4 Tips for Restarting Your Career After a Long Break

We now live in a post-job-for-life world, where sabbaticals, contingent work, self-employment, long-term unemployment, and multiple career changes are all the new normal.

This state of affairs has created record levels of career mobility – but it has also lead to more uneven career paths. Extended breaks from the workforce used to be pretty uncommon, but these days, they’re not all that unusual.

Unfortunately, returning to work after a break from your career poses a unique challenge, which is why we’d like to offer some tips to help you reanimate your career after a long time away.

1. Start Networking to Access the Hidden Job Market

2. Get Plenty of Recommendations

Some examples of highly valued parenting skills include:

1. Patience
2. Ability to multitask
3. Time management
4. Conflict management
5. Problem-solving
6. Empathy
7. Mentoring
8. Negotiation
9. Budgeting and finance management
10. Project management

Despite the value of these parenting skills, just 8% parents mention these skills in their applications,

meaning many parents are missing a great&

nbsp;opportunity to impress prospective employers.

So, if you are a parent returning to work after a long break, make sure to play up your highly valuable parenting skills during the application and interview processes.

4. Emphasize What You Have Learned

As mentioned above, a career break can be a great way to develop new skills. No matter what those skills are — or how you learned them — be sure to emphasize them in your resume.

For example, perhaps you did a little freelance work while you were away from your career, and this has helped you develop greater levels of business acumen. 

Or perhaps you used your free time to teach yourself a new language or some coding skills.

Whatever the case, you want to be positive and give employers the impression that your life away from the workforce has benefited you. Moreover, you want employers to know that you’ll be able to pass along these benefits to them — if they hire you, that is.

There is no doubt that coming back from a career break is a unique challenge, but with a positive approach and a finely tuned job search strategy, you should be able to pick your career up where you left off with relative ease.