Careering into Motherhood

Careering into Motherhood provides a space where working mothers support one another. The online community has more than 10,000 members, primarily connected through a Facebook group, but also through Instagram and LinkedIn.

The business began three years ago as a way to connect working mothers. At the time, founder Jane Johnson was running a recruitment business that helped women find flexible roles with employers. “I was inundated with candidates and rather than turning them away when I couldn’t place them, I set up the Careering into Motherhood Facebook group where people could post job openings and ask for advice.”

Jane, 48, added a career coaching element to Careering into Motherhood in 2020. “During lockdown, the same questions often came up so we started offering online group coaching sessions in the evenings, once the kids were in bed,” she says.

The sessions, which covered CV writing and career planning, proved popular and led Jane to find career coaches the business could partner with. Through the Careering into Motherhood website, mothers can find free coaching resources and book paid one-to-one sessions with a partner coach, which can be online or in person. Careering into Motherhood is a Starling business customer.

Bringing transparency to the world of coaching

“We want to create an open marketplace for coaching,” says Jane. “There are so many brilliant coaches out there but the career coaching industry as a whole is totally unregulated and really lacking in transparency. There is also a lack of clarity on fee structure and what clients should be paying. You won’t really know until you have a call with a coach.”

Careering into Motherhood tackles these issues by listing the experience and qualifications of all coaches and outlining fees up front. “Career coaching has a certain price point and is not accessible to all, but coaches offer a lot of free resources, so we’re working with them to build a central library of career advice and expertise for working mothers,” she says.

“We charge a subscription fee for the coaches to be on the platform. In return, we offer them lots of opportunities to raise their profile and share the free content they’re creating with our audience. Coaching fees for one-to-one sessions go directly to the coach - we don’t charge a commission.”

There are more than 50 partner coaches listed on the online platform, including a coach that specialises in autism and a coach that supports fellow Muslim mothers in their careers. “We’re committed to being as diverse as motherhood itself.”

Banking with Starling

Careering into Motherhood became a Starling business customer in 2020. “I knew about Anne Boden during my time in banking and really admired what she had done in setting up Starling,” says Jane.

“I originally called a high street bank and was on the phone for 20 mins. During that time, I kept thinking, ‘This is ridiculous, they do nothing that aligns with our values.’ So I put the phone down and Googled ‘Starling’. The whole thing was so simple - the application was all done via the app, including uploading my business plan and business forecast,” she says.

“Every experience I’ve had so far has been so easy. One client was paying in euros and I thought it would be really difficult to get hold of someone for the IBAN - I spoke to a real person, not a bot, and within a few minutes, we had a solution [the number can be accessed in the app].”