Copyright ACoupleofTravelers.com

Today we have a great guest post from career breakers Dave and Vicky who are currently traveling the world. When planning our breaks, there’s a natural concern by others around us about what we are going to do post-career break. We career breakers aren’t immune from this concern, but we figure it out and come to peace with a bit of uncertainty that exists when thinking about the re-entry phase. Dave and Vicky share their experience and put that uncertainty about the future in perspective.

“What are you going to do when you get back?”

I get asked this question all the time. I usually want to say:

“Honestly, I’m way to busy planning this trip to even think about what I’ll be doing two years from now.”

But that might come off as a bit rude, so I usually tone it down a bit and unenthusiastically list off a few things that I could potentially do two years from now. Find a job or go to graduate school usually suffice.

But actually, that I’m too busy planning my trip isn’t 100% honest, because even though we ARE too busy planning this trip, I do think about what I’ll be doing two years from now. It’s a legitimate question, and I probably think about it daily, and usually with a bit of anxiety (OK, a lot of anxiety).

And today I had an epiphany.

I think I understand the source of the anxiety, and it’s not what everyone probably thinks it is. What most people think is that we’re going to come back broke. We will have been out of the workforce for two whole years. We’re not going to know what we want to do next. We will probably be living in someone’s basement (most likely chez parents). Above all, this will be 100% because of our decision to travel. If things don’t work out, travel will be to blame, and we’ll be back at square one. Worse, square zero.

Now it’s true we’ll probably come back broke.

It’s also true we’ll have been out of the workforce for two years.

We hopefully won’t be living in our parents basement, but you never know.

Is it crazy that none of this really concerns me?

What concerns me is simply not knowing what I’ll be doing two years from now – general uncertainty of what to be doing with your life and less and less time to figure it out.

And I realized that this doesn’t actually have a lot to do with travel. Actually, if you asked me today what I’d be doing two years from now (if we weren’t traveling), I wouldn’t know. And if I decided to continue working for two more years, and you asked me two years from now what I was going to do next, I probably STILL wouldn’t know.

In fact, I can’t remember the last time I knew what I was going to be doing two years from now and whenever I thought I knew, it never ended up turning out how I pictured it. When I went to school to become a physicist, did I imagine that I’d graduate and have my first employer be a major, financial services company (doing anything BUT physics)? Nope.

So either way, travel or not, I still have this general anxiety. Moreover, I actually feel a bit more comfortable knowing that we’re traveling. Frankly, after two years of work, I don’t feel any more prepared to answer the question regarding my future than I did two years ago. I also think, with two MORE years of work, I’d be marginally more prepared to answer that question, but basically in the same spot.

However, through traveling, connecting with other people, learning more about myself, and finding out what life is actually like “out there”, I feel like I might be setting myself up to answer this question after all. This is how it was back in college when I was preparing to become a physicist, but ended up as a business analyst. I was simply preparing myself to be marketable to a whole bunch of job fields and to naturally go where the tides took me after graduation. So right now travel is about as good an idea as any I’ve thought of, and in light of this, traveling actually calms my nerves about what I’ll do “when I get back.”

Sure, if I wasn’t traveling, I’d certainly end up with a lot more money two years from now, but what would I do with it? I certainly can’t buy myself a career or some sort of future, so forgive me if I don’t regard it very highly. Power isn’t in small amounts of money, but in large potential value that can be exchanged down the line.

So at the end of the day, while traveling certainly prompts a lot of questions about what you’re going to do afterwards, it really shouldn’t be the focal point of the conversation. In fact, I could probably ask most of the people who won’t be traveling what they’re going to be doing in two years, and I don’t think too many of them would know, but nobody is asking that question, are they?

Author Bio:

Having spent 2 years in the working world, Dave and Vicky are ready to exchange their briefcases for backpacks, dress shoes for sandals, and beds for sleeping bags. In September they set off on a 2 year journey across Asia and Europe. You can follow along at A Couple of Travelers.

“What are you going to do when you get back?” is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

Last week I had a bit of fun with my post comparing voice over acting to porn acting. In the midst of my brainstorm, it was also clear to me that voice over acting isn’t exactly like porn acting. There are several important differences. So, in the spirit of providing both sides to argument, here are all the ways in which voice over acting differs from porn acting.

