strength to stay focussed on finding her perfect role as Senior Project Controls Engineer with Skanska Costain STRABAG Joint Venture working on behalf of HS2.

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For advice, support, opportunities, and connection, see our Women Returners website: https://bit.ly/3eAhKQH

Tamara Patera is an experienced Equity Market professional. Italian-born and raised in Zurich, Tamara spent her career travelling extensively across Europe, enjoying using her language skills and working across different cultures.

Based in Paris since 2007, Tamara continued to work in London and Paris for a number of years before taking a 7 year career break to raise her 2 children. She credits that time as one that she cherishes, as well as being one where she developed many transferable skills.  

In our conversation, Tamara talks about the power of networks and their contribution to her professional success throughout her career, and particularly their pivotal role in her successful return to work in 2020.  “Make yourself visible if you know you want to go back to work…I think it’s important to be quite strategic about it and tell people otherwise they wont be thinking of you…for opportunities”

Hear how Tamara approached her return, developed a proactive and positive mindset, and set herself regular goals to keep moving forward in her search. 

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For advice, support, opportunities, and connection, see our Women Returners website: https://bit.ly/3eAhKQH