Getting Back Into Work After a Career Break

Our modern society has far higher levels of equality between men and women than it has ever had before, which is a good thing. However, when it comes to child rearing, it’s still predominantly women who take the primary role. It’s often a straightforward economic necessity – if the man earns more, it makes financial sense for him to keep working and his wife to care for the children. It is said, with great wisdom, that raising children is the most important job you’ll ever do, and indeed nurturing the next generation is a crucial role to undertake. Regardless of where you stand personally on women being the primary carers for young families, the fact is that many women do find they have been away from the world of employment for years at a time, and it can be a daunting prospect to get back onto the career ladder.

Revisiting your resume

The first task when starting to look at getting back to a job outside the home, is to review your resume, update it as appropriate, and add any new skills or experience that could be relevant for prospective employers. New skills needn’t have been formally accredited to be worth adding to your resume; it can be anything you’ve mastered since you were last employed, as long as it demonstrates an attribute that will add value. Check on the latest recommendations for resume design and content, as these principles are not set in stone and may have changed over the last few years.

Building up a new career

If you’re fortunate, and can find an employer who is happy to take you on despite your lack of recent experience, you could step back into a similar role to the one you left. However, it’s more likely that you will have to start at a lower level than you were on previously. One smart strategy is to apply to businesses that have good career prospects. For example, if you check out the Dollargeneral com careers pages, you’ll see they have a range of jobs from entry level, through to junior, middle and senior management. You could start at the level you were best suited to, and work your way up in a relatively short time.

Resuming your previous career

If you were in a professional role when you went on your career break, it’s likely to be a subject you have a personal interest in. Therefore, you may well have kept up to date with industry news and developments as part of your continuing professional development. If you’ve kept abreast of what’s been happening, you will find it much easier to resume your career at, or very close to, the level you used to be. For some roles you might need to take various courses to refresh your skills, or to revalidate your qualifications. You can check what you need to do to prepare for work via your professional body, who will be only too happy to help you.

Even if your break has been longer than a few years, if you had the knowledge and skills before you will soon pick them up again, so don’t be afraid of this new chapter in your working life.