1. No fluffers.
2. The talent generally isn’t as sexy
3. In porn, no one cares about the script
4. Video is more important in porn. Audio rules for voice overs.
5. You can repeat the money shot as many times as the director needs you in a short amount of time without needing a break to, um, ¨recharge¨
6. No cameras in the studio
7. Don’t have to get naked.
8. Don’t have to worry about STDs
9. When you’re done, you don’t need a shower
10. There are no galleries on the internet of you performing
11. No one cares what you look like naked. If they do, it’s useful to remember #2
12. Again, no fluffers

So what did I miss? Would love to hear from you other differences between voice over acting and porn acting. Can’t wait to see the responses!

12 Reasons Why Voice Over Acting Isn’t Anything Like Porn Acting is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

From my re-entry chronicles. Ahem…

After my career break, I made the transition from a corporate career to pursuing a creative entrepreneurial business. In developing and launching The Career Break Travel Show, I suddenly found myself sought after in Colombia for voice-over work. Native English speakers available for voice overs are hard to come by here. There’s not a ton of work. But over time I’ve developed my network and client base.

It’s fun work. I get a script. I often have to translate it or correct the English a bit. I record. I get paid. Frankly, I would love to do more. There’s a rush watching the final video and hearing my voice narrate the video. As I wait for my own show to go live, I juggle many projects to pay the bills. So one of the things I love most about this type of  work is that I go in, I record, I go home.

I’m in, I’m out. Bah-dah-boom, bah-dah-bing. Wham bam thank you ma’am. 

A couple of weeks while in the studio recording a voice over for a client taking direction on my lines from all who were there, my mind wandered and I thought, ¨This must be what it’s like to be a porn star.¨ Why or how that popped into my mind, I have no idea.

I quickly refocused on my script so we could finish the recording. Time is money in a studio. Later, in between the sound mixing and waiting for final approval from the client off-site, I continued thinking about this juxtaposition of two seemingly different professions.

I started taking notes. During the brainstorming, I convinced myself that yes, voice-over acting is a lot like porn acting. Here’s what I came up with.

1. Your job is to arrive, perform on command and deliver the money shot.
2. You have to exaggerate your performance for maximum effect.
3. You perform in a studio in front of a studio audience
4. You have to contort your body sometimes to deliver a great performance.
5. It can get messy if there are too many actors in the studio
6. Someone has to sit and edit it all paying attention to details most of the audience will never notice
7. Performance anxiety
8. Both require an orifice and a phallus
9. It can’t hurt to warm up your throat muscles
10. Mastery of oral skills is required
11. It’s always a good idea to leave your client satisfied!

If you think my assessment is too rosy, stay tuned for the continuation of the topic, 12 Reasons Why Voice Over Acting Isn’t Anything Like Porn Acting. But for now, add your reasons why voice over acting is like porn acting (keep your reasons for the differences for the follow up post please )

By the way, if you need a locutor en inglés en Bogotá, (English voice over in Bogotá) let me know!

If you like this post, sign up for our newsletter or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up with Career Break Secrets’ career break and travel advice.

11 Reasons Why Voice Over Acting Is Like Porn Acting is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

It’s here!

This week is the culmination of months of behind-the-scenes work. My book, The Career Break Traveler’s Handbook, is finally here. Since I started my trip back in 2007, I had dreams of writing my own travel book. Then when I started Career Break Secrets, I had dreams of writing my own book. And all along the way, my aunt kept encouraging me to write a book. But, the management of the site and working to get The Career Break Travel Show (coming soon!) launched precluded me spending any time on trying to figure out the publishing world.

The Power of the Network

Late last year Janice Waugh, author of The Solo Traveler’s Handbook, told me that she wanted to expand her book into a series. As you can see from the review of the Solo Traveler’s Handbook (1st edition), I was a fan. She offered me the chance to be a part of the first wave of travel style books under her label, Full Flight Press, and I accepted without hesitation. At the same time, the other authors came on board: Jodi Ettenberg to focus on food travel, Sarah & Terry Lee to focus on luxury travel and Shannon O’Donnell to focus on volunteer travel. Janice took the opportunity to produce the 2^nd edition of her book on solo travel. It’s always great to work with smart people who are experts in their field. The Traveler’s Handbooks series was born.

