Arrival of a baby, sabbatical year, trip around the world… Have you chosen to take a professional break and now wish to re-enter the job market? Good news, this combination could well boost your future applications.
Returning to work after a long break can seem daunting. 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 job market. Fortunately, there is a simple and effective solution to overcome this challenge and spruce up your CV.
For example, up to 11% of women who have taken maternity leave choose to leave their job to focus on their family. Although this decision is often necessary, it complicates the return to work. Amelia and Lydia Miller, founders of the company Ivee – dedicated to supporting women after a long career break – explain that more and more companies are using application management software that filters CVs, discarding those mentioning an extended 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 to the potential employer.
So, to avoid this, the two specialists recommend avoiding the term “career interruption” or even leaving a blank in your application file. Instead, they advise highlighting this period thanks to the different skills and experiences acquired during this time. More concretely, if you have taken responsibility for volunteer activities, if you have managed freelance projects, or even if you have taken initiatives within the community for which you have dedicated yourself, all of these experiences are valuable. They will demonstrate your abilities in management, communication, organization, and leadership, all skills sought by recruiters.
The idea is to prove that, even outside the traditional framework of salaried employment, you have continued to develop skills. Additionally, they recommend adding recent activities to your resume, ideally within six months before your job search. This will show that you are ready to return to service and that you are not “disconnected” from the professional sphere. As you will have understood, it is this approach that will allow you to bypass the filters of recruitment software and increase your chances of finding a job quickly.
