A career break, no matter how long or short, could make one feel sidelined from job opportunities. With the job market in a post-pandemic rebound, so are opportunities to get back to work. It is never too late to work on getting job-ready.
Her Second Innings (HSI) is a platform that supports sabbatical women finding their way back to careers. As a team, we have interacted with hundreds of women and supported them through coaching, assessments, returnships, internships, and job offers. This support has been with the sole aim of helping women break their career breaks and find professional success.
In our interactions with women candidates on sabbatical, certain factors stand out clear in what makes women on sabbatical successful in getting job offers. Here are four factors that make women on a career break successful in returning back to a job.
1. Clarity about their career aspirations
2. Knowing areas of strengths: skills and hands-on-experience wise:
3. Confidence in show-casing one's capability
4. Networking
1.Clarity about their career aspirations:
All of us grow with certain aspirations of what we want to be when we grow up. Those 'wants' guide us in choosing subjects to learn in school and college and the area of career. Restarting after a career break gives one a unique opportunity to revisit previous choices. When one wants to restart their career after a break, there is a choice to get back to the career one has previously been in or has a choice to choose a new career area. It is important to take stock of the current need for a career and craft a plan to reach the desired job. Having no clarity about one's career aspirations might make one feel less capable of finding their way back to a career. This process is not always easy and it sometimes takes multiple efforts to find what suits each. Reaching out to a career coach, a mentor who is a field expert can yield valuable ideas and thereby the clarity in one's career aspirations.
2.Knowing areas of strengths: skills and hands-on-experience wise:
After getting clarity on one's desired career area, it is important to assess one's strengths: skills-wise and also hands-on experience-wise. Knowing where one stands, gives valuable clues into needed areas of skill upgrade. Skill upgrades can be both upskilling in previous areas of exposure or reskilling in a new area. Time, focus, and effort are important components of skills upgrades. The more intense one's focus is the quicker job opportunities come one's way. Choose to work smart. Returnships programs such as HSI's @ https://hersecondinnings.com/returnship/ are smart ways for women to gain experience in new skill areas and also get much valuable hands-on experience in live industry projects.
3. Confidence in show-casing one's capability:
No matter how suitable one is for a particular job, the world wouldn't know if one doesn't share it out. A well-crafted resume, comprehensive LinkedIn profiles are ways in which one can showcase their hard skills. HSI's blogs and Facebook video archives can be valuable sources for pointers to make a catchy yet authentic resume and a motivated LinkedIn profile. It is also important to achieve the ease of talking about self's strengths, achievements, motivations, and aspirations with ease. The more you believe in yourself, the more ease you will have in show-casing your professional capabilities
4. Networking:
The more one networks the more one gets to know of exciting opportunities. With the modality of networking for jobs moving online, access to networking is open to everyone. Build your presence and engage in job networking sites such as LinkedIn, focused meet-up groups, and hackathons. Your profiles and portfolios must show that you are motivated and ready to take up opportunities. Be active in sharing your views, opinions and be fearless in expressing an alternate view with a rationale. Reach out for referrals and endorsements for your top skills. Be a part of events of communities such as HSI where you can be supported by like-minded women. Give and take from your networks. Networking gives you insights and new opportunities that might have been at your blindsight.
We at HSI have heard success stories of many women who have stepped back into careers after a long break. It is always a starstruck moment to see how women @ HSI put their efforts into the above four factors and find success in rediscovering their careers. It is a delight for us at Team HSI to talk to such women and reflect on their journeys and the determination that fuelled their success stories. https://www.facebook.com/HerSecondInning/videos has a repository of success stories of women in various career fields finding success. We welcome you to be a part of our journey. We welcome your association with Her Second Innings because we believe that a career break is a temporary phase. Join us and feel supported as you break your break.
About the Author
Jennifer Moses is a Career Guidance Coach at HerSecond Innings and a Counseling Psychologist based out of Bangalore. HSI community members can reach her by making at appointment at Coaching.
Her Second Innings supports women professionals on a sabbatical in their journey of getting back to work. The mission of HSI is to guide women to achieve financial independence. Support from HSI comes in the form of job interviews, reskilling programs in Automation and, free Career Guidance Counselling. Sign up with us and complete your profile to get a call from our counselors to know your job fit.
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