Why a Career Break Book?

Frankly, I wanted to have a resource that made it easy for anyone with a dream of a career break to get started quickly. There’s a lot of information out there about taking a career break and blogs filled with stories and adventures of people who are out there doing it right now. That’s great for amplifying the amount of information that’s available for the people planning their trip right now. But, it also adds to the time you need to comb through it all to find what they need. And, you still have to piece together your own plan.

My goal was to take the information and put it together in a way that helps you get going and get planning. Not only that, I want you to be able to have a process to follow so you don’t forget any important details.

Finally, there are so many people that I’ve met during and after my career break who have stories worth telling. I try to cover as many as I can on the site. And, the book has many more. Some are stories I’ve told on the site already while others I haven’t. I could have included so many more and I felt bad that I couldn’t include more. I tried to focus on one aspect of their story to help illustrate the various themes of the book. Having those stories also highlights that there are a lot more people than known taking breaks, they come all walks of life and do it for a variety of reasons.

What’s Inside

• The book is only about 110 pages. So, you can get through it quickly
• There are over 20 photos from around that world that I took that will hopefully fuel your wanderlust
• 13 stories from current and former career breakers
• 4 sections covering the career break lifecycle
  • Deciding puts the career break in perspective of your overall life and career, explains why it’s not selfish to take a break, highlights the scientific benefits of taking a break and ends with a pep talk
  • Peace of Mind Planning takes you step by step on how to prepare so you can fully relax once you leave knowing you are ready for anything that comes your way. I cover what you need to do before you quit, how to come out of the career break closet, the art of career break budgeting, planning where to go, dealing with your health, packing and tech tips and more
  • Making the Most of Your Trip gives you ideas for how to maximize the time you have whether you have have one month or one year. I start by highlighting the 3 types of activities that career breakers do, how to adjust to a ¨free¨ life, how to deal with loneliness, how to stay safe physically, digitally and protect your belongings, my list of budget stretchers and discuss whether you should work or not
  • Re-entry helps you get going again once you’re back from adjusting to life back home, how to restart your networking and how to position your career break to prospective employers
• Resource lists (over a dozen) that cover the following:
  • accommodation
  • career break and related books for further reading
  • career break TV and films
  • other career break resources
  • budgeting and money management
  • connecting with locals and other travelers
  • finding great dining experiences
  • flights
  • health and health insurance resources
  • re-entry resources
  • registering your trip
  • free blogging and communication options
  • volunteering resources
  • naturally a list of the other books in the series

And finally, you can check out the Table of Contents and read a sample chapter.

Reviews of the Career Break Traveler’s Handboook

I’m trying to capture the reviews as they come out. Here are the latest of what I’ve seen so far.

“I found the taking of sabbaticals the single most successful strategy in helping me to look at my work as a calling, rather than just as a job. Jeff Jung tells you how to go about it.”
Stefan Sagmeister
Grammy Award winning Art Director and Graphic Designer
Author and TED Speaker
___________________________________________________________________________________
“Jeff Jung helps us realize that Career Breaks are important aspects of our work lives. As a 5-time career changer, talent and career take time to play, study, explore and really live. We are so much more productive, imaginative and interesting when we do these things, and that leads to innovation and a competitive advantage for our careers and the organizations we work for. Taking a Career Break is a “must-do” and this book is a “must-read.”
Ginny Clarke
CEO of Talent Optimization Partners, LLC
Author of Career Mapping: Charting Your Course in the New World of Work
___________________________________________________________________________________
“This book covers everything. From how to quit your job to how to pack your bags, it’s all in there. If you’re ready to turn that secret travel dream you’ve been ignoring all these years into reality, this is your starting point.”
Dan Clements
Author of Escape 101
___________________________________________________________________________________
“Perhaps you have been dreaming about taking a career break. After reading the career break travelers handbook, you will move from dream to action. With inspiring stories, practical advice and an overall can-do, should-do, will-do spirit, this book will have you asking yourself why you’ve waited so long. Even if your career break is not possible today, you will get step by step strategies to ensure your career will not slip away without one.”
Julie Bauke
CEO, The Bauke Group
Author of Stop Peeing on Your Shoes: Avoiding the 7 Mistakes That Screw Up Your Job Search

