i-Return To My Career

We Help You Clarify And Communicate Your Proposition

People take time away from their financial services careers for a wide variety of reasons. Some pursue alternative career options. Some pursue personal or family interests. In most cases, experiences gained outside of the traditional career path bring new skills, perspectives and knowledge. These aspects are invaluable to potential employers. Research has shown that businesses need talented, experienced people with a diverse range of backgrounds and skills in order to thrive. Those who have stepped out of the industry are well positioned to bring new perspectives back into the modern workplace. Yet, many people still find the process of returning a daunting prospect. Returning candidates often face some real, and some perceived, barriers when taking their first steps. Common questions they end up asking themselves include:

    • What am I really looking for in my next career step?
    • What interests me, and where do my strengths lie?
    • How do I even get started to find a job back in the financial services industry?
    • How will I convince employers that I have skills and experience which could help them?

The key is to understand how to communicate effectively what you want, and how you can best help your future employer.

At Structure Talent we prepare people to return to work. We help returners understand their own goals. We help them develop their own strategy for making that move. Our approach—based on trust and partnership—enables clients to build out their own story, along with a viable plan for navigating their personal transition. We run tailored workshops and coaching programmes based on our four step coaching model, to guide returners through their own process of creating opportunities.

There has never been a better time for a woman to consider returning to financial services. The government has recently instigated many initiatives designed to achieve a better gender balance at all levels across the UK workforce, including establishing a Women in Finance Charter, to which firms are encouraged to voluntarily sign up. All the indications are that City firms are embracing the concepts.

If you are a woman who has left financial services, but you are now interested in returning to the profession, then we would love to see you at one of our events (see the i-Return Workshop Events Tab). Hosted by Structure Talent, the objective of these workshops is to help you focus on the options, gather insights that, ultimately, will help you make the best career move.

We will help you understand the current market, highlight opportunities that exist for women returning (such as “Returnships”). We use this time to explore how to deal with some of the perceived, and real, barriers faced by candidates who have spent a few years outside of the sector.

Achieving your career ambitions means building a deep understanding of your abilities, interests and strengths. While these are the most important criteria in choosing and changing your career, the overwhelming majority of people react to purely external factors.

Usually, these major life-changing decisions are NOT made—they just happen. Rather than the individual choosing a particular career path and future trajectory, career decisions are normally a reaction to the opportunities and constraints of the time. People tend to simply fall into their next job. Few make the connection between what they enjoy and are good at—or want to be good at—and what they end up doing for a living.

The Structure Talent Career Coaching Model

The career coaching model helps you to structure your career planning and job search efforts into manageable steps. It begins with understanding who you really are and why your career vision is unique to you. You then identify your strengths, enablers and challenges; evaluating the risks and constraints before moving on to framing your options, clarifying your personal story and developing your own action plans.

We provide you with concrete tools and frameworks to help you understand and track all these different aspects. On this solid foundation, you can then explore new opportunities confident that you are putting your best foot forward toward the rest of your life.

i-Return To Financial Services Introductory Workshop

This workshop is designed to help participants identify their true strengths, interests and priorities and start to develop their pitch to potential employers. Facilitated by Corjanne van Drimmelen and Sally Hotchkin, the event is designed to help you take those early steps back towards a financial services career. Using tried and tested exercises, they will guide you through the Discovery Phase of our coaching model. By the end of the workshop, you should have the all tools to help you start or refine your job search.

Broad workshop outline:

    • What does career success look like?
    • Discover what you really want out of work and life.
    • Identify your strengths and talents.
    • Define the job you really want.
    • Develop your personal story.

In order to maximize the use of our time together, we will ask you to do a little pre-work.