My advice would be to grow and develop with the business and don’t box yourself in with one particular career route in mind as other career paths can open up.

Throughout my career I’ve been on a learning journey regarding how I communicate. When I first started out, I was very shy and found it difficult to communicate confidently. I’d be nervous sending an email to someone I’d never met and spend hours over-analysing the content to make sure it was ‘perfect’ before sending it. As I sent more and more emails, met more people, and put myself out there for presentations, I grew in confidence but I still had a lot to learn. I’d often go into the specifics of everything and give people information overload because I was worried about missing something important. I got a lot of feedback around this and was regularly asked to “keep it high-level”. I really had to work at this, and I needed to get help from peers, mentors, managers and external research to understand what this meant, when it mattered and how to be effective at a higher level of detail. With years of practice, I am now much better at communicating and that’s helped me progress into a leadership position. This is just one example of me learning a skill which I thought was impossible. If I can do it, so can you!

Don’t feel trapped within a certain career route. Think about the skills you have and see if you can use them in a different role. Find a company to work for that has an open, fair and equitable pay structure. If you need to take a step back and focus on your family that’s okay too. I’ve been able to return to a career at a later stage. Look for a company that invests in everyone regardless of their age/personal circumstances and will support your career post kids. Get as much work experience as possible, (and encourage your kids to get some too), and try different projects/experiences within your role so you have something for your CV.