I’ve been working agency-side with a focus on B2B tech for nearly a decade across a mix of sectors including consumer tech, enterprise, high growth, and mobility. The thing I love about tech PR is that it genuinely impacts our everyday lives, it’s ever-changing, and fast-paced. I’ve had the opportunity to drive high profile campaigns like the UK’s first 5G network launch with EE, and establish the UK as a world leader for the connected and self-driving future with Zenzic.

That is until last summer, when like many of us, I found myself in the midst of a pandemic confounded by the present and anxious for the future. I had just started maternity leave, and my first career break ever, to have my first baby. I was over-the-moon, but I also couldn’t shake the feeling that I needed to manage this enormous transition “the right way”.

I’ve always been a perfectionist, ceaselessly chasing career milestones, promotions, and high profile work. So much so, that I viewed my upcoming maternity leave as “time off” in which I would refocus, learn new skills and come back better than ever.

That’s when I came across the Women in PR / PR Week Mentor Programme. It was perfect timing. What I needed was to surround myself with brilliant women and parents from across the industry, to show me how I too could balance being a mum and professional to “have it all”.

I’m so grateful to have earned my place on the scheme amongst a group of truly brilliant women and to be paired with Emily Morgan MD Consumer, Red Consultancy. Because, instead of teaching me ways to overcome what I thought would be the challenges of being a working mum, this squad helped me see all the ways it would make me better at my job.

And I came to realise, believing that work and life need to be a balancing act is a binary and outdated view. These women helped me reshape the way I’m building my career and change my view of success. When women support women like this we give each other so much context, in a world that doesn’t always feel like it’s made for us. My daughter is one this week, and I’m three months back into work. And while I don’t have it all figured out, I’ve come to realise a successful career is one of work-life integration. Not a balance between two equally demanding jobs.