Career Breaks

I took three career breaks of different lengths between 1974 & 1983 and was featured in an IEE booklet on Career Breaks in 1985!  Back in the '70s & '80s there was no comprehensive nursery system for childcare, as now, so it was quite daunting juggling work and three children. I completed my C Eng application at the start of my second break (before son no. 2 was born) .  Before that break I had been a senior engineer with Marconi Research in Chelmsford and my C Eng application was successful (without an interview).  I intended to return to my job at Marconi Research, but we relocated back to our Devonshire roots, so more career challenges followed.  I retired last year, but I did ultimately become Engineering Manager for the North Devon SME that I joined in 1983 and was accepted as FIET just before I retired!

Hello Susan,



Thank you for contributing to this discussion and congratulations on gaining Fellowship!



Kind regards,

Jo Foster

I'm really interested to hear people experiences with this as its something that will probably be comming up for me in the next 5 years. I do worry about it a lot, getting back into work after and trying to catch up with the industry. 

Hi Amanda,



Thank you very much for your comments. 



I am sure that there are plenty of people that could give you information on their career break experiences.



If anybody has anything that they would like to add, it would be great to hear from you.  I am sure that Amanda is not the only one with questions / concerns on the subject so, your advice / experience would be helpful to others.



Many thanks,

Jo Foster

Hi Joanne,



Thank you very much for contributing to this discussion!



Kind regards,

Jo

My only 'Career Breaks' were whilst on maternity leave, when in both cases I returned to my previous job role. As a result, maybe not complete relevant here...

I would like to say though that during the first period of leave (7 mths), I didn't make any particular efforts to keep up to date, and did take a few weeks to get back into it when I returned to work.  On the second occasion however, I kept in touch with colleagues at work, read my IET magazines together with some techy blogs and as my role includes software solutions, I kept the grey-matter 'fit' with a s/w solution for a friend's 'play-by-email' game.  As a result, I found it considerably easier when I returned to work, even though the break was longer at 9mths.

Hi Lois,



Thank you very much for your comments.



Kind regards,

Jo