I am a mother of three and had my youngest daughter at age forty. Ten months into my maternity leave I was offered a voluntary redundancy. I jumped at the chance to have a few more years raising my daughter and being a stay at home mum.

I then worked in a casual job cleaning 6 local motel rooms with my toddler as my right-hand girl.  Twelve months into that job I was ready to progress back into a more challenging role and to go off to work on my own.

I searched Seek and the local paper looking for that perfect role, not full time or weekends as this was my family time. Despite searching regularly I wasn’t confident enough to apply for any of the roles on offer. A close friend that I had previously worked with was five months into her first pregnancy, so I enquired into a relief role for 12 months. I thought this could be a good way to ease my way back into the workforce and give myself that confidence boost us stay at home mums need. I prepared my resume (which I had to Google, having been quite a few years between jobs), and forwarded this to my friend to pass on.

I had my interview and was offered the role then and there. Starting back at work was a challenge. Just using Word, Excel and a system that is all number coded alone took a while to sink in. I had six weeks extensive training and then I was left to my own devices. My first week working alone I would go home every day saying, “I don’t know if I can do this”. Eventually, I got my groove, my own routine and I felt more and more confident.

Many friends and family are still looking for that lucky break in finding employment. I was one of the lucky ones, I had my friend put in a good word and my employer take a chance. I am now a Portfolio Administrator at The Investment Collective.