Where to Buy The Career Break Traveler’s Handbook

The book is in both paperback and electronic versions. It is currently rolling out around the world. Here are the places where you can buy them

• US
  • Amazon.com (paperback and Kindle)
  • BarnesandNoble.com (paperback. Nook Coming Soon)
  • Sony Coming Soon!
  • Kobo
  • iBook Store Coming Soon!
  • Copia
• UK
  • Waterstones (paperback)
  • W.H. Smith (paperback and Kobo)
  • Amazon.co.uk (paperback and Kindle)
  • iBook Store Coming Soon!
  • Copia
  • Hammicks Legal
  • The Book Depository (paperback)
  • Eddington Hook
• Canada
  • Amazon.ca (paperback and Kindle)
  • iBook Store Coming Soon!
  • Kobo
  • Copia
• Australia
  • BetterRead
• Croatia
  • Superbookshop
• Estonia
  • Kristosomus
• India
  • BookAdda
• Japan
  • Amazon
  • Junkudo
• Italy
  • Bol
  • IBS
• Latvia
  • Kristosomus
• New Zealand Coming Soon!
• Norway
  • Bokklubben
  • Studia
• Romania
  • Books Express
• Sweden
  • Bokus
• Wholesalers
  • Baker & Taylor Coming Soon!
  • Alibris (UK) 
  • Gardner’s (UK)
  • Lehmann’s (Germany)

If you like this post, sign up for our newsletter or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up with Career Break Secrets’ career break and travel advice.

Book ‘Em Jeffo is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

Getting Back Into the Working World. Copyright iRelaunch.com

So, you’ve taken the career break, you’re feeling rested, relaxed and ready to get back into your career. And then, a bit of panic sets in. The economy’s down. Little good news is reported about job search prospects. And, the percentages of the unemployed and underemployed start to make your palms sweat.

With the growth in popularity of career breaks, new services are popping up to help people return to work.  iRelaunch opened up in 2007 to help career breakers find employment at progressive firms that value the experience you have and respect your decision to take some time out.  Who are these employers? How about top-tier firms like IBM, Accenture, Deutsche Bank, Sara Lee and Goldman Sachs?

iRelaunch was founded by Carol Cohen and Vivian Rabin. They offer both big marquee events like their upcoming Return to Work Conferences in major U.S. cities and in London. And, they offer lots of resources on their site including a blog, a list of career reentry resources, and a whole host of Success Stories.

Here’s our interview with Carol and Vivian about iRelaunch.

1. Why did you create iRelaunch?

While we were writing Back on the Career Track, we started getting asked to speak at employers and universities on the topic of career reentry. Then companies and universities asked us to assist them in creating career reentry programs.  After doing this informally for a while, we decided to establish iRelaunch. We created our own return to work conference, which is hosted by universities and sponsored by employers. Since then, our business has grown to encompass career reentry programming in all of its forms; conferences, coaching groups, webinars, courses, blogs, and more.

The Book That Started It All. Copyright iRelaunch.com

2. Tell us a little bit more about the services you offer.

Our iRelaunch Return to Work Conference is our flagship product.  We have run it seven times over the last 2.5 years in major U.S. cities and in London, and over 1,000 people have attended. We now run the Conference four times annually and this year we will be in Atlanta, Boston, NYC and Washington, D.C.  We also have small group coaching workshops called Relaunch Coaching Circles, where up to eight participants meet in person or virtually with a coach, and focus on either Career Assessment or Networking and Marketing. We just started offering technical updating classes in PowerPoint and Outlook in partnership with relauncher-owned company Softeach, and plan to expand those offerings. We have a webinar on how to set up on LinkedIn and use it in your job search which is presented by a relauncher who ran a social media company similar to LinkedIn; it is not intimidating and we don’t use jargon! We speak nationally and internationally for women’s groups, professional organizations, employers, alumni associations, and are still engaged in creating customized return to work programs at employers and universities.  Our career reentry strategy book Back on the Career Track continues to be an excellent resource for relaunchers. We hear regularly from people who used it as their guide as they relaunched.  And we are dedicated to trumpeting return to work success stories in all different fields and work configurations.

