“Don’t compromise your dream job” with Aliaa Hajjeah

Aliaa Hajjeah is a qualified Civil Engineer who built a successful career in construction before her career break. Originally from Iraq, Aliaa lived and worked in Iraq under the backdrop of war, an experience she speaks of movingly and one which helped build her resilience and ultimately her positive outlook on life. After the war, she moved to London for work, and met her husband. Together they moved to Dubai with his work, and Aliaa then took a 10 year career break to raise their 3 girls. On moving back to the UK, Aliaa looked to return to her professional career but encountered many obstacles and rejections along the way. In our conversation, Aliaa talks about how in the midst of all the rejections she considered settling for lower skilled roles, but found the inner strength to keep driving forward for the right role, “Surround yourself with the right people…who really care for you, they will remind you you’ve done this before, you lived in a war …all of these things …were like a wakeup…I shouldn’t give up…it’s not so hard”.Hear how Aliaa rebuilt her confidence and found the strength to stay focussed on finding her perfect role as Senior Project Controls Engineer with Skanska Costain STRABAG Joint Venture working on behalf of HS2.Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3v9INYzFollow for free on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/30rZZL6For advice, support, opportunities, and connection, see our Women Returners website: https://bit.ly/3eAhKQH

Om Podcasten

Is it possible to return to a fulfilling, challenging, successful career after a long career break? After listening to these stories we want your answer to be a resounding yes! On our Career Returners podcast, you’ll hear from a diverse range of people who are successfully back at work after taking long career breaks for childcare, eldercare, health or other reasons. They’re sharing the ups-and-downs of their return-to-work journeys – the challenges, the rewards and the learnings. After each story, we’ll chat over some of the key themes that emerged and share some of our top return to work tips. The Career Returners podcast is brought to you by Career Returners, the return to work specialists. We work with employers and career returners to enable professionals to return to satisfying and fulfilling work after career breaks of 2, 5 or 15+ years. Over the years we’ve coached thousands of career returners, and we’re excited now to share some of their inspirational stories with you. After listening to this episode, do head along to careerreturners.com where you’ll find lots of advice, over 100 success stories, and a range of return to work opportunities for people on career break wanting to get back to work. While you're there, do sign up to our free Network and also our Facebook group for extra support and connection. Website: careerreturners.com Facebook: facebook.com/careerreturnersnetwork/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/careerreturners/ X: https://x.com/careerreturners