Arrival of a baby, sabbatical year, trip around the world … Have you chosen to take a professional break and now want to reintegrate the labor market? Good news, this combination could well boost your future applications.
Taking up a job after a long break may seem discouraging. Whether it is to raise children, take care of a loved one, or simply take time for yourself, a career interruption creates a real obstacle to reintegration into the labor market. Fortunately, there is a simple and effective solution to overcome this challenge and restore your CV.
For example, up to 11 % of women who took maternity leave choose to leave their jobs to devote themselves to their families. Although this decision is often necessary, it complicates the return to work. Amelia and Lydia Miller, founder of the IVEE company – dedicated to supporting women after a long career break – explain that more and more companies use candidates management software that filters CVs, dismissing those mentioning a prolonged interruption, such as parental leave. Result: mothers find themselves, for example, excluded from recruitment processes without even having had the chance to defend their candidacy in the face of the potential employer.
Thus, to avoid this, the two specialists recommend avoiding the term “career interruption” or even leaving a blank to your application file. Rather, they advise to highlight this period thanks to the different skills and experiences acquired during this time. More concretely, if you have taken responsibilities in volunteer activities, if you have managed freelance projects, or even if you have taken initiatives within the community for which you have devoted yourself, all these experiences are precious. They will testify to your capacity in management, communication, organization, and leadership, that is all skills sought by recruiters.
The idea is to prove that, even outside the traditional framework of employee employment, you have continued to develop faculties. In addition, they recommend adding recent activities to your CV, ideally within six months preceding your job search. This will show that you are ready to regain service and that you are not “disconnected” from the professional sphere. As you can see, it is this approach that will allow you to overcome the filters of recruitment software and increase your chances of finding a job quickly.
