People choose to put their career on hold for a variety of reasons. Some common career stops include taking time to travel, raise a family (i.e., stay at home parent), going back to school in a different field, self-development, etc. These types of choices are typically premeditated and take approximately three to five years.
On the other side, careers may come to a halt for reasons that are outside your control. Examples include getting laid-off, taking care of a sick relative, personal health issues, etc. For these unplanned situations, the time period is less well defined and uncertain. These events do carry the potential to be relatively short, perhaps as little as a year. Often, learning how to better manage and/or getting help to deal with the situation will make a shorter time frame a reality.
The purpose of this blog is to share on how to deal with a career break, i.e., more than two years. Specifically, this blog goes beyond the advice to include them on your resume, cover letter, or when talking to a recruiter or hiring manager. Two or more years away from work carries consequences and requires the “how to” of putting yourself on equal footing with the other people that you are competing with for any given job. So, consider the following:
- Stay connected. It is important to not cut yourself off from all things work related. You may not be able to stay in touch with all your work colleagues, clients, or up to date on the latest developments in your field. You should however choose two to three contact points and set a routine for reaching out. Your supervisor is a valuable one should you wish to return to your existing job. They play an important role as they can give you insights into what is happening with your job while you are away. In most cases, simply returning to your past job will become more and more unlikely should your time away begin to approach more than two years. Other contacts where you could restart your career become important in this situation and might be found in other departments or other companies. Such connections are key in situations such as layoffs. In all cases, staying up to date on developments in your field of work via associations, work groups, etc. will be useful in addition to staying connected with people.
- Test yourself. This is something that you need to do should your career break reach three to five years or more. New knowledge and skills are appearing faster than before and likely at a faster rate as each year goes by. You will need to examine what you possess and what is now needed to succeed. Importantly, you will need to do this before you plan or expect to resume your career. You may only need to add new skills where a short course(s) can be completed such that a minimum amount of time and money is required. Getting recertified would be similar. More demanding requirements may include an entirely new certification where time is needed for coursework and testing. The main idea is that you need to plan. It may not be possible to get yourself on par with the requirements while you are still in career break mode. In such cases, you will need to plan for that reality. This aspect of restarting your career often points to starting something new. You may even find yourself having to switch careers. This is something you can read about in a previous blog and certainly explore by contacting Career Connexions.
- Test the market. Once you have a good idea on where you sit in terms of your knowledge and skill set, it will help to learn what companies and jobs are available to you. You should be doing this while you “test yourself” as outlined above. Spending time and money on new competencies with too few work opportunities would be wasteful and disappointing. So, spend time on various job boards and search for the job(s) you want and the companies you wish to work for. It is here that staying in touch with past work colleagues, associations, etc. will be valuable to find out what the market has been, is, and could be in the future. It may also lead to your first job upon re-entering the workforce.
In sum, this blog recommends that a career should not be a complete break except in certain situations such as personal health or, as is often the case, a bit of time needed with zero thought on anything related to work. These things always come first. In addition, there is a need for planning and time spent leading to a career restart. And furthermore, you may not necessarily restart from the same place you stopped.