Program Aimed at Helping Women Return to Finance Jobs Expands to Montreal

By Alexandra Posadzki | The Canadian Press| March 22, 2016

In 2012, after a 12-year career working for global investment banks in Asia and the United States, Meric Koksal did what many women do at some point in their lives: she put her career on pause.

Koksal wanted to spend more time with her two young daughters and pursue her interest in pilates.

After three years of teaching fitness classes and raising her children, Koksal moved to Canada in 2014 with an eye to getting back into finance.

"It's a fairly daunting task to get back into the workforce," she says.

"You may feel like you have lost your network. In my case, I didn't even have any contacts in Canada. People worry about how the current workforce will perceive the gap (in their resume)."

Through her networking efforts, Koksal discovered the Return to Bay Street Program run by advocacy and networking group Women in Capital Markets.

The program, now in its fifth year, has helped 22 women including Koksal return to their careers in finance by setting them up with four-month paid contracts at large Canadian financial institutions. Twenty-one of those women have since landed full-time jobs.

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