From TV Production to Rail Innovation with Charlotte Hills

Career Returners

Charlotte’s first career was in TV production, initially working as a script supervisor and then as a Director working on well-known programmes such as Big Brother and Hell's Kitchen.

She took a career break of 6 years to raise her twin daughters and during this time she also relocated to Switzerland with her family. Unable to work there, she was the main carer for her daughters.

After returning to the UK, Charlotte began to look for work but returning to her old freelance TV career was not easy or conducive to raising a young family. This led Charlotte to think more creatively about what she would return to and to be open to the different possibilities and career paths ahead that would enable her to make a fresh start.

She came across an advert for a Returner Programme at Tideway and applied for the role of ‘Innovation Co-Ordinator’. Charlotte claims now that she had no idea what this role meant but because they weren’t looking for any specific technical experience, but more for transferable skills, she felt bold enough to apply and was successful!

In our conversation we chat about transferable skills, and their key role in helping her build a successful new career in engineering. As ‘Head of Innovation’ now at HS2, Charlotte talks to how her ability to build a narrative and bring people on board with her, skills all honed in her TV career, have been key to her success.

Hear how Charlotte navigated her career change from TV to high speed rail and found herself a rewarding and fulfilling career which offers financial security and stability.

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

For more details about the experts and organisations inspiring and connecting people to make changes to their careers, take a look at the Careers can change campaign at careerscanchange.co.uk . A big thank you to Phoenix Insights for sponsoring this episode of the podcast and their support for the Careers can change campaign.