Your Next Life — Framing a Career Time Out
Sep 15 2008
Lance Armstrong is best remembered as the first American to win the 2,032-mile Tour de France seven consecutive times. His achievement assumes even greater significance when you consider that each of his victories came after surviving metastatic testicular cancer. Reflecting on his recovery and return to competitive athletics, Armstrong noted that “we all have unrealized capacities that sometimes only emerge in crisis.”
Properly framing a résumé break and recalibrating your expectations following a severe illness or an absence from the workforce for childcare or family support duties can turn an interview quagmire into a cakewalk. First, prepare for your reentry into the workforce by keeping a chronicle of your thoughts and accomplishments while you’re not working full time. Whether it’s organizing a family reunion, dealing with the pain of chemotherapy or other medical treatments, or a passing entrepreneurial idea, write it all down. It will be much easier to recall your greatest strengths when composing your next résumé. Plus, making notes of your experiences and ideas will help to clarify your thinking as you plan the timing and focus of your reentry into the workforce.
Next, recognize that a résumé break will cause some loss of career momentum, and you might be behind your peers in terms of title and stature. Also consider that the vast majority of interviewers respect candor and honesty in potential employees. When talking about cancer or illness, borrow a line from Armstrong and characterize yourself as a winner who overcame difficult challenges. From a practical standpoint, employers have little cause for concern, since the median job tenure in the U.S. is about five years, which is less than the median survival rate for many cancers in remission. However, it’s best to avoid dwelling on your recent illness. Strive to mitigate employer concerns by emphasizing energy and focus, and cast your medical issues as in the past.
For a return to work following pregnancy or childcare, Mary Quigley and Loretta Kaufman note in their book Going Back to Work: A Survival Guide for Comeback Moms (St. Martin’s Press, 2004) that parenting engenders patience, balance, and humility, among other factors. “Emphasize skills and qualifications from previous work experience (no matter how long ago it was), community and school-based activities, and managing a household to create the image of an active, intellectually engaged professional.” If pressed regarding childcare or family responsibilities, Quigley and Kaufman recommend emphasizing that “you’re excited to resume your career, all arrangements are in place, and you are looking forward to getting started … at this company.”
It’s often helpful to begin restarting a career by attending conferences, lectures, and college alumni events. In addition, consider taking a college course to refresh your skills, increase exposure to new thinking, and test childcare arrangements. Moreover, college professors make excellent employment references. As you transition to active networking and interviewing, the goal is to present yourself as a serious professional who is energetic, affable, and willing to work hard to get a career restarted.
About the author: Jim Carman is a graduate of the MIT Sloan School of Management and a retired Navy captain. He writes and lectures on career transition topics.
