Plans, patience ease the return
Signs in some London subway stations remind travelers to "mind the gap" -- i.e. step with care over the space between the train and the platform.
In the work world, of course, a gap in your resume isn't so easy to cross. But the advice from the "Underground" can serve leave-takers well: Pay the right sort of attention to the gap, and you'll safely reach the next leg of your career journey.
My last column focused on how to carve out a career vision and bolster your confidence if you've been out of the job market for a time. Next stop: minding the gap. Once you're reasonably sure of your goals, formulate a game plan and brush up on your marketing and networking skills -- and nurture your patience.
"It's about putting yourself out there in as many places and in as many ways as you can and waiting and realizing that not everybody is going to say 'yes,' and doing it again and again," says Jan Shubert, acting director of Babson College's Center for Women's Leadership.
This holds true whether you took time out to stay home with children, care for an elderly relative, or if you were downsized by corporate America. Recent talk of women professionals' "opting out" of the workforce hides the real story of resume gaps today. Careers for both men and women are more fluid, but also more insecure than in the past.
"There are fewer women employed today, but there are fewer men and fewer moms and non-moms in the workforce" due to a slowly recovering labor market between 2001 and 2005, says Heather Boushey, an economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. The bottom line: Don't dismiss resume gaps as just a "mom's thing." Lessons learned from today's pioneering "on-rampers" will benefit many of us over the course of our careers.
Self-marketing, for example, is a tough but crucial challenge for all job-seekers, but especially for returning leave-takers. Never apologize for taking time off, experts agree. Rather, communicate in interviews and on paper how you've used your time wisely. Fund-raising demands sales skills. Leading a volunteer group is a lesson in diplomacy.
The trick is to highlight, not gloss over, what you've done. To fill a resume gap, for instance, some woman create a job description such as "domestic engineer," says Eliza Shanley, managing partner at Women@Work Network, a Wilton, Conn., recruiting firm that specializes in returning women professionals. "We really discourage this."
Alternatively, don't emphasize or brag about your recent caregiving role, says Rick Capozzi, a Merrill Lynch managing director and head of business development for the Global Private Client Group. That might imply that someone who couldn't or didn't take time off -- including your interviewer, perhaps -- was "less of a parent," says Capozzi, a leader in the firm's efforts to recruit returning mothers.
Simply emphasize that your time out was a good experience and now you're ready to go back -- with an emphasis on ready. Employers often fear that leave-takers will quit soon after returning, says Gloria Garvey, director of recruiting for Women@Work. "Make sure that you're very on-point with your reasons for returning, and that all your ducks are in a row."
Those with resume gaps must network, like any good job-seeker, yet be all the more strategic in doing so, since they may not be in position to reciprocate equally. Instead, be specific with what you need or want. Is it feedback? A contact? A primer on how your industry has changed?
"People want to be helpful, but they want to know exactly what you want from them," says Shanley. "When someone says, 'I'm thinking about going back to work and I wonder if you could have lunch' -- that's death."
Lori Sharton, who returned to work early last year after eight years at home, prepared questions in advance before making networking calls. I interviewed her for this column in late 2005 as she prepared to switch from a career in social work to a new start in marketing.
"I was changing careers, so I had a ton to learn," says Sharton, a Needham mother of two boys who is now marketing director of the Boston office of commercial real estate firm GVA Williams. "I didn't call up and just say hi."
Many leave-takers now ask Sharton how she made the leap back , and she first offers two pieces of advice: Be persistent and be patient. "As you get older, you can be self-reflective and get a better sense of what makes you happy and what motivates you," says Sharton. "Taking the time and not just jumping back into any job is important."
Balancing Acts appears every other week. Maggie Jackson can be reached at maggie.jackson@att.net. 