In this special podcast episode, we speak to Co-Founder, ex CEO, and now Executive Chair of Career Returners, Julianne Miles MBE.

Julianne is a leading global expert in returning to work, a Chartered Psychologist, and a successful returner herself. Over the last two decades, she has developed deep expertise in supporting returning professionals back to fulfilling work – and now she’s written the book on it!

‘Return Journey: How to get back to work and thrive after a career break’ is the essential handbook for returners. It’s a practical, psychology‑backed roadmap for professionals returning to work after a career break and provides step-by-step advice across the whole return to work journey from Starting Out, to Finding Work That Works, and then Thriving Back at Work.

In this conversation, we explore Julianne’s story, why she wrote the book, and her top tips for navigating the different return to work stages.

“For me, that's the power of the book… helping people to understand some of the barriers in their heads to getting back to work and how to tackle those, alongside the very real practical barriers. So you have this whole toolkit that can take you along that journey from very first thinking about getting back to work, to finding the type of work that works for you at this time of your life, right through to surviving the return to work rollercoaster of those early months back at work, and finally to really thriving.”

For more advice and guidance along the route back to work, sign up to our free or pay if you can Career Returners Professional Community at community.careerreturners.com to access a wealth of free resources, attend live expert speaker webinars and connect with other like-minded returning professionals.

Return Journey is available now in paperback, audiobook (read by Julianne) and e-book format, at all major retailers, including:

Amazon UK

Amazon Ireland

Amazon Germany

Apple Books

Audible

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.