"Just take one step at a time" with Laura Murphy

Career Returners

Laura Murphy is an experienced programme manager in the tech sector, with a background in management consultancy at Accenture. She loved the variety, intensity and challenge of management consultancy but after the birth of her first child, took a career break to enjoy life at home with her new baby. What she initially thought might be a 2-year career break turned into 9 years, as her second child came along, and Laura took the time to support her daughter’s learning needs as well as settle her younger son into school.

During her career break, Laura became involved in volunteering and charity work, which helped to rebuild her professional identity and give her valuable transferable skills for when she was ready to return to her professional career. In 2018, she joined Sky via their Returner Programme as Group Strategy Manager within their data technology and analytics team, then moved into a Programme Manager role, leading a large-scale business transformation. She credits her career break for helping her grow her resilience, patience, empathy and emotional intelligence, all strengths that have helped her to become ‘10 times’ the manager she was, and to empower and lead her new teams more effectively: “Parenthood is a huge part of that and why I'm successful in the job that I do today.” In 2020, Laura won a Timewise Power 50 2020 ‘Power Returner’ award, celebrating her achievement of working flexibly in a senior leadership role.

Hear how Laura found her way back to work, built up her confidence to make that application to Sky and became a fulfilled working parent.

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For advice, support, opportunities, and connection, see our Women Returners website: https://bit.ly/3eAhKQH