GET THE CAREER YOU WANT NOW
Reinvent your working life
In the new world of work,
there’s no such thing as a forever career – or a gap so big it’s impossible to return to employment. Businesses are realising the value of grown-up professional women, and helping them to switch direction or get back on track. Hilly Janes reports on the new ways to recover your career mojo…
Are you considering an encore career? Or maybe you’re after a returnship? In a world where career paths are fluid – more zigzag than a straight climb up the ladder – and many of us are having to extend our working lives rather than coasting to retirement, these are the phrases it pays to know. Perhaps you’ve suddenly found a second wind after taking several years off to bring up your children – in which case, new skills learnt via a returnship could be just the thing. Or you may have decades of unbroken experience behind you but find you’re yearning for a change, and that’s where the encore career comes in.
Whatever the reason, the good news is that reinvention is becoming increasingly common, and employers are at last beginning to appreciate the transferable skills that a busy and useful lifestyle can amass.
When Julianne Miles swapped corporate strategy and marketing for the school gate, she spent many mornings talking to other mothers about what to do next. Julianne had spent 11 years in her first career, but surprised herself when she took a four-year break to look after her two children. Always fascinated by what makes people tick, she decided to retrain as a psychologist, and her clients included women who had taken time out and wanted to find their way back. ‘I realised there is an untapped talent pool of high-calibre women who want to return to a professional career that works with family life, but who find that the doors are closed,’ she says.
She’s since helped open those doors to hundreds of women through Women Returners, which she co-founded in 2012. It supports professionals by liaising with leading companies to offer paid returnships – a chance to get up to speed, supported by coaching and mentoring, with the possibility of a permanent role.
‘IT’S TIME FOR ME’
❉ ‘When the childcare juggle is over, I hear many women say, “It’s time for me”,’ says Julianne. That time may be spent regaining a lost professional identity, starting a second career or fulfilling a creative dream. Julianne herself has joined the ranks of ‘olderpreneurs’. While less than a third of employees are over 50, this group makes up almost half of those who start their own businesses, with over-55s increasingly funding them by dipping into their personal pension pots.
We have so many more opportunities and advantages than earlier generations, thanks to decades of campaigning to bring down the barriers that held our mothers back. We are also living longer, healthier lives, with a more positive, energetic outlook. We know we have to use it or lose it when it comes to fitness and mental ability – one gym chain recently claimed that 72-year-olds are its most frequent
users. Science-based beauty products add a subtle glow here, a touch of colour there, that our mothers – the panstick-andpowder generation – would marvel at. And there is a huge market for them: 55-64-year-olds account for almost half the spend on beauty products in the UK.
Politicians have seized on the trend of getting midlife women back to work. An All-party Parliamentary Group report published earlier this year recommended that every company with more than 250 employees should have a carers’ policy and consider introducing paid returnships with guaranteed training, advice and support.
There are financial reasons, too. Policy makers know the lost talent pool costs the economy dear. Some 60% of professional women who go back to work end up in lower-skilled, lower-paid roles that mean a £1.7bn loss in spending power. Their expertise could also help plug the country’s skills and productivity gap. And while the age at which we stop working is rising, it’s not keeping pace with our increased life expectancy – hence our state pensions disappearing over an ever-distant horizon.
The (mostly male) captains of industry are seeing the light. Global professionalservices giant Deloitte now offers alumni returnships to tap into the female talent it’s lost. ‘I was paid four days a week for 12 weeks and took half-term off. I couldn’t believe it,’ says accountant Charlotte Blyton, who quit her job and a long commute to care for her two children. Her returnship at Deloitte led to a senior role in the company’s tax division, working two days a week in the office and two from home.
Women Returners counts major employers such as Lloyds Bank, Vodafone and the Home Office among more than 20 current clients for its returnships. These typically last about three months and are paid in line with skills and experience, bearing in mind that coaching, mentoring and retraining are part of the deal. Law firm Allen & Overy takes a different approach with its pool of approved lawyers, who work flexibly as consultants. Accountants can reconnect with their careers via a new Comeback Community online network run by their professional body, the ICAEW. And organisations such as She’s Back and The Return Hub – both founded by women who took extended breaks – help companies access women who are not on their radar.
The age at which we stop working is not keeping pace with our increased life expectancy