The right support for making a career comeback

Created by VERCIDA for Sage

Fatima Nixon was able to benefit from Sage’s programme for career returners – and now she is helping other people make the move back into the workforce.

I have always loved the Spanish language and culture. My mother was Spanish and my father was Indian, we went to Spain every summer, I did an A-level in Spanish and I studied the language at university. But when I graduated, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, so I did temporary admin jobs before joining an investment bank.

This is when my career took off – I was asked to join a back office team and then moved to another investment bank, where I stayed for about 13 years. I went from managing a back office team into predominantly project management,  although one of my favourite roles was managing a production support team where every day was totally different

After I got married, I had two children. With both children, I went on maternity leave and returned to work. I have always been quite career-focused and I kept progressing with the investment bank, getting promoted into a variety of roles that I really enjoyed. But I was working compressed hours – five days’ worth of work into a four-day week – and juggling a busy job with two young children and not much family support, because most of my family lives abroad.

I wasn’t sure how much more I could give. I wanted to progress my career but felt like my family life would suffer. Then my husband changed jobs, so he was working fully remotely. We left London, where I was born and bred, and it was a great opportunity to take a career break while the kids were still little, even though I was reluctant to give up my career.

A few years after we left London, I worked as a special needs assistant at my children’s school for about 18 months. This was an opportunity to get back to the workplace and work hours that did not have an impact on my children and life at home.  Then I took another couple of years off before I worked remotely for two recruitment agencies.

In May 2022, I joined Sage in my current role as a talent acquisition partner with the company’s Pathways programme. This is a programme that is designed to support, develop, recruit and train communities of people looking to return to work following a career break for whatever reason, switch careers or kickstart their working life. 

Several years before joining Sage, I attended a career returner event where a woman talked about her experiences with returning to work – she had taken a career gap for a few years to care for her partner and had started training to become a painter and decorator. She heard about a returner programme with a consultancy firm and applied.  She was now back in a professional career and enjoying her job working in a hybrid set-up. I’ve maybe painted four walls in my life, so I knew that wasn’t an option for me, but her story was so motivating and I think every woman in the room could relate to her. Several years later, she was the person who inspired me to go review my CV and change jobs. I found myself taking the advice I used to give candidates when I worked for recruitment agencies when I was updating my CV, which was a bit like taking my own medicine!

With Sage, the job advertisement was completely inclusive and designed to appeal to female applicants. Studies have shown that when job advertisements have a long list of must-haves, a lot of women won’t bother to apply if they can’t tick every single box, whereas men tend to  be more confident and will apply regardless of whether they can meet all the criteria. This advertisement wasn’t like that and the whole interview and recruitment process was really supportive.

As someone who now helps other returners come back to work, there’s no such thing as a typical day at work. We do online and face-to-face events and run sessions to help people develop their confidence and their personal branding. When we hire career returners, we look at identifying the guidance and support required for each candidate as part of their onboarding plan.

We help people explore opportunities, we see if a career returner, or someone who didn’t get the best start to their career or the best start in life, might be able to fill a role. There are so many reasons why people might take a career break or miss out on opportunities. For example, we’ve helped people from disadvantaged backgrounds, a stay-at-home dad who had been out of the workforce for a few years, people who are leaving the military and returning to civilian life, and people who have never worked in remote or hybrid settings before and need support to adjust.  I have supported candidates who have been successful applying for a variety of roles including Customer Services, Software Development, Data and Customer & Partner Engagement.

I want people who are looking to return to work to feel encouraged and not to think that they have been forgotten about. I am glad that I took a career break back in 2011 – my own story got me to where I am today.

Register for free events throughout the year to help you get back to work, or start your career.