3. Do you consider yourself a recruitment organization?

Not in the traditional sense. We don’t engage in executive search. But employers certainly attend our Conferences with recruiting goals in mind.

4.  Pardon the pun, but did the business take off right away?

We had an immediate success with our first conference and were able to build on this model right away.  Then we were able to expand by offering products in response to demand from our conference participants and from our employer and university clients.  We’ve been careful and deliberate about how we have chosen and developed our products to make sure we maintain the highest quality with excellent value for our customers and clients.

Big Companies Attend the Conferences. Copyright iRelaunch.com

5. What is the business case you have to make to a company to get them to participate with iRelaunch?

Our iRelaunch Return to Work Conference is the only large scale gathering of educated, experienced people who are interested in returning to work after a career break. Participants are 90-95% women, 80% with graduate degrees and 70% interested in returning to conventional full time jobs. The Conference is not a job fair, but a content intensive, educationally focused day encouraging substantive conversation between employers and participants. We engage with a limited group of companies at each conference who have networking tables on the periphery of the general session room. When companies say they are interested in the pool of returning professionals, but don’t know where to find them, we tell them they can find them at our conference.

6. Who is your ¨typical¨ career breaker that you help? I see you have a lot of information specifically for moms. Is that the demographic you started with?

We started with moms because the subtitle of our book is “A Guide for Stay-at-Home Moms Who Want to Return to Work”, which was a decision we made with our publisher. We interviewed over 100 moms who had made the home to work transition as part of our book research.  Plus Vivian and I are moms; Vivian has five children and I have four. However, as you know well, people take career breaks for a range of reasons.  We see our career reentry strategies as gender neutral and effective for people who have taken career breaks for any reason.  We have success stories on our site now of men who have returned from career breaks and of women who have taken career breaks for reasons other than childcare.  With that said, 90-95% of participants in our programs are female, and many are returning from career break for childcare reasons.

Not Just For Women Anymore. Copyright iRelaunch.com

7. How have you seen attitudes about career breaks change amongst employers since 2006?

We actually view 2004 as the watershed year.  That year, Deloitte began its Personal Pursuits program for accountants who wanted to take a multi-year leave and later return to the firm. Also, two studies were conducted in 2004 focusing on women on career break, one by the Center for Work Life Policy and one by CBRi (now Aquent).  Results from those studies were reported in 2005, which was the same year Lehman Brothers announced their Encore Program for ex-finance professionals returning from career break. In 2006, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and Harvard Business School announced career reentry programs (note that Harvard Business School had been running a related program, Charting Your Course, since 2001).  Other corporate and university programs soon followed. To quantify the explosion of career reentry programming post-2004, refer to the iRelaunch Comprehensive List of Career Reentry Programs Worldwide.  We track career reentry programs that have run at least once at employers, universities, government agencies and foundations. Consider that prior to 2004, we could identify only nine programs and today we have 71 programs on the list.

Along with the dramatic increase in career reentry programs, has been more media coverage.  One of our missions is to get return to work success stories in the public domain. All of this is to say that yes, attitudes are shifting.  There is less of a stigma attached to people who choose to take a career break then there was prior to 2004.  It is still a tough process to return, and a solid framework and strategy are required.  But we find employers are much more interested in the merits of the relauncher demographic than in the past, and some are actively seeking to engage with the demographic, especially as a way to access more female experienced hires.

8. What advice do you give to people who are coming back from career break travel? Does it vary based on how long they’ve been on the road?

