For Those Returning to Work

We can help you find fulfilling work while knowing that your priorities are with your family

You have been home with the kids for over a decade. Or some other life circumstance has kept you out of the workforce for a few years. In any event, you worry that you will no longer be employable. Nonetheless, you have chosen to head back to work for either financial or psychological reasons.

Your resume is out of date. You feel helplessly behind the times. You don’t know the latest computer programs. You feel intimidated when you even think about applying for a job. “Who will hire me?”

You are facing a challenge. But there are ways to succeed. We know because we have helped hundreds of people in similar situations.

The first thing that we can do is provide some hope. You likely have more skills than you think. You probably don’t realize that you have the general abilities that many employers seek.

We can help you figure out how to position yourself effectively. We can help you reenter the work world.

How? Consider the following: due to The Great Recession and other work world changing paradigms, the straight-line, no gaps on the resume, candidate does not exist in anywhere near the percentages it once did. Indeed, the majority of those age 35 and above have had at least one event that created a work disruption, often of significant length.

Why does The Great Recession work in your advantage? Two reasons: (1) You are likely overestimating your competition. You might think that “everyone” has been working continually while you were out of the work force. This is no longer true. (2) The person that reviews your resume and/or interviews you is likely to be more sympathetic to you because either she has been in the same situation and/or she knows some good friend and good people in the same situation.

We recently engaged in a successful career counseling case with a “return to work outside the house” housewife from Madison, Connecticut. Having stayed home for 17 years to raise her three children, she was both lost regarding what she wanted to do and intimidated by all that she thought she could not do. We guided her through a process that helped explain her skill set, some based on pre-motherhood, some based on volunteer work, and some based on what she did well, even though she had not been paid to develop such skills. We helped her create a resume, network, and apply to a variety of jobs. Some fit. Some did not. But, all she needed was one job. And, she found it, an office administrator job at a small but growing company run by young entrepreneurs in New Haven, one of whom said: “we need a mom around here to take care of us!”