There is a certain comfort in following the expected path.
Get the degree. Build the career. Keep moving forward.
Marlis D’Souza did exactly that.
She became an aerospace engineer and built a career she genuinely enjoyed.
Then she left.
Not because something went wrong, but because she wanted to explore another part of herself: art.
For the next four years, Marlis stepped away from engineering and built a creative business.
Our conversation made me think about something we don't talk about enough:
Why are we so afraid of the detour?
The big picture
A career decision can look very different depending on where you are standing.
From the outside, leaving engineering might look like walking away from years of education and experience.
For Marlis, it was a chance to discover what else she was capable of.
She built a business, learned to sell her work, made decisions without the safety net of an established organization, and eventually found her way back to engineering with an entirely different perspective.
None of that time was wasted.
By the numbers
And Marlis is hardly alone in finding value outside a traditional career path.
LinkedIn found that 56% of employees who took a career break said they acquired new skills or improved existing ones, including problem-solving, communication, and budgeting.
Yet career gaps can still carry a stigma. The same LinkedIn research found that one in five hiring managers said they would reject a candidate who had taken one.
That disconnect is worth thinking about.
If people continue learning while they are away, what exactly are we measuring when we see a gap on a résumé?
Between the lines
One of my favorite parts of our conversation was realizing that Marlis never really stopped being an engineer when she became an artist.
She still approached her creative work analytically. She experimented. Solved problems. Refined processes.
And when she returned to engineering, she brought something back with her too.
A different way of thinking.
Maybe our skills don't belong to individual jobs as neatly as we think.
Going against the herd
There is also something harder to quantify in Marlis's story.
The willingness to make a decision other people may not understand.
It is much easier to follow a path when everyone around you recognizes it as progress.
Leaving a good career to pursue art does not necessarily look like progress.
Neither does changing industries, starting over, taking time away, or returning after years outside the workforce.
Sometimes you have to be willing to decide before you know exactly where it will lead.
The bottom line
Marlis is returning to the industry.
But she’s not returning as the same person who left.
And maybe that is the point.
Not every step in a career has to move you up the ladder. Some steps expand who you are.
My full conversation with Marlis D’Souza is now available on AVIATE with Shaesta on all major podcast platforms.
Listen now.
About AVIATE
AVIATE is hosted by me, Shaesta Waiz, the 8th woman in history to fly solo around the world in a single-engine aircraft. Along that journey, I met people everywhere who wanted to talk about the same themes that inspired this show.
AVIATE stands for Acknowledging those in our industry, Vocalizing our experiences, Inclusion, Acting on our passions, Travel, and Evolving.
Now in its ninth season and exclusively sponsored by Atlantic Aviation, AVIATE is heard in over 100 countries.
Until next time,
Shaesta