The strategy for a person returning after a career break for travel shouldn’t be that much different from a return to work strategy due to a career break for another reason. (See this Forbes slide presentation on our 7 Step strategy: http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/23/rejoin-workforce-longtime-unemployment-leadership-careers-jobs_slide.html).  Career breaks of less than a year are viewed differently than multi-year career breaks.  If your break is less than a year, then it could almost be viewed as an equivalent to a maternity leave – that is, short term.  Regardless, in an interview, those returning from travel career breaks should emphasize their broadened worldview as a result of the travel and indicate how this would inform their performance and decision making on the job. Also indicate how refreshed and renewed you are from the experience, and that you are ready to approach your work with excitement, enthusiasm and a fresh perspective. But make sure the conversation is focused first and foremost on why you are such a perfect fit for the particular position and the company. As far as getting the interview in the first place, relaunchers consistently benefit from the personal recommendation. We discuss relauncher networking in detail in Back on the Career Track.

Getting Direct Access to Career-Break-Friendly Employers. Copyright iRelaunch.com

9. What are the unique challenges and advantages that women and men have in getting that first job after a career break?

Challenges:

#1 Employers may view you as technologically obsolete.  We believe this is a temporary problem that can be remedied by taking a course, getting a tutor, or updating yourself, but once you go through this process, you are not technologically obsolete any more.  At iRelaunch, we are offering tech updating classes in PowerPoint and Outlook right now.

#2 Employers may think you do not know what you really want to do career-wise. We tell employers to ask relaunchers if they have done a career assessment and we tell relaunchers they should have a good answer for this question. Some people were on exactly the right career path to begin with before their career break and they can make a strong case for returning to the same type of work. Others realize that they were not on the right career path and want to relaunch in a related or entirely new direction. These relaunchers need to make a strong case that they took an in-depth approach to analyzing their strengths and interests, and took steps to get experience and academic updating to make them strong candidates for their new career directions. This topic is too involved to get into here, but we explore it in great detail in Back on the Career Track and our Relaunch Coaching Circles.

#3 Employers are uncertain about the ramp up rates of relaunchers, once employed.  We argue this is the case for any new hire, but in the case of the relauncher, we suggest the company do a review at 6 months and every 6 months for the first two years to re-calibrate responsibilities and compensation accordingly.  We also recommend employers consider a non-binding, paid internship as a vehicle for re-engaging with the relauncher. Then both parties get to test the working relationship before it becomes permanent.

Advantages:

Relaunchers are at a great life stage to return to work – it is more stable, and typically involves fewer maternity leaves and fewer re-locations.  Relaunchers are more mature and grounded. They are not trying to “find themselves” at an employer’s expense.  The relauncher has great work experience, and for advisory, consultative roles such as financial advisory roles, the relauncher is often the preferred candidate to the new graduate.  Finally, relaunchers are enthusiastic about and excited to return to work precisely because they have been away from work for a while. They are chomping at the bit to return to work.

10. What can people do before they leave that can really help them reenter the job market before they leave for their career break?

Strengthen work relationships with those senior to you, your peers, and also those junior to you. Remember when you are on career break, the junior people are moving up, and are sometimes in a position to open a door for you later on.  Leave when you are at the top of your game with your work performance reputation strong.  Don’t wait until outside circumstances compromise your work performance.  Observe your work environment; do you think you could cover a maternity leave, work on a consulting project, or take on overflow work while you are on career break?  Think about whether these options are realistic now, while you are still at the employer. Take on special work related opportunities that you can more easily access while still employed…let me explain with an example.  A doctor was contemplating leaving her clinical practice.  While she was still employed, she agreed to take on a volunteer adjunct professor role at a nearby medical school where she advised residents and took them on rounds.  When she went on career break she was able to continue in this role at the medical school. She was not sure they would have taken her on in the role if she had approached them while already on career break.  Of course this strategy only works for certain relaunchers and if you are traveling during part of your career break, it is not an option during that time.

11. What is the best way to present your career break to a prospective employer?

It depends why you took the career break and whether it is relevant to your relaunch. First of all make sure you account for it somewhere on your resume. Don’t leave a gap. If you were doing volunteer work that is relevant to your relaunch, you can include that in a section called “Experience” in chronological order, which can include paid and unpaid work.  If you did occasional consulting projects during your career break, you can include these under a heading such as “Carol Fishman Cohen Consulting” and then list them in bullet point format (be brief). But if you took a career break that was not at all relevant to what you want to do, then you may want to include it in the personal section, including dates.  If you took a career break for travel, you may very well want to include it on your resume because you will be able to speak to the way it now informs your outlook and decisions.  The best way to talk about it is briefly and unapologetically.  You want to acknowledge it and then move on to why you are the best person for the job and how excited you are about the prosect of working there.

