Back to Work - Part 2

This continues the discussion of my return to work: the trials (a lot of these) and the triumphs (not so many of these). You can read Part 1 here.

Back to Work – Part 2

Once I finally made the decision that I had to return to work, I thought it would be easy. Um…no. Part of me forgot a few things:

·        I had been out of the workforce for 11 years.

·        The economy stunk.

·        Full-time jobs were not as plentiful as they once were.

·        Finding work is much more complicated than it used to be.

It also has to be mentioned that I hadn’t put together a solid resume in years. Yes, I kept mine up to date, and even had a few versions of it depending upon what type of position I was applying for, but things had changed in the years I was home.

There are now employment websites like Monster.com and Indeed.com. Most companies expect you to apply online and they are only looking for job history going back ten years or less (most of my retail and financial industry experience was older than that). And don’t even get me started on trying to use certain keywords that need to get picked up by computers if your resume is ever going to make it in front of hiring personnel.

So, what did I do? I read. Unbeatable Resumes by Tony Beshara and This Is How You Get Your Next Job by Andrea Kay, to name a couple. More importantly, I began praying in earnest for a solution. I knew I would never be comfortable trying to balance my family life and career working outside the home. It was why I pushed off my return to work for so long.

I ended up with a couple of interviews based upon my freshly polished resume, but nothing panned out. That’s when I got contacted by someone through LinkedIn.

To be continued….