Our World | Career Break to Comeback with STEM Returners

Meet Richa Sahani , a performance engineering whizz who turned a career break into a stunning comeback!

After moving from India to the UK and taking five years off, Richa struggled to find her footing in the job market. Enter STEM Returners , the recruitment heroes who connect top talent with employers like RS. Now, thanks to their support, Richa is back and better than ever, impressing everyone with her skills in RS's first all-female engineering team.

We caught up with Richa and her manager, Mohammed Tevfik Ismail , to get the lowdown on her incredible journey back in to work.

Richa: “I had worked as an engineer for more than eight years in India, but I had taken a career break for 5 years. I applied to so many places, but that break seemed to put off most recruitment managers. I had not been getting anywhere. I found this opportunity through STEM Returners, I got through the interview process – and here I am today.”

Mohammed: “Richa had such a rich career before taking that break. Of course, we wanted to hire her. Looking for what people can bring to the organisation is what really matters and helps us get the best talent. People have breaks for lots of reasons, especially women who take on family commitments, it shouldn’t be career limiting.”

Richa: “STEM Returners really helped me. I wasn’t nervous because I knew I wouldn’t have to explain why there was a gap in my CV. So, I was more confident, and I could talk about my engineering experience.”

Mohammed: “Richa was so impressive! She really knew her stuff. All she needed was a confidence booster about returning to the workforce — and to get paid properly. In my experience, women, especially those with a career break, tend to be very conservative on their CVs and under-value their salary worth. Our job as managers is to find out what they can actually do, and then pay them what they are worth in a transparent way.”

Richa: “And it’s an all-female team now.”

Mohammed: “True! We have the first female-only engineering team for RS. It’s great. Everybody has different backgrounds, everybody has different perspectives. That’s why diversity is important. When someone like Richa comes in, it challenges and re-energises us, and that helps us develop better solutions.”

Richa: “And I’m definitely more confident putting my views forward because there are more women in the team. And because Mohammed encourages us all. It’s good to work with different personalities. You can learn from their strengths, and how they handle things. It makes all of us better.”

What is STEM Returners?

Stem Returners is a recruitment service with a difference. It provides opportunities for employment to highly qualified STEM professionals who have had career breaks for whatever reason.

It connects businesses like RS with talented individuals who find it difficult to attract attention in standard recruitment programmes precisely because of that gap in their CV.

STEM Returners also coaches and supports the returners, and works with companies like us who want to become more inclusive. By encouraging employers to consider the whole person, with all their varied experiences, STEM Returners helps us recruit, develop and retain the best available talent - while increasing the diversity of our teams.