Klara Ganter, Career Strategist, Hungary
Career or family? How many times has this question crossed your mind, leaving you torn between two worlds? If it has, this interview offers a heartfelt perspective on how motherhood and career can not just coexist, but enrich each other.
1. Can you tell us about your career journey and how you ended up doing what you do today?
My career started more than 20 years ago, when I joined a big corporation in Budapest right after university. I worked in HR, and within two years I became Regional Learning & Development Manager responsible for five countries. It was an exciting and fast-paced environment, but also one where I began to feel burned out .
AfterI became a mom myself, my perspective shifted. I realized I didn’t want to return to an environment where parents were shamed for leaving early or prioritizing family. Around the same time, I was studying hospitality and culinary arts, which led me into food blogging, creating workshops, writing a cookbook, and even offering online courses before they were mainstream.
Eventually I opened my own pastry shop, which I loved, it was my dream. But running it meant working seven days a week while raising three small children. I loved the job, but I didn’t feel whole anymore. Family has always been my top priority, so I made the difficult decision to close the shop. Strangely, that was January 2020, just weeks before COVID hit.
Afterward, I went back to corporate life, joining a photo studio. I started as an account manager and eventually became Head of People Operations. I thrived in the chaos and helped restructure the company, but again I felt that this wasn’t the industry where I wanted to stay long-term.
After leaving, I decided to take time to find clarity. Over 40, I felt a strong urge to do something meaningful and aligned with who I had become. Using the same “clarity method” I later developed for moms, I realized that my purpose is to help women navigate the intersection of motherhood and career. That’s how I became a career strategist for moms, something that blends my HR background, my experience rebuilding my own career multiple times, and my deep understanding of what mothers go through.
2. You’ve gone through several major transitions. How did you manage the challenges, self-doubt, and moments when you felt lost?
Every transition came with self-doubt, fear, and many moments of not knowing what to do next. When I left my last corporate job without another one waiting, I felt completely drained. I tried interviewing for leadership roles, but I kept hearing feedback like, “You think too complex,” or “We don’t need someone who can see systems.”
I realized these weren’t the places for me. My skills were valuable, just not for environments that wanted blind execution instead of strategic thought.
What helped me most was doing the clarity work I now teach my clients:
- revisiting my skills,
- revisiting my values,
- understanding my past,
- understanding what lifestyle I wanted,
- and seeing my strengths without minimizing them.
Mothers often advocate fiercely for their kids: with teachers, doctors, schools, but lose that same confidence when it comes to themselves. I had to rebuild that confidence too.
The key was understanding that clarity does not mean jumping off a cliff and quitting your job tomorrow; clarity means creating a strategic path — a realistic one — based on your strengths, values, and vision. Once you know the direction, even tiny steps keep you going and prevent the overwhelm that keeps so many stuck.
3. What advice would you give to moms who feel stuck in their current job but also scared to make a change?
First, talk to someone outside your personal circle — someone who doesn’t know your stories or your past. A coach or mentor can offer a neutral perspective and help you see things you overlook about yourself.
If that feels too big, start alone. Sit down with pen and paper and honestly write:
- What isn’t working in my current life or job?
- What would my ideal day look like — without limits, without worrying about money or children?
- What did I dream about when I was a teenager or young adult, before limits were imposed on me?
Most importantly, ask yourself a lot of “why” questions:
- Why am I in this job?
- Why did I choose this path originally?
- Why do I feel dissatisfied?
- Why do I want something different?
This alone can reveal patterns, desires, and forgotten talents. And remove the pressure, you don’t need a job title. You need clarity about the lifestyle, values, and impact you want. Everything else can be shaped afterward.
4. What do you think mothers fear most when it comes to career changes?
Many moms fear losing their ambition, or that motherhood has erased everything they worked for before. They feel they have to “go back to their old self,” but the truth is, there is no old self. Motherhood reshapes you entirely, in beautiful and powerful ways.
Another common fear is that having children means their career must stagnate, that they can’t reach their full potential, or that they’ll be seen as less committed. These fears are understandable and often reinforced by workplace culture.
But once moms understand their new professional identity, the combination of their experience, their matured mindset, and the incredible skills motherhood adds, things change. They start to see possibilities instead of limitations.
5. What motivates the work you do today with moms, and what impact do you hope to create?
My purpose is to show moms that motherhood and ambition can coexist — just maybe not in the traditional way they imagine. With the right strategy, clarity, and self-understanding, women can build careers that reflect their values and allow them to be present for their families.
I want moms to feel empowered, not trapped; strategic, not overwhelmed; whole, not split into “mother vs. career woman.”
When a woman realizes who she really is now, after motherhood, and understands how many doors she can open with that identity, her entire life changes.
That is the transformation I help moms to create.
By Bianca Bonta (Ruta)
