Relaunching Your Career after a Career Break (Going back to school)

Authors Notes: A Career Break is a dedicated time away from your job. It may be something that is planned for or something that is unforeseen. Traditionally, women have taken career breaks to raise children but more and more men are taking on a stay-at-home role in the family while their partners pursue career goals and can also benefit from career relaunch discussions.

I recently attended the conference; iRelaunch hosted by Arrow Electronics, where CEO of iRelaunch, Carol Fishman Cohen, gave some great insight and advice to jump start your career re-entry and since many of our MSU Denver Alumni may not have been able to attend I wanted to share with you some steps in Relaunching your Career after a Career Break I took away from the experience.

A recently completed degree in a new field of interest could be the reason you are going through a career shift but if that's not the case, expanding your knowledge can be very helpful in your career relaunch efforts. Remember how excited you use to be when you got the opportunity to learn something new in an area of great interest? That excitement will give you better speaking points in your networking efforts and on interviews. 

Going back to school is a scary thought for many people because it can be so expensive to earn a degree now days. First lets establish that gaining knowledge no longer has to only come from a college classroom and certainly doesn't have to cost your hundreds of thousands of dollars. The creation of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) has put the availability of college level knowledge at your finger tips. If you haven't completed a degree or you are looking to make a total career shift, significant academic training might be needed, but it is going to depend on the job you're interested in. 

When working in admissions I often spoke to adults that were on the verge of making the same mistakes they made the first time they tried to complete their degrees right out of high school. 99.9 % of those students I worked with did absolutely zero research on the education requirements for the positions they were interested in before calling the university.

Unfortunately, the older you get the less time you have to waste. Let's be honest, earning another degree or completing an incomplete program could take 3-4 additional years of study (no matter how many years you've previously spent working towards a degree initially), and those years can feel more like dog years then actual years. Nobody has time to spend working towards a degree with no idea what the results could be once you are done. Hoping against hope that degree will get you a job. Let me break some news to you that we all know but universities don't want us to talk about; degrees don't get people jobs, degrees keep your resume from being thrown in the trash during the screening processes. 

We've already talked about this career break being a chance to do something you are truly passionate about, however, college degrees don't translate into actual careers. What I suggest is starting backwards. Search for jobs you'd be interested in doing. Job search engines likes Indeed.com can be a very helpful resource for this exercise, because it pulls jobs from all the other job search sites like Monster or Career Builder into one easy web search. Say you want to relocate as well, Indeed also pulls jobs from regional and local job search sites you may not know about, like the Colorado Non-Profit Association job board. You don't have to be aware of every job board when you use Indeed, they do the hard work for you. 

Now that you are aware of the exact education requirements for your dream job you can begin your search for institutions, associations, or organizations that might be able to help you expand your knowledge and earn those credentials. 

Carol recommends looking for programs with field study or capstone projects. I absolutely agree, here's why, these opportunities give you real world experience and introduce you to research projects that will bring you up-to-speed with what's been happening in the world during your career break. Technology has forced every industry to undergo rapid change so never assume things are the same as they were when you were working. Nothing is the same as they were when I started my career 12 years ago (and that's not that long ago, at least that's what I am telling myself these days). Technology changes the world as we know it every 2-3 years, so even if you haven't been separated from the working world very long doesn't mean things are still the same. Take 'the cloud' for example, there was no such thing as cloud computing and storage just 3 years ago.  We were still running around saving files to a jump drive, now you don't need to save anything because it automatically happens when using more recent technology. That's an important technical change you need to understand so you can understand how most programs work now. 

Certificate programs are a great, inexpensive way to learn new skills and gain knowledge if you already have a degree. Most universities have certificate programs but so do professional associations. Professional associations will give you the added opportunities to network with like minded professionals and offer certificates that are relevant and  support your career goals. 

Don't underestimate the power of self-directed study. This can be in the form of online tutorials. You-Tube houses a wealth of information from how-to videos to simple advice finding legit work-from-home opportunities for new mommies. I'm currently learning how to use the new Adobe Suite because the last time I opened Photoshop was more than a decade ago-things have changed.

Oh which leads me to my final point, remember when typing was a 'marketable' skill, now its assumed that you know how to type. Soon knowing how to code will move from a marketable skill to something that is expected. I knew this 10 years ago and did nothing about it, now I'm trying to play catch-up. If there is technology you are unfamiliar with, becoming more familiar with them will go a long way in showing your dedication to helping your new team and not holding them back. 

As you see, going back to school, is a topic I can go on and on about. I spent 10 of my last 13 professional years working in college admissions. If you need someone to further discuss education advancement with feel free to reach out to MSU Denver's Alumni Relations office and schedule an appointment with me. I'd be more than happy to share my knowledge.  

Thanks for reading. You can connect on Twitter at: @ColoradoKandi. Please follow me as I plan to provide more useful career advice throughout the year.

To learn more about me and my role at MSU Denver:https://www.msudenver.edu/searchchannel/jsp/directoryprofile/profile.jsp?uName=brownkan

================================

 For other relaunch advice and resources we encourage you to visit MSU Denver Alumni Career Services. Many of our career resources are free or deeply discounted for MSU Denver alumni.  Services are also available to community members in the alumni and career services offices. To book an appointment call us at: 303-556-8320 or send us an email at [email protected]