Parents: Back Yourself

These two words are powerful and as useful as any pep talk you can get or indeed give. After a relatively long career break raising my children, managing home renovations, running my own photography business and pursuing my creative side I have made the exciting return to the corporate world. In all honesty the scariest thing was the actual decision to bite the bullet and do it and even more so was the return to high heels!

Confidence is contagious and it is true that what we project we invite via how we truly feel about ourselves. The timing was right and I was finding quizzing my friends on all the ins and outs of their corporate positions just wasn’t scratching the itch anymore, I wanted back in myself.

There was a time when I thought the doubt of being out for a while may have been too much. However, I re-evaluated my priorities and took stock of not only my previous corporate experience, but also all the maturity, wisdom and wealth of experience that comes with the ever-changing roller coaster called life. It’s important to recognise all your life achievements and find an organisation that also acknowledges this.

My career break has equipped me with a bank of new and improved skills so I chose to back myself. Fortunately, so did my employer. I’m lucky to work for a very encouraging and forward-thinking leader. I have always enjoyed success throughout my career and returning I am loving the new- found eagerness and lack of fear/doubt – the corporate world has got nothing on a stubborn 4-year-old tantrum.

Honestly prioritising/ managing/ negotiating/ budgeting/ coaching/ delegating/ forecasting etc they are all skills honed beautifully throughout the joyride of parenthood. In my very pleasant experience interviewing I was in the fortunate position to have several options before me and I am so glad I made the right decision to join the team here at CP.

So, my advice for people returning into the corporate cloud after some time out is to believe in your abilities and what you can bring and find and organisation where the culture will value and support that experience.

At the risk of quoting a popular company slogan, “just do it” back yourself, you won’t look back!