Career Returners

After a twenty five year career in the corporate and private medical sector, Deirdre (Dee) Carswell  successfully made the move into the charity sector.

Her journey to this transition was not always smooth sailing. Although she’d been involved in pro bono work throughout her career, she made the first leap in 2019 when she left the corporate sector to set up as an independent charity consultant. But the pandemic threw Dee off course as she took a career break to care for various family members including her two daughters who have additional needs. After three years, Dee tried to resume her consultancy but with ongoing responsibilities at home, this proved difficult.

She fortuitously came across Charity Interns (now called The Well Placed), a moment which she now refers to as her ‘stars align’ moment! The organisation offered  six month placements in the charity sector to help attract those from the corporate sector wanting to make the switch. Dee successfully gained a placement at the Alzheimer’s Society which was a fantastic learning experience and networking opportunity and proved a brilliant springboard into her new career. After finishing the placement, Dee secured a role as Head of Fundraising at Skylarks, a London based charity very close to her heart, which supports children with additional needs and their families.

“I really felt quite strongly that I wanted to work in the charity sector as I had spent quite a lot of time as a carer. I felt I wanted to bring that experience with me, but I also felt I had so much other experience that was so transferable that I'd really hope to bring all that with me.”

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

To learn more about the charity internship Dee participated in, see The Well Placed: https://thewellplaced.org/

For more details about the experts and organisations inspiring and connecting people to make changes to their careers, take a look at the Careers can change campaign at careerscanchange.co.uk . A big thank you to Phoenix Insights for sponsoring this episode of the podcast and their support for the Careers can change campaign.

Charlotte’s first career was in TV production, initially working as a script supervisor and then as a Director working on well-known programmes such as Big Brother and Hell's Kitchen.

She took a career break of 6 years to raise her twin daughters and during this time she also relocated to Switzerland with her family. Unable to work there, she was the main carer for her daughters.

After returning to the UK, Charlotte began to look for work but returning to her old freelance TV career was not easy or conducive to raising a young family. This led Charlotte to think more creatively about what she would return to and to be open to the different possibilities and career paths ahead that would enable her to make a fresh start.

She came across an advert for a Returner Programme at Tideway and applied for the role of ‘Innovation Co-Ordinator’. Charlotte claims now that she had no idea what this role meant but because they weren’t looking for any specific technical experience, but more for transferable skills, she felt bold enough to apply and was successful!

In our conversation we chat about transferable skills, and their key role in helping her build a successful new career in engineering. As ‘Head of Innovation’ now at HS2, Charlotte talks to how her ability to build a narrative and bring people on board with her, skills all honed in her TV career, have been key to her success.

Hear how Charlotte navigated her career change from TV to high speed rail and found herself a rewarding and fulfilling career which offers financial security and stability.

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

For more details about the experts and organisations inspiring and connecting people to make changes to their careers, take a look at the Careers can change campaign at careerscanchange.co.uk . A big thank you to Phoenix Insights for sponsoring this episode of the podcast and their support for the Careers can change campaign.

Joanna Campbell-Meiklejohn has had a varied career, spanning different sectors and countries. She spent the first part of her career working in Corporate and Investment Banking and after her second child, decided to leave banking and return to the UK to spend time with her young family. During this period, she set up and ran a successful property business in the Cotswolds where she lived which gave her a whole host of additional transferable skills and experience.

However, during COVID and the slowdown in this sector, she took the opportunity to rethink what she wanted to do professionally and decided to retrain as a financial planner through the St James Place Financial Adviser Academy.

In our conversation, Joanna talks about the importance of reflecting on what’s important to you professionally and talking that through with others – to get clearer on what your options are and how you can go about exploring them.

We chat through the mental barriers we often create for ourselves and the need to tackle those head-on so that they don’t stop us from taking action, “You’ve done it before, you can do it again. These skills don’t go anywhere. They are embedded… they do come back to you, and you have to trust yourself.

Hear how Joanna navigated a career change and successfully began her next career chapter as a qualified financial planner. 

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Follow for free on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/30rZZL6

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

For more details about the St James Place Financial Advisor Academy: sjp.co.uk/academy

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.

Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3v9INYz

Follow for free on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/30rZZL6

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 for a Masters in Terrorism, Crime and Global Security 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.

Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3v9INYz

Follow for free on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/30rZZL6

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”. 

Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3v9INYz

Follow for free on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/30rZZL6

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.

Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3v9INYz

Follow for free on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/30rZZL6

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