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 confidenc ..read more

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 a ..read more

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 a ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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 alig ..read more

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, despi ..read more

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 ambi ..read more

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 after a period of consulting, she took a three-year career break to spend more time with her young son.  She credits this time with equipping her with many transferable skills including boosting her ..read more

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 moved to Dubai with his work, and Aliaa then took a 10 year career break to raise their 3 girls. On moving back to the UK, Aliaa looked to return to her professional career but encountered many obstacl ..read more