When Jarena was made redundant in July, after many years of working, she knew she wanted to get back into work. She had plenty of experience in accounts and accounts payable and knew that was the area she wanted to stay in, but it had been more than six years since she had updated her CV.
A friend told her about Grow and, towards the end of July, she came along and met Grow Coach Sheeja in Hillingdon.
Jarena and Sheeja spent several hours going through her CV together, looking at her experience and making some changes to how it was presented.
“It was very useful. She did tweak a few little bits which I didn’t even think about to do myself.”
There was some practical help too. Sheeja showed Jarena how to save her CV to a USB stick and how to access and send it from her phone, as well as helping her update her profile on CV-Library.
Jarena also joined a couple of Grow’s online sessions with Mercedes. One was about knowing your strengths, which helped her think about how she could talk about her experience and strengths if she was asked about them at interview.
“I found them very helpful and useful actually.”
It wasn’t long before Jarena started getting interviews. The first couple didn’t lead to a job, but she kept going. Then another interview came along.
“It was a conversation more than a formal interview and I felt prepared and confident. A couple of days later I was offered the job.”
Jarena is now back working in accounts for a pharmacy business. The role is part-time and only around a 20-minute drive from home, which is exactly what she was looking for.
Having worked for more than 40 years, Jarena had decided that this time she wanted to take a bit of a step back and work fewer hours. She’s enjoying being able to finish earlier and have the rest of the afternoon to herself.
When we caught up with her, she had only been in the job for a week, but things were already going well. The colleague training her had been telling her (and other people) how quickly she was picking everything up.
Jarena feels the support she received with her CV played a part in helping her get there.
“Because I had help with the CV, I think that probably did help me get noticed.”
“I found Grow very helpful and useful, I think it’s a great thing for women to be able to get this kind of support.”
Jarena is enjoying being back doing the kind of work she knows and with hours that work better for her now. Congratulations on the new job, Jarena and we hope it continues to go really well!