Restarting a Career: A Fantasy

Many men and women around the world take a break from their career for multiple reasons, be it raising children, taking care of family, studying further, medical condition and many more reasons. The real problem arises when they plan to restart their career after a gap of few years and have to go through several obstacles.

My article talks about challenges that are faced by people when they go for career change and challenges faced by women resuming a career after an interval and possible solutions to get back to work. I call this fantasy world because it may look like a child’s play to get back to work but in reality, it is an uphill battle. It looks very simple with only an update in CV, applying in companies and getting job, but as a matter of fact, it is very hard.

Before I begin, I would like to state some statistics-; in a recent LinkedIn research, 62% of all employees worldwide have taken a career break and 64% of women have done so. Unfortunately, many employers still view employment gaps with scepticism. Another study by the Centre for Talent innovation suggests that 36% of the women in India take a break from work and only 58% of that number are able to re-join work full time (note: it is re-joining full time). This also depends on the number of years’ women take break from work. Higher the gap from work, lower the chances of women to re-start their career.

Firstly, I will talk about challenges that women face for re-starting a career.

• When you take break from work for a long time, there is difficulty to understand the present market condition and hence which company to apply, which position to apply for and what job profile to take up.
• Once the above problem is resolved and there is clarity to go ahead, there is good probability of high frustration level because you don’t get revert from employers in spite of applying in many companies. Although, many employers write, “women planning to restart career/housewives can also apply” and they talk about women empowerment but practically getting shortlisted for interview calls is almost negligible.
• In Indian contest where women are considered to take care of family and children, themselves have many constraints: time is the biggest constraint, as many women cannot devote full day for work, travel is another constraint, going to office regularly is also an obstacle and many more personal reasons are there. Even if they plan to work with these restrictions, be it part time or WFH jobs, they get stuck because of the corporate approach towards them.
• Employers still view employment gaps and occupation diversion with distrust and cynicism and therefore getting back to work is very difficult.

The entire course of restarting career and to get back to work front is quite demanding and gruelling at times.

I particularly feel that most of the women either don’t get an opportunity to get back to work after an employment gap or even if they do get an opportunity, most of the times it is either under-rated or under-valued. The same is applied to people who switch careers and want to get back to previous work profile.

Nope…. That’s the immediate first reaction that employers have, to most career change and career break resumes. When a resume is reviewed by an HR personnel or hiring managers, within few seconds they decide that you are a misfit to the position; and this time span to review resume reduces further if you have long employment gap.

By the way, I personally have experienced all the above obstacles and therefore my opinions and thoughts are first hand. When I did lot of research work online, I realised that there were very few options open for women to get back to work front:

1. Content Writing
2. Interior Designing
3. Digital Marketing
4. Graphic Designing
5. Business Analytics
6. Technical Writing and reviewer
7. Social Work
8. Learn Foreign Language and then Interpreter
9. Entrepreneurship
10. Web Designing
11. Lastly, now a days making reels and social media influencer

What is required to get back to work is: lot of perseverance, clarity of mind, technical expertise in some field, very good resume, personal connects and a supporting family. I would also suggest to go old school way to apply for jobs, post your resume directly to the companies HR, email your CV to right connects in the companies directly rather than applying online. If possible, try and take appointment and meet recruiting managers, company HR or company administrators and managers personally. It is alright to not be entertained initially but keep going.

At the end, I would request all the employers and recruitment managers in any area of specialisation, to have an optimistic and believing approach towards people who have taken a career break or taken the path of career change. Taking employment gaps and a diversion in the profession does not imply that the individual is incapable or misfit to the profile or position. Rather, I personally feel that the person is more competent and able to handle adverse situations, more efficient and enthusiast and also has risk taking capacity.

Ladies who take a break from work to take care of children and family are actually more systematic, organised and planned, it is only the employers and HR managers who need to change their outlook towards them for professional hiring. People who have taken up the challenge of profession change are actually more competent, aware, diverse and socially connected than those who are doing their regular mundane jobs, it is only employers and recruitment managers who need to change their views and fixed thinking.