Femme Lead S04 E14 Sonja Lakner on Taking a Career Break. Reflections and Goals from a Managing Director.
Career Break | Career Development | Digital Innovation | Digital Agency | People Leader | Goals | Reflections | Learnings | Career Progression | Pause |
Our guest today is Sonja Lakner. Originally from Austria, Sonja studied communications and media and after a few years of working in digital agencies in London, she has worked in leadership positions in Sweden for the past 15 years. Sonja is passionate about people and helping them develop their full potential in the work environment and loves to work with people from different cultures.
Her latest position was Managing Director for the Swedish office of the digital consultancy Futurice. She is on a career break since the end of November 2022 and she’s joining us to talk about what it means to take a career break and how can it help your career development.
Taking a career break can be scary for most people, and in this episode, we explore the steps Sonja took to ensure that her career break will benefit her current career setup. Sonja worked for the past 4 years at the same company and is now taking the time to reflect on what is next while sharing how she plans her future career.
Connect with Sonja on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonjalakner/
Episode Timeline:
02:45 Sonja, tell us a bit about your current career gap.
06:20 Weren’t you worried to take a career break?
08:15 What is your career motto?
Share with us more about the importance of taking a break and what are you experiencing now.
10:15 How do you start planning your next career step?
22:25 How to decide that a career break is for you?
27:10 What is the setup of working in a digital agency?
Who inspires you in your professional life?
31:11 Did you change the way you look at work-life balance?
36:30 What inspired you to document your journey on LinkedIn?
39:10 What is one thing you would change if you could about your career?
41:20 Final 5 Fire Questions.