My challenge
I am a 29-year-old young woman with two children (two boys) aged 4 and 8 years old. At that time, when I found out that I was pregnant with my first child, I was studying Pharmacy at the University of Seville. The news was not very well received in my family, as I was very young and had a promising academic career. I continued studying for a while, but when my body did not allow it, I had to leave my studies and return to Granada to spend my pregnancy at my parents’ home. I come from a humble family, hard-working parents who have always struggled to raise their children.
my main challenges
• Children while in education
• Disagreement with family
• Balance between childcare and working hours
• Discrimination due to lacking competences
my path
As I could not finish my studies, while taking care of my children, I tried to finish my university studies, but it required a lot of time and money. I opted for a vocational training in the laboratory and managed to finish it. I did my internship in a laboratory in the city of Granada, thanks to the fact that my family was able to look after the children while I was learning in person. My tutor in the laboratory was very satisfied with my predisposition and work, but they couldn’t hire me because they weren’t looking for anyone at that time.
So I started looking for work in other laboratories in Granada. I am a single mother and I have to take care of my children, so I was looking for a part-time job to support them and to cover our expenses.
Unfortunately, there are not many job offers in Granada and all the labs I submitted my CV to either said they didn’t need anyone at the moment or didn’t give me an answer. It is also a big challenge to look for a job with a profile like mine because companies are not usually interested in me, so I have experienced first-hand the job discrimination. Despite this, I have always accepted any kind of job (without being registered with the social security, a very common practice in my city), in order to be able to earn some money to support my family.
One day, talking to a friend I met during my internship in the lab, he told me that where he worked, they needed a person to work for a few hours on weekends. I went for the job interview, and they hired me. It was very few hours, but it was better than nothing. I worked hard and my goal was to work excellently so that I could extend my position in the company, as I had studied for it.
After two months of work, my boss told me that they really liked the work I was doing and offered me a part-time contract from Monday to Friday mornings.
My success
I now have a permanent part-time job. So I can spend time with my children and earn money to give them the life they deserve.
This whole experience has shown me that you have to fight to achieve your goals. That things are not easy and that you should never give up. It is often better to start at the bottom and with effort and perseverance work your way up and achieve your goals. This process cost me a lot because I had to leave my children with my parents to go to work, but I did everything I could to have a better future for the three of us together. The support of my family has helped me in part to get this job, but I have also had to make many sacrifices and find the strength to endure a stressful pace of life.