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Best advice I ever got was that no time is the ideal time, so it’s best to just try when you decide you want to start a family. I’m now at month 9 of trying and am glad I took the advice. Can’t plan around a promotion/etc when you can’t fully control how long it will take to get pregnant!
Got the same advice. I’ve seen it impact timing. Toughest with partner since while it officially shouldn’t building a platform is tough if you take off extended time. Need right group of supporters
I’ll echo what other said: the perfect time is when it happens, and when works for you. I had my first kid as a C1, took a year off, worked for a few months, got pregnant, had my second kid as a C2, got promoted the same month as I went on mat leave. Came back as a new project leader. When I look back, it was very tough, but I would not have it any other way, as the kids are now much older and while it never gets *easy*, it is totally manageable. One clear non negotiable with the firm was the non-travel, and there was a very high degree of flexibility on that front for a long time. When the equation stopped working for me, I changed jobs. One other consideration was to see my peers (male and female) speed past me. With females, everything equalized as they started having kids. With men, it didn’t, and of course it stung as the ones who were my peers (or juniors on my cases) made Partner ahead of me or my female peers, but then it is what it is and I have two reasonably well adjusted humans to show for it.
Agree with impossible to time. I’ve been trying for over 1.5 years, failed IUI and IVF and am coming up on the promotion that I was hoping to have a baby shortly after. Original plan was get promoted and then go on Maternity leave. So if you’re ready personally I would go for it. Honestly, more of us need to make the job work for us sometimes since we work so much for the job.
My colleague was 8 months pregnant when she got promoted to manager. Legally it cant impact your promotion eligibility either.
Agree that no time is ever a ‘good’ time. Unclear for me if it impacted my promotion... I am back from mat leave but passed on a few travel projects and that is resulting in some beach time. So clearly it could impact my timeline but indirectly by changing my priorities. In the end having a family is more important to me and if this becomes a serious issue than time to start looking around
Also curious about this!
Also curious!
^^ I’ve definitely heard that as well. And of course, these things can’t always be planned :) I guess a follow up question would be—if you took the advice to just try when you’re ready (or have seen others do that), did you find promotion eligibility impacted?
I tried to plan it and then found out I had PCOS and all the plans went to shit. Turns out, the firm was surprisingly flexible and I’ve been pretty happy since coming back from mat leave 6 months ago. I do think it’ll slow down my career progression a bit but since having a baby, my priorities have shifted a bit and I find I think more long term now so the set-back doesn’t bother me as much as it would have in my 20’s
Agree with what is said above (I have 2 kiddos - 4.5 and almost 7). My career progression has slowed, but that is by choice. After going back, I decided traveling was not a fit for me, but they still wanted my PM skills, so I am in a role that requires very minimal travel. If I were in the field, leading projects, I would be further along than I am now, and probably a partner or very close, but thinking of all the things I would have missed, I don't regret it. I am now starting to think about next steps and what I am willing to sacrifice to kickstart my career again. I feel like my company has been extremely flexible with me, but I know a lot of women leave after having babies, so not sure if the flexibility is felt by others. I set myself up in a good place prior to having kids so that I was we respected and had a strong skillset that could be used across the organization.
I'm trying to have my first kid right after promotion. And the idea to have a next one right after next promotion.
I think generally people try to plan for a baby right after a promotion. I’m “planning” for a second after my next promotion but I don’t have much control over when I get pregnant or when I get promoted so planning isn’t really that practical. I guess it’s less planning, more hoping.
I was out on maternity leave with my first when my promotion came through. I think busting my ass while visibly pregnant helped my case. I was lucky enough to have very supportive PPEDs and SMs through the process. Took my full maternity leave and even was offered internal work for the last few weeks and upon initial return to work. At the manager level it’s also been much easier to lay out what I need from a scheduling/flexibility perspective. Have to say it’s been a pretty good experience this far.
Heard no time is good time.
But just from looking at drop-off cliffs, it seems EM is an especially difficult time bc you have high responsibility, low flexibility, and good CST homes are competitive. Think APs can at least lean on EMs and have more flexibility to control their own travel or which hours they plug-in on the ground.