How a High-Profile Journalist Blends Professional Ambition & Family Life
News correspondent Simone Boyce shares what it was like to quit her dream job after maternity leave, including how she made the decision to pivot her career to enjoy more family time.
Well before motherhood and the early days of the pandemic, Simone Boyce’s life revolved around breaking news. As an Emmy Award-winning news correspondent for NBC and MSNBC, Boyce was used to hopping on a plane at a moment’s notice in pursuit of the latest story. But when much of the world came screeching to a halt in 2020, Boyce caught a glimpse of how her career might look at a slower pace. During this time, she welcomed two back-to-back babies, and soon after realized she couldn’t return to life as she once knew it.
Below, Boyce opens up about her decision to consciously pivot her career, leaving her dream job at NBC and branching out as an independent journalist while in the thick of family life. If her career journey inspires you, we also offer you expert advice for deciding whether a pause or downshift is right for you.
Weighing Your Options
By the time Boyce found herself seriously considering a career downshift, she felt like she had earned the right to pivot. After years spent securing what she calls her “super high-profile dream job,” Boyce felt confident she would land on her feet, no matter what her next chapter would bring.
“If I quit and entered into a dry spell of work for a while and didn’t have any opportunities, I [thought], ‘That’s a risk, but I’m willing to take that risk,’” she says.
Dr. Anne Welsh, a psychologist and certified leadership coach, encourages mothers to take a similar approach and open a line of dialogue with themselves when weighing whether or not to pause or downshift their careers. The decision can be so fraught, she explains, because mothers are socialized to put everyone else first.
“Sometimes it can help to just start out by naming what everyone else wants–and to label those as others’ wants,” says Dr. Welsh. “Then get quiet and tune into yourself and your voice.”
According to Dr. Welsh, a few questions to consider during this stage include:
What would your ideal motherhood look like with or without paid work?
How will finances change if you don’t have paid work, and how will that impact you, your stress levels, or your family?
What kind of options are available to you with your current employer? Can you cut back hours? Can you take an extended leave?
What are your big picture career goals? How could taking a pause or downshift impact those?
What might it feel like to make room for new goals, or simply allow those goals to move further down the road?
What are you ambitious for—and why?
Meet the Expert
Dr. Anne Welsh: Psychologist and certified leadership coach.
Making the Leap
With two babies under two years old, Boyce and her husband felt the strain of balancing parenting and dual careers. To them, it was obvious: Something had to give.
“I had been covering breaking news for four years with NBC News and MSNBC and been on the front lines of some of the biggest stories of our generation,” she says. “I was really at peace with the decision when it came time to decide not to return [after] maternity leave.”
I’m confident in putting this on pause, because I’m investing in my family, and that’s what is most important to me right now.
That's not to say that it was an easy or fast decision for Boyce, who says her downshift was never a step away entirely, but rather a way for her to recalibrate her relationship to work and ambition. When she finally embraced the idea of leaning into family life, she was met with a sense of clarity. Boyce remembers thinking, “I’m confident in putting this on pause, because I’m investing in my family, and that’s what is most important to me right now.”
Making the decision to pause or downshift your career is never easy. “These are hard decisions to make and you might have to feel your way through it. It might evolve and shift as you grow into your role as a mother, or as your child grows,” notes Dr. Anne Welsh. “[But] there is no time limit here. You can take a pause at any moment for however long works for you and your family.”
Facing Self-Doubt
While Boyce admits there are some aspects of her new work and life setup that can feel uncomfortable, she says that branching out on her own has thrown open the doors of opportunity and spurred her professional growth.
Still, she struggles with occasional self-doubt. Boyce says that she sometimes feels “less valid or legitimate” and wonders, “Will people still want to talk to me even though I don’t have this big legacy corporation behind my name?”
To combat these moments of feeling inadequate, she reminds herself that she’s charting her own course. “I'm the author of my own life. I'm the creative director. I'm the executive producer, and I'm doing my own thing and I'm doing it on my own terms, and it's going great. It's only going to keep getting better,” Boyce says.