Employers Giving Their Advice on Reentry After a Career Break. Copyright iRelaunch.com

12. What are the common mistakes you see people make that they should avoid?

I’ll give you three.

#1 Not doing a career assessment. That was my big mistake. I thought that I should return to a finance career simply because I left a finance career. Once I was back in my finance position for about a year I realized I didn’t really want to do financial analysis anymore. I loved business writing and working with people so that’s why I transitioned to what I’m doing now. But I involved a very progressive employer who was willing to hire me after 11 years out of the full time workforce when I could have avoided the situation entirely if I had done a career assessment first.

#2 Getting completely professionally disconnected.  This was another big mistake I made.  I barely even read the newspaper for the six years I was home full time with my four little kids.  So I had to go through a self study program to get myself up to speed in the business world generally and then I did specific updating work on financial products, calculations, and analysis.

#3 Conducting your relaunch efforts in front of your computer.  Instead, you need to get out of the house and meet people in order to get job market intelligence that leads to real opportunities.  This means going to social events, professional conferences, and events put on by professional associations or your alma mater, including reunions!  This is hard work. Because if you put yourself out there, you need to prepare yourself to speak with people about what you want to do. This requires practice.  You need to speak with non-judgmental friends and family while you are practicing talking about yourself and what you want to do. Then you can move on to people you know less well. Essentially, you are doing interview rehearsals. The more of these conversations you have, the better you will sound when it counts, in the interview itself.

13. Tell me about your Return to Work Conferences. Why would I go and what can I expect from attending?

You should go if you are in any stage of your relaunch, from trying to figure out what it is you want to do, to already knowing what you want to do but seeking advice on how to get the word out.  You can expect to get practical strategies and advice, hear how successful relaunchers were able to return to work, hear from employers about their interest in returning professionals, attend workshops on career assessment or networking and marketing yourself, and have the opportunity for unstructured and structured networking with other conference participants and with employers.  Participants consistently report that one of the best parts of the conference was meeting the other attendees. Both employer and relauncher participants are there to learn, from each other and from the people presenting, in a non-intimidating, low pressure environment. That’s one of the reasons we always hold the conference at a university. Finally, you should go if you want to have direct conversations with employers who are interested in hiring you.  This is a great opportunity to be face to face with employers and make personal connections with hiring managers.

14. What are the attending companies looking to get out of the conference?

Companies want to meet relaunchers and to learn about their goals and their challenges.  They want to hear what kind of advice we are giving to relaunchers, and have the opportunity to give advice themselves. They want to hear success stories and learn how companies have successfully reintegrated relaunchers back into the workforce. Some companies want the opportunity to explain their businesses to relaunchers and underscore the challenging employment opportunities they offer. Ultimately, many of the companies participating want to hire relaunchers and are at the conference to meet potential candidates.

15. Any plans to head to the Mid-West or Western US to hold future conferences?

We’ve held the conference twice in Chicago (at Northwestern and the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management) and once in Southern California (at U.C. Irvine).  We hope to bring the event to Northern California in the next year or two.

iRelaunch Founder Carol and Vivian. Copyright iRelaunch.com

16. What is the best way to get started with your site?

Go to www.iRelaunch.com and review the four offerings at the top: the book, conference, coaching circles, and tech updating classes. Then take a look at the success stories.  Right now you have to randomly click on a photo to read the story behind it, but we are re-doing our website and will soon have the stories organized in a more accessible way.  Look at the “iRelaunch in the News” and “Relauncher Resources” blocks on the home page to read relevant articles on relaunching and to discover some great tools to use in your relaunch. Finally, sign up for iRelaunch (here’s the direct link: http://www.irelaunch.com/register.asp). It is free and you will get our monthly newsletter packed with tips, advice, news and events for relaunchers.  You do not have to fill in all of the fields to register.  You may also want to join our LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter groups; click on the appropriate logo on our homepage. Atlanta and Boston area residents, consider attending our Return to Work Confereence! Finally, if you have specific questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@irelaunch.com

If you like this post, sign up for our newsletter or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up with Career Break Secrets’ career break and travel advice.

iRelaunch: Help for Reentry After a Career Break is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

But, that doesn’t mean you don’t have to sell yourself properly and smartly to your prospective employer or recruiter on your return. I’ve asked an experienced career and recruitment pro, Ginnie Clarke, to answer some questions about the best way to handle your job search and how you can leverage your travel experience to land a great job once you return.

