Redundancy to AI leadership: Rob Riley’s journey back to work at 60

Rob Riley had started his career as a telephone representative for a global bank. Over the next 31 years his career saw him taking up multiple managerial position across the company, finally moving into a digital business analyst role. When the company moved their BA function overseas, Rob was made redundant and found himself on the job market at the age of 58. He’s now working for a large public sector client, leading the rollout and adoption of Copilot across the organisation.

How was the journey from redundancy to leading a government-wide ‘AI for All’ initiative as a senior professional? Rob shares his story –

“A lot of people are scared by what they don’t know, but if you treat everything as a learning opportunity and are eager to learn, you can learn a lot!”

Ageism bias

Looking for a job for the first time in over three decades is a daunting prospect and Rob, like many others in his age group, felt that his age was a barrier to finding a new role. However, he found that his CV and interview skills also needed a refresh after all those years – something that FDM was able to help with.

New beginnings

He joined the FDM Returners Programme, initially cautious about what to expect, but soon fit in. The training although intense was the right pace and he found himself enjoying it. He also successfully secured an assignment as a BA in the Copilot team for a large public sector client.

Learning curve

Since starting his assignment, Rob has become a subject matter expert in Copilot and is currently conducting a mini presentation series educating over 9000 civil servants on how to get the most out of the free version. He’s also co-leading a Copilot Agents discovery, to identify use cases for Agents and assess if Copilot could help improve workflows.

For example, it currently takes someone a few days to manually check over large volumes of documents on their SharePoint for a specific theme – Copilot can do this in moments.

Evolving roles

Rob was initially creating Learn Hub pages on Copilot and Windows 11, researching Microsoft 365 product details. His role soon evolved to helping with the adoption of Copilot Chat and moving to the Copilot Team.

He now works with senior stakeholders across the organisation, providing demos of Copilot Agents and sharing insights and learnings on cross-government calls.

Positive impact  

Rob’s calm approach, clear communication style and stakeholder management skills have been noticed and commended by the organisation and led to a significant jump in their Copilot use, user confidence and wider adoption.

A second chance with FDM

Rob believes the FDM Returners Programme provided him a great opportunity to get back to work “with some fantastic training to make me more relevant in the BA space”.

Rob’s story is inspiring to many who find themselves in a similar situation. Older professionals in particular often struggle to return to work after a career break or redundancy. Rob’s work on such a largescale AI transformation project challenges common biases around ageism and the potential for older professionals in sectors like tech.

Research shows that professionals aged 50 and over make up one third of the UK workforce and are the fastest growing generation in employment. At FDM, we have always believed in the power of creating multigenerational teams. It’s by leveraging the diverse skills and perspectives of different age groups that future-focused organisations can achieve the most innovative and successful outcomes for their business.

Are you a senior professional looking for their new role?

Discover how the FDM Returners Programme can help you get back to work.