Six Years on the CV
Nurul explains how she wrote the gap on her CV, what she said in interviews about her children, and the one line that finally got her shortlisted.
Nine Years Away from Engineering
0:00 / 1:05
Sample the first 60 seconds free. Sign up free or log in to hear the whole episode.
Show notes
Nine Years Away from Engineering
Mei Ling Tan left structural engineering in 2014 and returned in 2023 to a Penang firm where her manager was eleven years younger. This conversation is about the specific challenges of going back to a technical profession: the software that changed, the standards that were updated, and the confidence that had to be rebuilt on a live site.
- Three months of evening courses before applying
- Working for someone who was a graduate when you left
- The first site visit and the question she was afraid to ask
- Negotiating a four-day week in a five-day firm
This week's action: find one free course in your field and finish the first module.
Transcript
Welcome back to The Return Desk. I am Nurul Hashim. My guest today is Mei Ling Tan, a structural engineer in Penang who left the profession in 2014 to raise her children and went back in 2023, nine years later. Engineering is not a field that waits for you. The software had changed, the building standards had been updated twice, and her new manager had been a graduate trainee when she left. Mei Ling talks about the evening courses she did before she dared to apply, the four-day week she negotiated in a five-day firm, and the first site visit where she had to ask a question she was embarrassed not to know. Her honesty about that moment is the reason I wanted her on the show. You are listening on Witspeak Podcasts.
Open as text