Career Returners

“Value your career break. Recognise how the time that you have had on career break has helped you to grow as a person in terms of your skills, in terms of your experiences, in terms of your perspective, in terms of your resilience. And recognise the value that that means you can bring to a new employer..” In this special podcast episode, we speak to Co-Founder, ex CEO, and now Executive Chair of C...

“At any given point in time, you will always be faced with two directions. You could either go back to safety, continue doing what you've always been doing, or you could move forward and embrace growth.” Ajay enjoyed a first career in technical roles in the food sector in India and the UK. During her career break to spend more time with her young family, Ajay also set up her own consultancy develo...

“I have to say I'm in a role that is probably my favourite role that I've ever had in my working career” 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 ma...

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 t...

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 whic...

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 mo...

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...

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 projec...

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....

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...

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 famil...

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 talki...

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 afte...

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 m...

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 ca...

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 ot...

“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 Re...

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!...

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...

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 woul...

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 s...

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...

Yemi Morgan-Raiwe is an experienced strategic project manager with a background in engineering. After relocating from Nigeria to the UK in 2001, Yemi moved into economic development and built a fulfilling career working in regeneration. She took a 5 year career break to look after an elderly relative and to foster, and also took the opportunity whilst on her career break to set up her own organic...

Melissa Janvier is an experienced US lawyer with a background in financial services and public law. After relocating with her family to the UK in 2014 for her husband’s work, Melissa took a career break to settle her 3 young children into their new life. When her youngest started school, she decided the time was right to return to work but found the route back to law far more challenging than she...

Sarah McKelvie enjoyed a fulfilling career as a doctor, and her work in hospital medicine and general practice took her all over the world. When her 1 st child was born in 2007, she thought she’d be back at work in 6 months, but 2 more children later and her 6 month career break turned into 12 years. During her career break, Sarah became immersed in various charity projects from fundraising to set...