Career Accelerator: from the women who nearly didn't come

Parineeta Arora and Huda Al-Doujaily are both research technical staff at the Institute of Prion Diseases at UCL. But more than that, they’re friends. They’re also both women in their fifties, with experience of leaving their home country during their early careers.

Despite their commonalities, these two had a very different opinion about attending our latest programme at UCL. Huda wanted to do it, and Parineeta did not.

Journalist Megan Brownrigg followed the women’s story and experiences from day 1 of the programme, to their second Action Learning Set (ALS), a month later.

Interviews: Day 1 of the Career Accelerator course

1. Tell me a bit about yourself and how your career started?

Parineeta: I graduated as a Medical Microbiologist and Molecular Virologist in the USA and Canada, and then returned home to Nairobi, Kenya. With Kenya being a lower middle income country, there weren't very many opportunities for DNA technology and that kind of research based work. There weren't even any institutions at the time. I got around this by finding work with an NGO, but because I was hired as a local person, I didn’t get paid very much compared to expats who were getting big paychecks from the same organisation. Because I was Kenyan, I got treated as a Kenyan - and was just given pocket money. So I ventured into a private business to run a diagnostic laboratory with a more specific and niche clientele, but had to stop my research.

2. How did it feel having this qualification you’d worked hard for, and not being able to use it or even be fairly paid in your home country?

Parineeta: It forces you to make a choice about whether you want to stay at home. I’ve permanently had to fly away. I was very concerned about leaving my parents but my dad, who had sacrificed everything to make my education possible, encouraged my independence. Kenya was also going through a triple recession and my husband and I were starting a family So I came to the UK to seek better opportunities.

3. All these years later, after having to fight so hard to do what you’re trained to do, does being in a room like this at UCL with other women feel good?

Parineeta: In honesty, I almost didn’t come today. I was very skeptical. I didn't want to talk about myself, or my career. I didn’t even want to think about it to be honest, because I've just been in a certain phase of life for so long, it becomes your norm. Juggling full-time work, being a wife, mum of two and now carer for my ailing mother in law. How can I talk about my future when I don’t know what it is myself? But I’m very glad I did come. Listening to people here is making me realise that we’re not so different. We’re all nodding at the same stories around the table, because each and every woman in this room can relate to each other.

 Huda: I finished my university studies in Iraq, having gone through a nine-year war. At the time, I was thinking “okay, it’s over, life will begin again”. But another war broke out, and it went on, and it became very evident that things weren’t changing. I had zero career prospects, because our mentality had to be one of day-by-day survival. So the first opportunity that I had to leave the country, I did. As Parineeta said, you have to make a choice when you’re in that position.

4. How difficult a choice was it to make at the time?

Huda; A very difficult one. Because just like any other 25-year-old girl, I was asking my family what the right choice was. And my mother would say to me: “it’s your life, you have to make that choice.” Which made me crumble, until I finally acted. And I don’t regret leaving. I got a good job in the UK with a good manager and an inspiring team.

5. Did I hear you say earlier that, amongst all this, you were balancing having a family?

Huda: Yes, I got married and I started a family. Childcare expenses at the time, as well as wanting to enjoy being a mum, meant that it made the most sense to stay at home for a year. Then I had a second child and continued to work part-time. I believed I was getting the best of both worlds - having time to spend with my young family and still satisfying my curiosity and research interests, and earning my own way. It was all very important to me, if not an easy road.

6. All these years later, how are you feeling in this room of women at WHEN’s UCL Career Accelerator?

Huda: There’s a lot of inspiration in this room. A lot of passion. All the attendees here want to do better. I like that.

7. You are existing friends and colleagues, who share a lot of commonalities. How is it sharing the experience of the Career Accelerator together?

Parineeta: This is a special excuse for us to just step away and think about ourselves for a change. And I don’t ever do that. It’s everybody and everything else comes first, and I put myself on the back burner.

Huda: I feel like I’ve won with someone I really care about. It’s necessary to take time away from work and, like I told Parineeta, to think about how you’d feel if you didn’t do these things.

Parineeta: Yes, I didn’t want to come today. And she said “no, just do it. Don’t be so negative.” And I had to think, if not now, when?

Interviews: Day 2 of the Career Accelerator programme

I catch the women at lunchtime the next day, and they give me their honest review of the past 24 hours.

1. How’s day 2 feeling for you both?

Huda: If you’re asking whether day 2 has been easier than day one, the answer is no. It’s not easier at all!

Parineeta: I think it's information overload. But I'm still very, very happy that I've done this programme. It’s very intense and I have a lot to do for myself. But I think that’s what it’s all about, self recognition of what we need to do to better ourselves. And that kind of leaves you a bit intimidated and scared. But it also gives you a feel good factor.

Huda: One of the facilitators asked me if I’ve gained the correct knowledge during these two days and I’m still learning what this needs to be, but what I have gained is drive. If these two days don’t give me the drive I need, nothing will.

2. What other emotions are at play since yesterday?

Huda: I approached the course very calmly because I didn’t know what to expect. But now I have adrenaline rushing through me! My message to other women is to make sure they find the time to get away from the daily grind to do this kind of reflection regularly.

Parineeta: I came into this very differently to Huda. I came in as a nervous wreck. I did not want to come, I didn’t want to do the preparatory work. I opened that booklet a few times and shut it again and thought I was going to cry. But now I feel like I can absolutely do this. I’ve got a mountain to climb. And I’ve got to get moving!

3. What’s the first stepping stone you’re going to move towards?

Parineeta: For me it’s definitely networking that is lacking in my life. I’m going to start putting out feelers and explore much more, even within UCL.

4. If I asked you how you feel today, as women in your fifties, compared to the twenty-something version of yourselves who left your home countries to find work…what would you say?

Huda: I left home as a method of survival. But life is a lot more than survival. Now I’m seeking quality.

Interviews: Action Learning Sets

A month after the Career Accelerator at UCL, Parineeta and Huda attended their second WHEN Action Learning Set. The confidential session, led by a WHEN coach, offers a platform for a small group of women from the same cohort to talk through any professional issues. It also gives space for them to reflect on their progress. Here are just some of Parineeta and Huda’s milestones since attending the initial two day programme:

• Huda has been getting involved in public engagement and volunteering, including a speaking gig which she’d “not have dared to put [her] hand up for a few months ago”!

• Parineeta updated her CV for the first time in 25 years, increased her online presence, as well as celebrating an amazing 20 years at the Medical Research Council, thought about her mid and long-term goals and was nominated for a Technician of the Year Award!

• Both women have been part of a project to redesign UCL’s PDR process for technical staff

1. If you could say something to the day 1 version of you, what would it be?

Parineeta: I didn’t want to do this accelerator, but I’m so glad I did. It’s been like coming out of a charging station. I can see a lot out there that I never even dared to think about before. This course forces you to look at yourself. We can spend our whole lives just doing what we need to do, being in a rat race and then working hard at our home lives too. Pumping the brakes has forced me to think about things that I’ve spent a lifetime brushing underneath the carpet. About where I’m going and what I’d actually like to do. I feel empowered and I can recognise I’ve got this, I just need to make myself a priority.

Huda: I feel I have received a dose of courage. A dose of motivation. And it’s ok to start with small steps. Small is good. I’m so glad I did the course because I found hope in it.

Parineeta: Before we were hidden. Now we’re putting ourselves out in the world.