Getting Back to Work after Unemployment | Adelaide Di Maio

FDM consultant Adelaide Di Maio shares her experience of how she restarted her career in tech after taking a break from work.

The technology industry has always inspired me as the innovative work makes day-to-day tasks interesting and exciting. When searching for a job, I was pleased to learn that there is an increase in the number of females that choose to take on a career in tech, which gave me the confidence to apply to the programme.

I decided to take a career break as my family and I relocated from Italy to the UK. I had to move house (twice!) and help my children settle into their new school. On top of this, I was working to obtain a master’s degree in Business Systems Analysis and Design. It was certainly a stressful time in my life, but I can now reflect back and be proud of the transferrable skills I acquired during my break.

After training at the FDM academy, I was placed at a global investment bank where I progressed into two roles. Initially I worked as Business Analyst on a Risk and Finance alignment project. My responsibilities within the team were to review and document existing business processes and data manipulation, analyse misaligned data and contribute to the automation of the monthly reconciliation process using SQL.

On my second placement I worked on a project in the Recovery and Resolution planning area of the bank. Working alongside the Project Manager, I documented the current process of regulatory reporting and analysed data quality issues. Both placements were a real test of communication and stakeholder management skills as I was liaising with senior stakeholders from various business functions across the globe.

A piece of advice that I would give to anyone looking to return to work after a career break is to believe in yourself, because your background and wider experience are valuable.

FDM will support you every step of the way. Find out more about our Getting Back to Business programme.