What's harder than searching for a job in today's market? Try finding a job after an extended absence.
Workers interrupt their careers for many reasons. Women drop out of power jobs to raise their children. People have accidents or health problems that require rehabilitation or lengthy treatments. Baby boomers find themselves needing to care for aging or ill parents. Workers who have held long-tenured positions face plant closings or layoffs.
Even retirees, who once slammed the office door to go fishing or move to Florida, are starting new companies or going back to work - out of boredom or necessity. A 2005 Putnam Investments survey of working retirees found that about 7 million U.S. workers - one of every 10 employees older than 40 - has retired at least once. It seems the final goodbye has turned into a brief pause before the second or third career.
While many people leave and later return to work, the re-entry is not without challenges. Those who stay out of the market too long often find, like Dorothy, that they're "not in Kansas anymore." The jobs have changed, and the landscape of searching for work is different.
Seven years ago, Abby Blair left a fast-paced job as a telecommunications sales manager because the travel required took her away from her two young children. She also had dabbled in the "temp" industry and thought she might return to that field.
"I quickly learned that it wasn't even called the temp industry anymore. It's now the staffing industry, because staffing agencies are filling permanent positions, as well as temporary and temp-to-hire ones," Blair said. "With computer technology, small to midsize companies can post a position online, but they're not equipped to sort through the thousands of résumés they get in response. Many look to staffing companies to find the people they need."
Like many returning workers, Blair found out that she couldn't go back to where she had left off, nor did she want to, because her priorities had changed. With children, she needed to balance work and family life. Blair recently had moved to Atlanta and had no connections, so she began going to job fairs.
"I didn't expect to interview there, but that's how I got this job," she said. For a year, she's been branch manager of the North Point office of Randstad USA, helping other returning and new workers find employment.
Blair faced the steep learning curve of new technology and also the reworking of family expectations, since "mom" was now in the office 40 hours a week. There's more teamwork at home now.
Guilt often accompanies mothers who go back to work, noted Elizabeth Kern, a recent client of Blair's office, now working in a law office. She said she had pondered the value of "doing for [her] children, versus modeling for [her] children a balance of work and life." She thought the latter would help her children lead more rewarding lives.
Kern recommended that returning workers seek help from a staffing agency or employment center to help bolster résumé weaknesses and learn new skills.
"A staffing agency is a soft place to fall when you're just starting to search," Blair said. "We can help identify the challenges. Many people tell us that they've sent out résumés but can't get an interview. You still have to get in front of somebody, because employers want a personality match as well as a skills match.
"Employers want people who can hit the ground running, and they perceive that people who have been out of the work force may not be able to do that. When they see someone with good skills who has been a good employee, however, they're snapping [that candidate] up."
Career centers - like those of the Georgia Department of Labor (www.dol.state.ga.us) and the federal government's One-Stop Career Centers (www.careeronestop.org or www.servicelocator.org) - and staffing companies help people figure out what they want to do, assess skills, upgrade résumés and learn computer technology.
"We're honest about workplace expectations - that you need to know Word, Excel and Microsoft Office, and that if you're looking to work 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., those opportunities are rare," Blair said. "We can also help with the sticker shock of job offers," such as higher employee contributions for benefits.
Career coaches advise applicants to be honest about employment gaps but to minimize them by using a functional, rather than chronological, résumé that emphasizes skills and accomplishments. Getting retraining and taking a less responsible role may get your foot in the door.
"A lot of people want a lesser role, not because they're not qualified or ambitious, but because their lives have changed, and most people who want to return to work, do so," Blair said.
Industries with worker shortages - such as health care and education - are welcoming experienced workers and finding ways to ease their transitions back to work.
Looking to attract and retain nurses, Emory Healthcare established a successful nurse re-entry program in 2000.
"Alice Vautier, our [chief nursing officer], noticed that the state board had quite a few nurses listed with licenses who weren't working. It seemed like an untapped group, so we worked with the board to create a refresher course," said Marti Wilson, manager of nursing special projects at Emory Healthcare.
Emory hires qualified nurses who have been out of hospital nursing for more than four years and pays them to attend an eight-week training course, where they gradually work in units of their choice with a preceptor (a trainer within the unit), until they are comfortable working alone. Over the years, Wilson has added more pharmacology, critical thinking and organizational skills to the training.
"It's intimidating going back into nursing today, because the technology has totally changed and you need computer skills," Wilson said. "Also, hospitals now get only the sickest-of-the-sick patients. Nurses have fewer patients, but the work is more intense."
She said returning nurses need to "unlearn" old practices, as hospitals continually update their methods based on new research, and to adjust to 12-hour shifts, which can be a challenge for some older nurses.
"Emory has a fabulous re-entry program," said Laura Austin, who has been nursing on a surgical floor since 2001. "It's a well-rounded schedule of classes, followed by gradual working on the floor with a preceptor until you feel competent - and they pay you while you're learning, compared to some re-entry programs where you have to pay them."
Austin, who had been transferred frequently with her husband and never had gotten her license in Georgia, said that Emory's program has allowed her to help pay for her daughters' college education while doing what she loves.
Hiring people first and then retraining them has been critical to the success of Emory's program, Wilson said. "We ask them what they want to do and place them accordingly, so that they feel a part of the team from the start."
Training with other re-entry nurses, they form bonds and encourage one another. Mary Duffie, who had worked in home health care management for many years, came back to the bedside after 26 years. She works in the orthopedic-neurological unit at Emory Crawford Long Hospital.
"It was a whole new world and a real eye-opener, but I'm so glad I did it. It felt good to be learning and to have my skills back," she said.
When Janie Thompson lost her husband to Lou Gehrig's disease two years ago, she needed to change her life. She had worked in a clinic, but not in a hospital since 1974.
"I was so scared. I wanted my skills to be good enough to help people and wondered if I could function in the workplace," said Thompson, a cardiac critical care nurse.
"Everything was new, all the equipment had changed, but they really prepared me. It was really cathartic to get back to work and something to be really proud of."
Re-entry gave Stacey London an opportunity to switch specialties.
"I had been a psychiatric nurse for nine years, but then my mom died of cancer, and I made a life-changing decision to work in oncology. I hadn't used my medical skills in years," London said. "I kept asking myself how to make it happen. Who would hire me without skills and experience? This program perfectly fit my needs."
London asked to be put on the bone marrow transplant floor because she wanted to learn an oncology specialty. Now she's a preceptor to other new hires.
"We don't limit what re-entry nurses can do, and the program has been good for us because we've gotten some great employees. Some have gone on to become charge nurses and preceptors," Wilson said. "They work in the operating room, ER, ICU, wherever they have past experience or an interest and can be most successful."
About 100 nurses, ages 30 to over 60, have gone through the program, which has become a model for getting nurses back to work.