Pursuing a career by overcoming the evolving motherhood challenges

Do you feel lost in your career path due to employment break for parenting reasons?

Are motherhood responsibilities posing career challenges for you?

You are not alone. Most women go through similar challenges. With the changing times, these motherhood challenges are evolving. Fortunately, the times are changing for good and young mothers have better prospects of pursuing their career unlike in the past. I would like to share my personal story with a hope to convince you that it is possible to overcome motherhood challenges and pursue a career after employment break.

My initial career

I am engineering graduate from southern part of India. I got my first career break in a software company as a Java developer and I had a smooth and progressing career journey for the initial 10 years before I transitioned to motherhood. During those 10 years, I travelled across major cities in India, United States and the UK and had plans to settle down in the United States after working there for nearly 5 years.

Employment Break as a young mother

After my daughter was born, I resumed my work after 3 months of maternity leave. When she was nearly an year old, I took a major decision of my life. Instead of applying for green card citizenship in the United States, I decided to leave the United States to join my husband and support him in his pursuit of higher studies in the U.K.

We left the states for good and travelled back to India and then to the U.K. My daughter was nearly 3 years old when my husband was pursuing his MBA . Change of location, missing out her daddy time did not go well with my daughter and she could not adjust to the drastic changes in her life. She often fell sick while attending the nursery day care. I could not get back to work as she needed me to be there by her side most of the the time.

Career challenges

As my daughter settled down with her daily routine, I started applying for jobs. However, I faced challenges to resume back to my career because of my employment break. At some point, I felt lost in my career path. At times, I was totally consumed with my motherhood responsibilities. I started believing that I might not be able to pursue a career. During that time, I reflected on my situation and I wanted to do something by myself that would give me more freedom and work life balance.

I pursued Diploma in Digital Arts as I had passion for animation and had dreams of owning a studio providing personalised artwork for customers and working as a freelancer. However, after working in a digital studio for sometime, I took up an opportunity in a start up company as it gave me freedom and flexibility to work on the things I was passionate about.

With this opportunity, I rebuilt my career by moving into mobile app testing and I looked after designing the artwork for mobile games developed for iOS and Android. As of now, my passion for digital arts remains a hobby and I teach my daughter to explore animation skills whenever time permits. Having overcome the career challenges I faced along the way as a young mother, I now feel happy that my persistent efforts to get back to career after an employement break paid off. My husband provides great support in sharing responsibilities at home to help me enjoy a balanced personal and professional life.

Adapting to the evolving Motherhood Challenges

Through experience, I can say that motherhood is the toughest job and it could be exhausting during the early few months and things get better after an year or so. I have known many young mothers who actually sacrificed their careers for the sake of caring their children and later could not manage to get back to their careers especially due to employment break. Times are changing and with the rising importance of equality for women, a lot of initiatives are being taken to encourage women to pursue their careers.

If you are a young mother feeling lost in your career journey, don’t get discouraged and don’t consider yourself as alone in this struggle. While you are on employment break, keep sharpening your skill set and have clarity on your career goals. Reach out to your network and explore the various possibilities available for you. You will find people who are genuinely caring and can offer the right support and guidance you need. Team up with the right kind of people and take that first step with an extra leap of faith in yourself. Work on your career development plan discussing about it with your family members for support and empower yourself in adapting to these evolving motherhood challenges to pursue a career of your choice.

Being able to juggle between personal and professional tasks and being able to look after own self well-being is one of the most difficult things to master during the early stages of motherhood. Achieving the work life balance you desire is something that you need to consider while planning your return to your career life. Believe in yourself that you can overcome your career challenges and things will fall in place over time.

I hope you found this blog useful . I wish you all the best with your motherhood experience and I also hope that you pursue your career through proper planning.