Career Returners – Details, episodes & analysis

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. 

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 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!

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

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. 

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 

Welcome back to series 2 of the Career Returners Podcast!

In this series, Karen and Liz from Women Returners chat to a wide range of returners, who are now happily back at work both in the UK and abroad, after taking long career breaks.

From a banker to an engineer to a doctor, these fantastic returners share the ups and downs of their return to work stories and give practical advice to inspire other career returners.

“Have faith in yourself – remember your professional skills and strengths are still there, and your time on your career break will have added a wide range of transferable skills that will be enormously valued when you return to work.”

In this final episode of the series, Anna & Karen reflect on the inspirational stories they’ve heard over the series and weave together the main themes of the Return to Work journey, from when you first start thinking about returning to work, to how you might map your path back, the areas to consider whilst actively looking for work and how to navigate the early days once you’re back. An episode packed full of advice, tips and reflections to help you on your return-to-work journey.

“Be proactive and positive …take action and create your own networks, conversations and opportunities and try to stay optimistic that things will work out ok in the end.”

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 

Adriana Ennab enjoyed a varied and successful career in investment banking, working in New York, London and Tokyo in her early career. She took a 16 year career break from banking during which time she not only brought up her 3 children but also seized the opportunity to set up her own businesses, enjoy higher education again as well as explore other interests such as the arts, yoga and drumming!

But after 16 years away from investment banking, Adriana began to miss her old professional career and looked for ways to return. She found her route back in via Credit Suisse’s Returner programme ‘Real Returns’, and encouraged to explore different opportunities during the programme, she moved into a new area in public policy. Six years later, Adriana’s career has continued to flourish and she is now Director of Public Policy with a strong advocacy focus on Digital and Innovation areas.  “Understand it is never a straight path. And the best outcomes that I've had is because I did not say this is how I wanted to be”.

Hear Adriana’s inspiring story and how as a strong believer in championing other women, she also mentors other women returners joining Credit Suisse, and helps them to navigate their own return to work.

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 

Chief Inspector Georgia Williams joined the Met Police in 1997, and enjoyed a hugely fulfilling career, where she felt like she was really making a difference. She was promoted twice, to Sergeant and then Inspector, before she took a career break in 2011 after the birth of her first child.

During a 5-year career break, Georgia had a second child and also took on a local job as a School Chaplain, a flexible role she really enjoyed where she could use her transferable skills from policing. Thinking this would be her new path going forwards, she was surprised to receive a call from the Superintendent, inviting her to come to an open day to hear about a Met Police ‘Return to Policing’ programme which ran in 2020. She went along out of interest, and as she stepped into Scotland Yard, describes feeling as if she had ‘come home’.

“I feel really fulfilled in the role that I'm doing …. I'm proud of my job. I'm proud to put that uniform on ... the first time I put it back on after I came back, I bristled with pride.”

Hear how Georgia found her way back to her career and, just 15 months later, was delighted to be promoted to Chief Inspector.

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 

Trained as a civil engineer, Bhavna started her career in India as an IT developer and network engineer. She came to the UK in 2003 with her husband and after the birth of her daughter, took a career break to spend more time with her. But as time passed, Bhavna needed to get back to work for financial reasons, and so, whilst her daughter was young, she looked for a different type of role that would give her more flexibility and retrained as a teacher.

However, as the years passed, Bhavna missed her career in IT and spurred on by her daughter to look for the work that she loved, she searched for opportunities to return. Racked with doubt as to whether she would be able to catch up with all the developments in the sector during her time out, Bhavna enrolled on some free online courses and read widely to try and boost her confidence and update herself.

After 9 years out of IT, the opportunity came in the form of Next’s Back to IT programme, and 15 months later, Bhavna’s been promoted to a QA Analyst and is flourishing in her role.

“The core skills will never go away from you. So keep on, be positive. Don't wait for the perfect job ….get your foot into the door and then you can look around once you’re inside”

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 

Dr Tzany Kokalova Wheldon enjoyed an impressive early career in academia, gaining a doctorate in Natural Sciences and working in nuclear physics in Germany. Following the tragic loss of her unborn son at 5 months, a harrowing experience that Tzany describes as shaping her life going forwards, she decided to take an extended career break after the birth of her twin boys a few years later, so that she could dedicate time to being with them during their early years. 

When her boys were 3, she decided the time was right to return to her career but found that the gap in her CV meant that she kept getting pipped at the post at the final round. Her bridge back came in the form of the Daphne Jackson Fellowship, a 2 year part time programme supporting researchers to return to work after a career break for family, caring or health reasons.

Today, Tzany is a Reader in Nuclear Physics and works as Director of the Positron Imaging Centre at the University of Birmingham. In 2020, she won a Timewise Power Returner Award, celebrating her ability to combine career success at a senior level whilst working flexibly.  “The biggest thing is to show that even after a three and a half year career break, you can go back to lead, lead the field, and do research like the colleagues around you”

Hear how Tzany found her way back to her career as a nuclear physicist, balancing time to be with her precious boys with leading once again in her field, as well as helping other women return to their careers in science.  

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 

Laura Murphy is an experienced programme manager in the tech sector, with a background in management consultancy at Accenture. She loved the variety, intensity and challenge of management consultancy but after the birth of her first child, took a career break to enjoy life at home with her new baby.  What she initially thought might be a 2-year career break turned into 9 years, as her second child came along, and Laura took the time to support her daughter’s learning needs as well as settle her younger son into school.  

During her career break, Laura became involved in volunteering and charity work, which helped to rebuild her professional identity and give her valuable transferable skills for when she was ready to return to her professional career. In 2018, she joined Sky via their Returner Programme as Group Strategy Manager within their data technology and analytics team, then moved into a Programme Manager role, leading a large-scale business transformation. She credits her career break for helping her grow her resilience, patience, empathy and emotional intelligence, all strengths that have helped her to become ‘10 times’ the manager she was, and to empower and lead her new teams more effectively: “Parenthood is a huge part of that and why I'm successful in the job that I do today.” In 2020, Laura won a Timewise Power 50 2020 ‘Power Returner’ award, celebrating her achievement of working flexibly in a senior leadership role. 

Hear how Laura found her way back to work, built up her confidence to make that application to Sky and became a fulfilled working parent.

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