Back in the Saddle

The simplest way to return to the workforce after leaving it for many years is to look for a job in the same line of work as your previous job. This is easiest to do for jobs that have not changed much. However, if you were in a profession that has changed significantly while you were out of the workforce, this can be quite challenging. For example, the graphics profession has changed dramatically with the explosion of blogs and web design and skills from ten years ago would be outdated. Fortunately, this was not the case in Nancy Addison's* situation.

Prior to leaving the workforce, Nancy held a number of different positions. She worked in market research, accounting, sales forecasting and other finance-related positions. Her plan had always been to return to the workforce after her kids grew up, but life took an unexpected turn when her husband was laid off. After many months of watching their savings dwindle, Nancy and her husband decided she should start looking for work sooner rather than later.

When someone has been out of work for a long period of time it is often difficult to figure out what kind of job to look for. Since Nancy had to find a job soon, she focused on what she knew best, finance-related jobs. She was fortunate in that these jobs had not significantly changed over the last decade, so her previous experience was very relevant. She let her friends know she was looking for work and applied to over twenty-five jobs. After several months of searching, one of her former colleagues knew of a job opening at her company and helped Nancy submit her resume and get an interview. Nancy leveraged her background in sales operations and landed a position doing sales forecasting.

_{* Fictitious name is used to protect the privacy of the job seeker.}