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 developing a wealth of fantastic business skills and experience. She also took the opportunity to pursue her long held interest in studying for an MBA.

When she was ready to return to work, she hoped to transition away from technical roles and use her MBA and consultancy experience in business management roles. However, she struggled to make the move into a different role and sector and initially received many rejections.

Her fortune changed when she came across Leidos, a technology company, who were running a returnship programme for professionals who had taken a career break. They saw the value of all her experience and how this might transfer across and in November 2023, Ajay successfully joined as a Benefits Realisation Manager, a role that brings together her stakeholder management expertise, project management skills and business experience.

“I am really proud of the example that I'm setting for my children and like I look up to my father, I hope they look up to me and say, it can be done. You can pursue your dreams and you can reinvent yourself in any stage in life.”

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.

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.