What a difference a year makes: From clashing with recruiters to launching a business in a pandemic
Last year, Alice Almeida, News Corp’s former head of digital strategy and innovation, grabbed attention and headlines when she took to LinkedIn to lament how bad adland is at letting new mothers back into the workforce. In the 12 months that followed, she launched a business, and was then confronted by the harsh realities of running one during a global pandemic. She talks to Vivienne Kelly about what a difference a year makes.
About one year ago, Alice Almeida had just gotten off the phone to a recruiter, and she was mad.
She was trying to return to work after maternity leave, and couldn’t believe how much could change in a short space of time.
“The most frustrating part and the part that I struggled with the most, is I went from a ‘head of’ role when I left to have a baby,” she tells Mumbrella one year on, “and I’m not talking myself up, or I’m not being pig-headed – but I was offered, I was chased for jobs at least once a month, prior to leaving on maternity leave. And so I was in hot demand.
“And then I took time off to have a baby. And going from being in that position where I was actually having to say no to companies, to the position where I wasn’t even getting callbacks for interviews, or if I did, the callback was ‘Oh, you’ve just had a baby. Oh, I’m sorry, lots has happened in the last 12 months and we need somebody that’s been up to speed with everything that’s going on’. And other comments were like ‘Oh, unfortunately there’s lots of travel with this role’. And it just felt like people were making the decisions for me. So they were basically coming up with an answer on my behalf.”
Super article that Alice… thank you so much for taking the time to write and share 🙂