1. To start off, I want to get your perspective on how you’ve seen the landscape change on the acceptance of career breaks and sabbaticals from the employers’ point of view.

When I started in executive search nearly 14 years ago, there was a stigma carried by people who were out of work or had chosen to take a break from work.

2.  What has driven this change and increased acceptance

At least 2 factors have helped eliminate that stigma since then. The robustness of the dot.com economy allowed some people to check out of the traditional workforce with wealth even at a young age. The more recent recession caused layoffs of talented people being forced to take a break. We’ve become accustomed to people not working – at least not in traditional jobs.

3. How should you talk about your career break to a recruiter? I’ve heard they tend to have less patience with people returning from a career break.

I think it depends on the recruiter.  Be prepared to describe what brought about the break and why you know you are ready to return. Ideally you can talk about some of the relevant lessons learned from the break that you are bringing back into your work.  The main thing is not to leave questions about commitment, work ethic, state of mind, etc.

4.  How about to a prospective employer? Are there any differences?

Employers might be more tolerant than a recruiter. The recruiter is seeking qualified candidates with as few questions, blemishes or quirks as possible.

5. What are the types of things to play up in talking about your career break or describing it on your resume?

You want to play up purpose, service or personal enhancement versus an extravagant boondoggle. Did you learn a language, build homes, write a book or determine the meaning of life? Also demonstrate that you are current on issues, technology, etc, and that you were not so out of touch that you missed something or lost your competitive edge. You want to be perceived as more compelling and interesting than when you left.

6.  Would you say that there are any definite no-nos?

Don’t dwell on the break, don’t apologize for it either; strike a balance.  An interviewer who has never left the country might be jealous and judgmental whereas a well-traveled person might want to talk more about some of the details of  your break.

7. What reservations or concerns will prospective employers and recruiters tend to have about people coming off a career break?

Employers and recruiters want to make sure you are serious about re-entry and won’t take off again. Hopefully your work record before the break demonstrates your stability and commitment.

8. What are some aspects of candidates that have taken career breaks that would be attractive to potential employers?

Some employers and recruiters will find your curiosity and willingness to take risks attractive. You are a maverick and in some contexts that is appealing.  Your exposure to other cultures and language facility can be attractive to a company with global operations.

9. What are some steps that career breakers can take before they leave to make it easier for them when they return to find a job?

Do some networking in professional associations or circles where you might be looking when you return to put the word out about what you are doing and why.  Unexplained absences raise questions.  Even send periodic notes to a few associates while away about what you are learning.  Use social media (FB, LinkedIn) as a tasteful, educational scrapbook to share with friends and associates.

10. How have you seen career breaks benefit people and their careers over the longer term?

I’ve seen people return with a different perspective about work and their purpose in life.

11. Finally, what advice do you have for someone thinking about a taking a career break?

Think beyond the trip about what skills, lessons or messages you want to bring back to incorporate into your work life. Be aware of the timing of your departure relative to the state of the economy and be conservative about how long landing a new job will take when you get back; plan for it. Go have a great time and come back rested and refreshed!

Career Expert and Author, Ginnie Clarke

Ginny Clarke is an expert in talent and career management and executive coaching. Her firm, Talent Optimization Partners, LLC, is a talent management consulting firm.  Prior to forming her own firm in 2009, Ginny was a partner at Spencer Stuart, the global executive search firm. She is the author of the forthcoming book titled “Career Mapping: Charting Your Course in the New World of Work” which has an April 2011 release date.  See her web site and blogs at www.mycareermapping.com.

If you like this post, sign up for our newsletter or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up with Career Break Secrets’ career break and travel advice.

How to Deal With Your Resume Gap and Sell Yourself After a Career Break is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures