Interviewing to Become a Working Mum

Working. Employment. Career development. It’s been a given for as long as I remember. I will work. From that first moment I met with a career advisor at school at 14. From taking part time jobs in hairdressing and McDonalds. From changing my degree from Chemical Engineering to Chemistry. From applying for my year in industry as part of my degree. From there applying for graduate schemes in nothing to do with chemistry. From job interviews for promotions, for changing positions, for changing cities where I work, changing organisations. Working has always been my normal.

Until August 2012. When I left the office at 35 weeks pregnant with the Toddler. Skipped out of the office would be a better word. To a maternity leave of pedicures and big fat pregnant lunches. With big fat pregnant friends. Friends who were all like me. Professionally driven. Doctors. Lawyers. Teachers. It never crossed any of our minds that we wouldn’t be returning to work after our allotted maternity leave was up.

I even had a date. A plan to work 4 days a week using up holidays. A plan to be a working mum.

Then Dubai happened and my journey changed to that of a stay at home mum. And the longer I stay out of work the more unemployable I become.

So I started to look for work before I had Baby Boy. I interviewed and sent my CV round. I became well acquainted with LinkedIn. Then I got pregnant. Which halted those plans in their tracks due to the vary nature that is Dubai.

Baby Boy arrived and LinkedIn came back into my life. Out in Dubai processes take longer, visas need to be acquired. When working for an international company the right people from the UK need to be met. So off I started, catching up with old acquaintances. Seeing what the job market was like. Scouting around for potential opportunities. Hoping for the perfect opportunity to present itself to me for April next year (I said it was a long process!)

Except it’s going faster than I thought. Interviews are happening. I’m squeezing myself – and I mean squeezing – into my old smart work dresses and going to interviews.

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Meeting with people who don’t care that my greatest achievement recently has been to get through the day without shouting at one or both boys. That aren’t interested in my ability to sing and do the actions to at least 17 nursery rhymes while changing a nappy. That don’t need to know the mum side of me at all.

That are interested in my potential, that want to know what my plans for the future are, that are keen to find out where I can fit in with them. Me. Laura. Not me mummy.

And I’m excited by it

Yes it’s earlier than I had planned by about 6 months.

And yes. It might not even move from interview to job.

But someone out there has recognised that I can be more than just mummy.

And with them doing so I’ve remembered that I can as well.

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16 Comments

  1. August 31, 2015 / 1:59 pm

    Good luck! Of course being a mummy has changed the Laura side of you too,now you have skills you didn’t have before!

    • Laura
      Author
      September 1, 2015 / 10:27 pm

      I hadn’t thought of it like that before thanks Helena x

  2. September 1, 2015 / 1:44 am

    Good luck with the interviews!
    I’m beginning to look around too. It’s been so long I will need a whole new work wardrobe!
    X

    • Laura
      Author
      September 1, 2015 / 10:28 pm

      Oh I fit into NOTHING! It’s been a fairly distressing experience! Good luck to you too and fingers crossed for us both x

  3. September 1, 2015 / 10:30 am

    It’s so nice to be reminded from time to time that you are more than just mummy. Good luck with your interviews lovely! I am sure you will be amazing! xx

    • Laura
      Author
      September 1, 2015 / 10:29 pm

      Thanks Clare. You’re exactly right its nice to remember the whole other persona I had pre-children xx

  4. September 1, 2015 / 9:58 pm

    Good luck! Always looking for a job where I am but I seemed to be invisible in the employers eyes =(

    #TwinklyTuesday

    • Laura
      Author
      September 1, 2015 / 10:29 pm

      Oh no Merlinda, I hope you have more luck soon x

  5. September 1, 2015 / 10:59 pm

    Good luck Laura. I still struggle with the fact we both work full time but we are making it work by only putting the boy into childcare three days a week and kind of managing the other two days between us. I don’t know if it will work forever and I think it’s amazing if you can be a stay at home mum or dad. But I also wonder if either of us would find it enough. So well done for taking steps to pursue your career again. It sounds like an uphill struggle.
    #twinklytuesday

    • Laura
      Author
      September 2, 2015 / 6:01 pm

      It’s a complicated one to get your head round. I have mass guilt that I’ve put it all on my husband for the past 3 years. Then I have guilt on my littlest boy that I’m even considering this. Then I weigh it all up and realise that I want to do this for ME. which makes it all the more important as it’s not a needs must financially so it’s not something I will regret doing or feel pushed into. If that even makes sense? Plus out here there’s no way they do part time which would be my ideal

  6. September 1, 2015 / 11:21 pm

    It sounds like you’re doing well and every interview helps hone your interview answers and techniques, so all are good experience. Good luck! #twinklytuesday

    • Laura
      Author
      September 2, 2015 / 6:02 pm

      That’s very true I went in with a stinking head cold and had a bit of a shocker…..

  7. September 2, 2015 / 12:16 am

    It sounds like youre on a really exciting journey, but youre not alone at all. Im a working mum of a 2 year old, I did maternity leave then went back into the world of consultancy after 10 months. I knew lots of other new mums like me, friends, colleagues and acquaintainces either from my organisation, or from others professional careers that didnt to go back at the end of their maternity and instead choose not to go back to work. I love being a working mum, but I envy them and their bravery. I know that being a working mum is much easier that being a stay at home mum, but I would have loved to have been able to be a stay at home mum too. Perhaps with number two.. Im sure you will find something, when you find the right job for you and your family and vice versa. Its an exciting journery going back into the workplace, good luck with it all! #TwinklyTuesday

    • Laura
      Author
      September 2, 2015 / 6:03 pm

      Thank you so much for your lovely comment Emily. It’s all about finding the balance and the right job.

  8. September 7, 2015 / 7:00 pm

    Congratulations on your new adventure! Isn’t it wonderful to have YOUR skills recognized? I recently starting looking for a new job and was completely shocked to end up with 3 job offers. It was so validating to realize that my skills and potential were valued! I’ve been at the new job for a week and am loving it, although it is a bit of a shock to be the new inexperienced person rather than the expert!

    I hope you enjoy working motherhood as much as I do. Thanks for linking with #TwinklyTuesday.

    • Laura
      Author
      September 18, 2015 / 12:15 am

      Oh fantastic! I’m still waiting to head and its driving me bananas!!

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