“You don’t have to worry about your professional development while on paternity leave – taking care of babies gives you professional development AND real life leadership skills” – Meet Saad Nisar, Head of department at NIRAS
Saad Nisar is Head of the Quality & Compliance department in NIRAS’s life science business, and in the past year, he has taken on new leadership challenges and now heads a team of 15 employees, but he’s also just returned from a six-month paternity leave. And as Saad admits, it hasn’t necessarily been an easy journey, but one which has made him a better father as well as a better leader.
“A pack of aspirin and a new career please”
After graduating from the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Copenhagen University, in 2016, Saad’s first job was in a pharmacy, selling medical products to consumers and providing advice on content and use.
One day, one of his customers was a manager from AlfaNordic (now part of NIRAS), and the two got talking about career paths, job opportunities and what it was like working as a consultant in the pharmaceutical sector. This encounter sparked what would turn out to be both a major career change as well as an accelerator for Saad’s professional journey.
If at first you don’t succeed….
But it wasn’t until seven months later that Saad got traction in his pursuit of a career as a consultant.
“I didn’t have enough experience to apply directly, so I decided to apply via AlfaNordic’s graduate programme, but was rejected . I really wanted to pursue this career path, though, so I simply decided to keep trying until I succeeded. People who know me, know that I have one specific defining qualitiy: I never give up if it’s something I really want to do.
So I decided that the best way to go was to let AlfaNordic know that no matter what it would take, I had to work for them.”
Persistency paid off. One day, his contact called and offered him a two-month contract, not as a permanent employee though but as a freelancer. Saad seized the opportunity and from there, the tasks rolled in steadily, and finally, the fixed contract as a consultant became a reality. In the span of a few years, Saad progressed from Junior Consultant, to Consultant Manager, then Team Leader, and latest Head of Department for what is now NIRAS.
Simultaneously, life happened – literally. Saad and his wife had started building a family, and now had one baby girl and another on the way.
“I had to think hard about what I wanted this time of my life to look like. What do you do when you’re on a career track but life calls for you to take time out? I have a clear ambition to progress my career, but I’m also very clear on wanting to spend as much time with my children as possible. And luckily for me, I got a chance to get the best of both worlds.“
“I had to think hard about what I wanted this time of my life to look like. What do you do when you’re on a career track but life calls for you to take time out?
I have a clear ambition to progress my career, but I’m also very clear on wanting to spend as much time with my children as possible. And luckily for me, I got a chance to get the best of both worlds.“
A crash course in cooking and modern fatherhood
Not long ago, the typical thing for a new father to do would have been to take the standard 14 days off after the baby is born and then go back to work. However, with the new regulations for parental leave, there is now an opportunity for fathers – as well as a financial incentive for couples – to take a longer leave.
“We were set to welcome our second child right as the new regulations took force. I’ve always wanted to be more present with my children and play a big role in their everyday life, so my wife and I agreed that I would take a significant amount of the leave, and we planned it so that there would be an overlap, which was designed primarily for me to learn how to cook. I’ve always had an ambition to be able to cook the traditional dishes of my family - and you need some real training for that, other than just being able to cook pasta badly”.
A humbling experience
The kitchen training was scheduled for when the family returned from travelling in the first part of the joint leave, but as fate would have it, Saad’s wife got a job offer which prompted her to cut her part of the joint leave short, leaving Saad to fend for himself in the kitchen.
“We decided as a family that when opportunity comes knocking, you should answer, so my wife took the job and I was faced with the challenge of juggling between babysitting and cooking. Thank god for TikTok, YouTube and my mom, because somehow, I managed to learn the basics of both baby food and the more traditional family dishes.”
Being at home with a baby on the arm and a toddler running around was a new role for Saad, and having the roles of the relationship being somehow reversed during that time posed certain challenges but also provided a new level of insight.
“I’m not going to pretend that it wasn’t challenging. In a relationship, whether or not you’d like to admit it, you have certain roles that you consciously or unconsciously assign to yourself and each other. And when those roles change, you are forced to change as well. In my case, that meant a new perspective on fatherhood as well as motherhood.
I found it extremely fulfilling getting this time with my children. I feel so much closer to both of them as a direct result of me spending more time with them, and as parents and partners, we’re much more equal in our understanding of their needs and how to respond to them.
It’s been a humbling experience. In addition, it is important to mention that being able to pull the handbrake from one's work has been positive, as it has given ample opportunity for reflection on one's working life. I can clearly say that I feel in a much better place compared to before the paternity leave".
Just do it!
When talking about putting the career on hold to take a longer paternity leave, Saad is very clear on what he would recommend to others.
“Do it. It will be the best investment you’ve ever made. And try to quash any doubts you might have about whether you’re “allowed” to do it, if it will affect your career, if you will lose momentum – because you just get too much in return. Being a leader, I can safely say that you don’t have to worry about your professional development while on paternity leave – taking care of babies develops you as a person and gives you real life leadership skills! And you can use those skills when you return to work. In my case, I actually ended up returning to an even bigger role than when I left, with more people joining my department as I was promoted to Head of Quality & Compliance, and officially took over our Quality Assurance, Regulatory Affairs and Pharmacovigilance department, so any concerns I had about my career have been put to shame in a big way.
It does require a flexible employer though, one who understands the value of balancing life and work, and my advice would definitely be to align expectations with your manager and make a plan for how much you should communicate with your workplace during your leave. I chose to have catch up calls with my manager every few months, which gave me the headspace to focus on the task at hand and then return to work with the focus required here.”
“Do it. It will be the best investment you’ve ever made. And try to quash any doubts you might have about whether you’re “allowed” to do it, if it will affect your career, if you will lose momentum – because you just get too much in return. Being a leader, I can safely say that you don’t have to worry about your professional development while on paternity leave – taking care of babies develops you as a person and gives you real life leadership skills! And you can use those skills when you return to work".
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