How to Prepare for a Career Break Like a Pro: 6 Tips to Set Yourself Up for Success
Inside: Taking a career break? Whether your break is by choice or by circumstance, there are ways you can prepare and set yourself up for success. Tips to make the transition from working mom (or dad!) to stay-at-home mom (or dad!) or get ready for a career pivot.
As a mid-career professional, you’re also a mid-life human.
Or at least pretty darn close to mid-life!
And with mid-life comes a lot of LIFE. Children, elderly parents, company lay-offs, rough job markets, medical needs, changes to the political climate, and the hopefully once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic.
All of these factors (and more) can lead mid-career professionals to take a career break (a step out of the paid workforce for a period of time with the intention to return). In fact, career breaks are relatively common.
The 2018 “Women in the Workplace” report by Lean In and McKinsey noted that 43% of women and 24% of men, take career breaks to focus on family. If that study were to be done today post the COVID-19 pandemic, we’d likely be looking at even higher numbers, and that is only taking into consideration career breaks for family needs, not the other factors I mentioned earlier!
With all that in mind, we know that sometimes a career break is a choice. Sometimes, a career break is a financial or medical necessity. And sometimes, a career break is entirely out of your control. (Hello, job market for the past year.)
But if you know a career break is coming for you, or might be coming in the near future, there are some things you can do to prepare.
Prepare Your Career Break Talking Points
One of the most common challenges I see for mid-career professionals on a career break is that their confidence takes a hit. Whether the break was a choice or not, being separated from your professional identity for a period of time can leave you feeling uncomfortable, confused, or shaky. That’s normal!
But I find that there is a ton of power, and confidence, that can come from finding the right language to tell your story.
Think about your career break as an opportunity instead of a negative, and frame how you talk about it to others in that light. Often using the terms “taking a sabbatical” and “had the opportunity” helps people to feel differently about their break and confidently explain what they are excited about doing after a break.
Sample Talking Points
For example, if you’re taking a career break to care for family members, your framing can look like this: “After 15 years in tech marketing, I had the opportunity to take a sabbatical from my career to focus my time on family needs.”
And if you experience a layoff and are on a career break that wasn’t a choice, try something like this: “I’m a software engineer with expertise in X, but recently my company went through a significant restructuring. While it was unexpected, I’ve found this change has given me the opportunity to focus on X, Y, Z during this time period while I consider next steps in line with my career goals.”
Lead with intention and focus on the good while still giving yourself credit for all of the professional experience you’ll bring back with you into a new role in the future.
Update Your Resume Before a Career Break
Now, let’s take the time to update your resume right now before you forget!
You likely haven’t updated your resume in a hot second or two if you’ve been in the same role or company for a while. That means it’s missing all of the awesome you’ve been working on recently, and when it comes time to apply to a new job, you might forget the details.
Pull out your existing resume to add in your most recent positions, including key accomplishments, and you’ll be thanking me later! If you need a new resume template or some help thinking about how to update your resume, I’ve got you covered!
Track Your Career Break Accomplishments
Speaking of all the great things you’re going to be adding to your resume, you’re going to be doing a lot of great things during your career break, too!
For example, you may be spending time homeschooling, volunteering in your community, or taking on freelance work. All of those things, whether paid or not, are helping you develop and hone skills that will be valuable in your future job search.
To keep track of your activities during this time, create an accomplishment tracker like the one below. It breaks down all the cool stuff you’re doing into projects, problems you helped solve, actions you took, and the results of your work. It also includes a column to write down the skills you used while working on these projects. Refer back to this when you’re getting ready to update your resume again or interview.
Connect on LinkedIn
When you’re getting ready to leave a paid job for a career break, make sure you take the time to connect with your co-workers, past and present, on LinkedIn.
Relationships matter in your career, and like other social media platforms, LinkedIn helps you stay up-to-date with your contacts. Check in on LinkedIn from time to time, just like you would with Instagram or Facebook, and see what your connections are up to. Comment on posts of interest to you, congratulate connections on promotions or new jobs, share articles related to your field. In other words – stay active with your network!
Another nice touch? In some circumstances, a nice “goodbye and thank you” post on LinkedIn letting your network know what you’ve learned in your recent work and what you hope to take with you going forward can be a good move. If you’re leaving on difficult terms, perhaps this isn’t the best way to go, but if you’ve had a positive experience and can share this in a good light, go for it!
Take Time for Self-Assessment
You know all those Buzzfeed quizzes you take to see what type of Girl Scout Cookie you are based on your personality? No? Just me? (I’m a Caramel deLite.)
Pretty amazing that you had time for those quizzes while working full time, right? Your plate was quite full, but you still found a few minutes to get to know yourself a little better by way of online quiz. Did you know you can do the same thing but with personality tests that tell you about your career?
When you’re preparing for a career break, check out these free personality tests that each take less than 15 minutes to complete. Or you can go deeper with one my favorites that I use regularly in coaching, Clifton Strengths. You’ll learn a lot about yourself, your skills, your strengths, and what might be holding you back. All that information can help you think about your next steps for the immediate future and beyond.
You can also take all of this information about yourself to a career coaching session now or when you’re ready to jump back into paid work!
Celebrate!
Celebrate? That’s a weird one, Becca… But hang in there with me!
If you’ve been wanting to take a career break in order to spend more time with your kids or focus on pivoting in your career, then check you out! You’re doing it!
Maybe this isn’t exactly how you pictured this break happening, especially if a job loss or unexpected childcare needs forced your hand. But still, you’re here, you’re doing it! Celebrate that win!
Or perhaps as you head into this break, you have an idea for a business that you’ve never been able to pursue before or dreams of pivoting into a different industry, but you haven’t had time to think about it. Perhaps now is the time to take a real pause and figure out what your next steps could be.
Now, I know that you aren’t going to be swimming in time if you’re taking a break from your career for childcare or homeschooling. But without an additional full-time job on your plate, your mental capacity for thinking through all the things you want to do and accomplish next in your life is freed up. That’s cause for celebration too!
Remember to focus on what success looks like to you, not Nancy down the street, not your great Aunt Lottie. Then remember all the greatness that is coming along with your career break, and all the greatness you are bringing to every area of your life, and lift a glass to the awesomeness that is YOU! That kind of confidence is going to take you so far.
Make the Most of Your Career Break
I’m a big proponent of making your career a meaningful and fulfilling part of your life, but it’s not your whole life. To paraphrase the great Moira Rose of Schitt’s Creek fame, taking a break from your career is “an exciting new chapter in the audiobook of your life.”
Enjoy this time, embrace this time, and know that when you’re ready to jump to the next chapter, we’ll all be excited to read it!
Read More:
Download Your Free Resume Template
Stay-at-Home Mom Transferable Skills to Include on Your Resume
How to Find Flexible and At-Home Jobs for Moms: FlexJobs Review
