A year ago, I stepped back into work after maternity leave, hoping to find my footing again as a new mum in user research (UR.) I’d spent four years with my company, poured myself into the work, and even while on leave, stayed in touch with my team. But just five days into my return, everything changed.
I walked into what I thought was a meeting to discuss my flexible working request – something that had gone ignored for weeks – but instead was told my role was redundant, along with those of my UR colleagues.
It was crushing, and that afternoon I cried. But I knew crying wouldn’t pay the bills. I’d been on unpaid maternity leave for months, my husband was in the military and therefore unable to WFH, while frequent relocations – as is the nature of being a military wife – meant no family nearby for support. Taking my child out of nursery to save money would risk losing the place entirely. I needed to fight back. So, that evening, I started rebuilding my portfolio.
The timing was terrible. By November, I was officially out of work, and by December, I faced Christmas shutdowns, tech layoffs were dominating the headlines, and I worried that my time away from work would be seen as a liability. I sent out 40-50 applications. Some were below my level, others for positions advertised months earlier. I tailored every single one, during nap times or late at night, and I fought through the constant fear that I was no longer ‘relevant.’
Mothers in tech
It’s terrifying, as a new mum, to put yourself back out there. You question everything: whether you’re still as sharp as before, whether you’ll be judged for having a child; whether your career gap will be used against you. And increasingly, there are new barriers to contend with.
We know that AI is being used to filter CVs, for example, and the results aren’t always in women’s favour (a recent study found that AI CV screenings favoured female-associated names in only 11.1% of cases). Add to that mass layoffs across the tech industry (IBM being one of the latest to announce cuts in the thousands), and an ultra-competitive job market, and mothers re-entering tech are starting from behind before they’ve even had a chance to prove themselves.
Thankfully, by February, I had multiple job offers from amazing companies. What allowed me to reach that point was community. I joined a WhatsApp group with other researchers who had been made redundant, and we lifted each other up through rejections, ghosted applications, and endless reworking of portfolios. I also leaned on former colleagues who shared honest insights about company cultures, which ones truly supported flexible working and the ones where they only talked about it. Those conversations helped me find a company that really does value balance and flexibility.
I took various other lessons from the process, too, such as the value in being honest about my story, tailoring applications and learning that resilience does pay off. For other mothers returning to tech, my advice would be not to hide the fact that you took time off, but rather frame it as growth – because that’s exactly what it is; know that one thoughtful, well-written application is worth ten rushed ones; and finally, keep going, even when hope is low and the rejection emails are stacking up, the right role is out there.
I’m now a year on, and am so grateful for where I am, my team, and the lessons I’ve learnt (albeit the hard way). At the time, redundancy so soon after maternity leave felt like the end of everything I’d worked for, but in reality, it was the beginning of something much better.
Sruthi James is a user experience researcher at Mercator Digital
Read more: Tech leaders are now ascendant at UK companies
