I started my career as a stockbroker. After being on a career break for the last 7 years with my children, I had started wondering if I could get back in to work in financial services after so long away from that world. But through browsing the Women Returners website, being on your mailing list and reading stories about women just like me, I realised that I really wasn’t going to be left on that shelf unless I chose to be. So, I got myself a bit more organised, had many long coffees by myself working out what motivated me and what I wanted in a job (one thing I knew for sure was that stockbroking was NOT a field I wanted to go back to!), and then I set about finding companies that matched my requirements.
Using invaluable tips from a Women Returners’ hosted CV webinar, I brushed off my CV and cover letter, approached the only company I found that matched my list, and offered my services in that capacity – despite the fact they weren’t advertising for any jobs, let alone the specific one that I had decided they needed me to do for them!
After I chased them twice to make sure my email had gone through to the right person, the company agreed to meet with me, and following interviews with various partners and managers, actually offered me a role with more responsibility than I had put myself forward for! I’m now moving into investment management – an area I’d always been interested in but had ruled myself out of pre-career break as I had (wrongly!) decided direct experience was all that counted.
By changing my mindset from hoping a company would do me a favour and take a chance on me, to realising that although I may be rusty, I still have a heck of a lot to bring to the table at the right firm, I’ve been able to get a job in the firm I wanted, in the area I wanted, and at a higher level than I was at when I started my break 7 years ago! I genuinely don’t believe I would have been able to do this without the help of Women Returners and so I just wanted to share my story to say thank you and in case it could help anyone else wrestling with their self-doubt right now. I start work next month, so just have the mammoth task of getting child care in place and the just as daunting prospect of getting a work wardrobe together.
Wish me luck! ~ Teni