I am proud to call myself a successful returner! I re-entered the full-time, paid workforce in November 2017 after looking since the beginning of that year. The position I returned to was workable with my family commitments and I was enjoying working outside the home, and of course the paycheck. But I had taken a large step back in seniority and in compensation and my returnship was not in the industry where I had my 15+ year career. Because my search had been long and arduous, and I hadn’t landed directly back in financial services, where I had left and where I had wanted, I may have experienced a (slight?) crisis of confidence.
Though I was thankful to be offered a job through my returnship, I decided it ultimately wasn’t my passion and where I wanted to take my career and I graciously declined. This meant I had to up my game on the networking front to get something that I indeed DID want. I have a finance industry mentor, who set up a lunch with me, him and the global head of equity factor index products at a well-known index firm. It was a fabulous lunch – we connected well personally. After talking more about my background, he said, you know, we are hiring my position but for the fixed income market – is that anything you would be interested in? Wait… WHAT?
YES! I was over the moon that someone thought that I could be global head of anything! This position combined a good mix of my quantitative and people skills, and was at an amazing level of seniority. The firm placed a high value on my international and multicultural experience. I was thrilled…. Until the questions started coming. What if they didn’t want me because I wasn’t already global head of something. Or because I was not in index products in my current job. I sent my resume and waited with baited breath. HR contacted me for a screening call in short order. I was not nervous, but those nagging doubts persisted. The 20-30m screening call w HR went over an hour and we both laughed genuinely several times.
Spoiler alert: I didn’t get the job. I think they were looking for a candidate with more well-rounded experience in fixed income markets. I took it pretty well; I have a ton of experience in credit, but none in FX or rates or really any other of the potential factors of which I would have been global head. I have decided to rebrand this as a positive: I did not get this position, but people who are hiring think I can possibly be global head of SOMETHING. So, so will I. I’ve got this!
We've Got This 