Transcript

AZU

So I've only had the short, short career breaks, but they felt like the longest career breaks in the world, especially when I was looking for work. But I would say, again, just grab the things that still interest you. There's some things you may find that over the time that you've been off just don't interest you anymore.

But I found because I had my children, I was finding, actually, it was a lot more relevant to get out there and be an ambassador for STEM careers, so that's what I grabbed. And it wasn't paying the bills, but I'd hoped that I would meet people along the way that I could talk to about finding careers and things, or just talk to, really, and get some sort of sanity check about.

So that was in 2010. I ended up just signing up properly as a STEM ambassador here in Cambridge, and that was really good because it builds your confidence. You're also giving back to the community a little bit.

And I did talk to quite a lot people. I went for one interview completely on the back of a STEM ambassador activity. I didn't get the job, but he's kept me in mind. We're on LinkedIn now. We kind of chat every so often. Every so often, he goes, oh, do you want to think about doing this? And at the moment, I'm going, I'm all right, thank you, but let's keep in touch sort of thing. So it's just building up your networks, really, in that time.

And it feels like walking through treacle sometimes, but every little bit-- and I always find that if you're doing something because you love it, then-- it sounds very trite, but fate will find a way of landing someone in your lap. I have a friend who talks about planned happenstance. So it's making yourself be in that position where luck, if you like, if you believe in it, comes to you.