The Story of My Career

Hi, I’m Tanya Ces Maneiro.  I’m a Maidenhead mum of one and have my own Career Coaching Company, Vida Coaching.  This is the story of my career so far...

In the past, I never really loved my job, not really.  At times I liked it, maybe even really liked it for a while, but I never got that, ‘This is brilliant, half the time this doesn’t even feel like work’ feeling that I had heard about and thought was some kind of myth.  It has to be a myth, right?

I worked in HR and Training because I really wanted to help people, but something was missing, something didn’t feel ‘right’.  Rather than spending some time and money trying to understand what was wrong with my career, I would go on lovely holidays to ‘forget about work’.

Unfortunately, when I returned one or two weeks later, nothing had changed.  This continued....for ten years.

Then she came along and changed everything

The cycle was broken when I had my daughter, Evie.  I was in the fortunate position of not having to rush back to work and I grabbed the opportunity to be a stay-at-home mum with both hands.

When Evie was about two years old, I started to look at job ads for HR positions, but always made an excuse as to why the role wasn’t right.  I knew why really.  It wasn’t the role, it was the career, and now was the time to do something about it.

Taking the plunge With that in mind, I decided to invest in seeing a Career Coach, someone who would ask me the ‘right’ questions and provide me with impartial support so that I could explore my career alternatives. I found the whole experience extremely beneficial, but my real ‘light bulb’ moment came when I completed an exercise to identify my key career drivers.  I was surprised to discover that autonomy was at the top of the list.  I really hadn’t expected this, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised how important autonomy in my career was to me.  Once I had had that realisation, something in me shifted.  The idea of setting up my own company, an idea which had once seemed so scary and unrealistic, became a real possibility.  After all, if I needed autonomy to be truly happy in my career then surely I could make it work? But what would my company do?  Well, what I had also come to realise was that my previous roles, working in HR and Training, had not allowed me to help people as much as I wanted to. HR is really about achieving the company’s aims through their people whereas I wanted to be helping the individual.  However, something didn’t feel right about completely disregarding the skills and experience I had gained working in HR and Training.  Thus, after some research and discussion, I decided to become a Career Coach and offer a CV and Interviewing Consultancy Service so that I could pass on some of the knowledge I had gained whilst working in HR.

Setting up on my own

So, having discovered what was missing from my old career, and feeling confident that I had made an informed decision about my future, I retrained and gained my coaching qualifications.

Then, in 2015, I set up my Career Coaching business, √ida Coaching.  It’s been a steep learning curve because when you have your own business you have to do everything, which includes marketing, sales, finance and all the admin too. However, I wouldn’t want it any other way.  Every day is different and exciting.  One day I may be coaching and the next attending a networking event.  Recently I was even on Marlow FM 97.5 talking about Career Coaching which was nerve-wracking but so much fun.

I love my job

So, finally, I can say I love my job.  I do feel it’s brilliant and half the time it doesn’t feel like work.  I feel so lucky to have the autonomy I subconsciously craved - a job which allows me to work around looking after my gorgeous girl, Evie.  Then there’s what I do.  As a Career Coach, I help people to discover their true potential:

⦁    I help mums who have had a career break gain the confidence to move back into the world of work ⦁    I help business men and women achieve a better work-life balance and ⦁    I help people reaching the end of their career prepare for the next chapter in their lives

I see these men and women achieve their goals and go on to lead much more fulfilling lives as a result.  To me, there’s nothing more satisfying than that.

Want to find out more?

If you’re intrigued by the idea of career coaching or wondering where to start, why not give me a call or email? Contact me to book a free, no obligation 30 minute consultation where we can talk through what you’d like to do and I can advise you on how I can help.