Stepping back

At the start of last year, I took a career break to raise my now two small children.

 It was one of the hardest, most stretching, and most skills-building years of my career.

There’s a real fear many professionals carry about stepping back, whether going part-time ot taking a career break — that doing so will somehow erase everything they’ve spent years working for. That the momentum, credibility, or hard-won experience will disappear. I felt that fear too.

What I’ve learned is this: stepping away didn’t erase my skills — it strengthened and expanded them.

Some of the very transferable skills I sharpened:

• Time management – when naps are short, schedules change hourly, and everything still needs to get done, you become ruthlessly efficient.

• Negotiation – dealing with a headstrong toddler is often harder than dealing with a stubborn company exec. The stakes feel just as high, and the persuasion skills are next level.

• Working all hours – while working evenings, early mornings, and weekends is already the norm in the communications world, doing so while sleep-deprived really sharpens your stamina, prioritisation, and ability to keep going when there’s no true “off” switch.

• Event management – I strengthened this skill by hosting events for new parents, including one with more than 20 exhibitors and 200 attendees, alongside countless smaller gatherings and playdates. Logistics, coordination, promotion, and problem-solving all very familiar territory.

• Networking – walking into baby classes alone forces you to build rapport quickly and make new connections from scratch. Networking in its purest form.

Taking a step back didn’t make me less capable. If anything, it made me more adaptable, more resilient, and more confident in what I bring to the table for when I do return to the corporate world.

For anyone hesitating because they fear losing everything they’ve built: you don’t lose it. You carry it with you — and sometimes, you add even more.

💫