Annual Report 2018: Investment in internships transcript

Why did you apply to Back to Business?

I applied to the Back to Business programme because I had recently moved back from 23 years in Asia.  

It was a great opportunity to utilise my skills yet still have the recognition that I had been away from the business place for 10 years.

I‘ve been on a career for the last 6 years to take care of my two young kids, I had heard about the PwC programme and decided to apply because I thought it would be a good place to kick start my career.

And the Back to Business gave me the really great opportunity of seeing whether or not professional services was something I wanted to pursue going forwards.

What was it like coming back to work?

Coming back to work has been a challenge my family have been very supportive for me and also PwC have been supportive.

I’ve learnt that I have to be very organised, to mix both my work life with my personal life.

I felt part of the team straight away, I had a very supportive mentor who I met up with weekly and even when she wasn’t able to be there she would give me a call just to check that I was OK.

For me the experience of coming back to work was really positive, it was much easier than I thought it would be.  Within just a couple of weeks I had really settled in to my team, everyone was really welcoming, whenever I had any questions everyone was always available to answer them and it just felt like I had never been away.

What have you gained from the programme?

The programme’s given me a huge amount of confidence and self belief that my skills are still relevant and that I can achieve the back to work challenge.  I’ve really enjoyed the whole scheme and would recommend it to anybody.

And in addition I have learnt that I can actually have a family life and a fulfilling career.

It’s really helped me to gain in confidence and to be much more effective in my role.

I’ve really benefited from increased confidence in being able to revisit and develop the legal skills that I hadn’t used for a while.    I’ve been able to work with a variety of different teams and generally just been able to develop my skills much further than I ever thought I’d be able to.

What advice do you have for others returning?

I would advise anyone thinking about returning to work to research the role you’re applying for, think about how it will fit with your family life.

And I would just advise them to just go for it, because you have everything to gain from the programme.

It’s been a really supportive experience and it’s made me believe that I really can come back to business successfully.  It can be flexible but it has to work for the business as well, so as long as you get the balance right it can work for you.

It’s the best opportunity that you’re going to get to work for a really fantastic firm and you’ll get a really great opportunity to shine.