Go Ask Mom

Ready to re-enter the workforce? Start with these tips

If you're looking for that first job after being out of the workforce for a period of time, you are not a typical job-seeker. Therefore, you should not be conducting a typical job search process.

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By
Katie Dunn
, Back to Business Women's Conference
RALEIGH, N.C. — If you’re looking for that first job after being out of the workforce for a period of time, you are not a typical job-seeker. Therefore, you should not be conducting a typical job search process that relies mostly on applying to jobs. As an outside-the-box hire, you’ll need to focus primarily on connecting with people where you’ll have the chance to explain your unique value proposition. Your resume may not tell your whole story, so you’ll need to get out from behind your computer and make personal connections.

You’ve got an exciting transition in your future. It may seem like a daunting task, both the personal aspects of shifting from being a stay-at-home mom and the fact that your family will also have to adjust to the new order at home.

Let’s walk through the process of restarting your career together.

Find Your Focus

You’ll want to invest some time before you dive into a job search determining your focus. For some of you, with highly specialized skills and a shorter career break, this step might be easy. If your career break has been longer than a few years, you don’t want to return to your previous field, or you simply aren’t sure yet, it will be critical to take an inventory of your skill-set, your interests, and your motivation for returning to work to help you determine your focus.

Start by listing your most job-relevant skills

Don’t limit yourself to skills you have been paid for using. If you’re the volunteer who has raised tons of money for organizations, then fund-raising is a skill you possess, even if you weren’t being paid to do that.

List soft skills such as leadership, people management, communication and collaboration. Don’t overlook the importance of soft skills in the hiring process, but do be sure you have an example that proves you possess each skill you are listing.

Include your hard skills such as any technical or job-specific skills you have. Don’t edit yourself during this stage, just get all of your skills into a list without worrying about your competency level just yet.

What Interests You?

Next, come up a list of your interests. What do you enjoy doing? What are the things you can completely lose track of time while you’re doing because you enjoy them so much? Consider previous jobs you’ve held – what were the parts of those jobs that really lit you up?

What Motivates You?

Think about why you’re going back to work and get that down on paper. Do you need to earn income to support yourself or your family? Are you excited by the idea of contributing to a company with a mission you believe in? Are you yearning to put your education and experience to work again and miss the feeling of accomplishment that comes from full-time work? We’ll want to capture your motivation because this might help you decide between jobs down the line. Every transition or new job involves making trade-offs and you’ll be in a better position to determine if the trade-offs you’re making are ones you can live with if you’re clear on your motivation. For example, if you’re returning to work for financial reasons, it might make sense for you to pursue higher-paying jobs even if that means you are working longer hours than you’d ideally like.

Add It All Up

Take a good look at your lists of interests, skills, and motivations. What does it tell you? The magic in finding your focus lies in determining where there’s an intersection of your skills and interests with a need in the job market. Start reading your local business press or industry publications/blogs for jobs you are considering to understand where the need in the market is greatest.

Focus Doesn’t Mean Just 1

While having direction for your job search is important, at this stage I will encourage you to have multiple paths in mind. Having more than one idea about where you can effectively plug back into the workforce can help you stay flexible. If you’ve determined that your skillset could be applied in a few different contexts in the workforce, then map out these parallel paths for yourself rather than discarding one. Keep in mind, 5 parallel paths may be too many, but 3 could be just the right number.

Prototype Your Job

This next step is fun! Once you’ve found a direction (or two or three), come up with some ways you can prototype this new career for yourself. You’ll want to learn all about it and even try it on if you can. Here are some ways you can do that:

  • Find people doing that job or working in your field and talk to them about it
  • Check YouTube for videos that give you the inside scoop on the job by searching “a day in the life of a (insert profession here)”
  • Read job descriptions for your ideal job to understand the expectations and the requirements
  • Search for the job titles you’re considering on LinkedIn and read through the career paths of people who are doing that job now to notice how they got there and what their key skills are; connect with them and ask them if they’d speak with you so you could learn more
  • Find LinkedIn groups, MeetUps or professional associations for people in the job you’re considering and join them - sometimes these groups have mentoring opportunities
Prepare Your Family

Let’s take a time-out from your job search activities here to think through preparing your family for the changes that will occur when you return to work. It’s never too early to give your crew a heads-up that things are going to be changing around here! Start shifting responsibility for some of the tasks that you’ve taken on to others in your household. You can’t do it all, and trying to is a recipe for burnout. If you’ve got kids still at home, remember that they will benefit from the responsibility of being contributing members of the household. Chores are beneficial for kids. Preparing early for your transition back to work gives you time to conduct that Saturday morning session on how to use the washing machine or how to empty the dishwasher. Be sure to enlist the support of your spouse as well - marriage is a partnership and yours can withstand the redistribution of responsibilities that comes with a spouse returning to work.

Katie Dunn lives in Cary and is a mom of 4 and the founder of Back to Busi­ness, an organization that helps women restart their careers after tak­ing time out of the workforce. In addition to hosting the annual Back to Business Women’s Conference, Katie provides resources, a supportive community, and weekly job search guidance for moms returning to work through the Back to Business email newsletter. This month, Back to Business is starting a small group coaching series called Return With Confidence that will meet on Tuesday nights in Cary starting on Oct. 19. You can find more information here.

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