4 Tips for Restarting Your Career After a Long Break

4 Tips for Restarting Your Career After a Long Break We now live in a post-job-for-life world, where sabbaticals, contingent work, self-employment, long-term unemployment, andmultiple career changes are all the new normal. This state of affairs hascreated record levels of career mobility but it has also lead to more uneven career paths. Extended breaks from the workforce used to be pretty uncommon, but these days, theyre not all that unusual.Unfortunately, returning to work after a break from your career poses a unique challenge, which is why wed like to offer some tips to help you reanimate your career after a long time away.1. Start Networking to Access the Hidden Job MarketSources suggest that as many as 80 percent of available jobsare never publicly advertised. These secret openings comprise the hidden job market and the only way to tap into this market is by networking smartly.Two to threemo nths before you plan to return to work, start talking to friends, family members, former coworkers, and so on, about potential opportunities they may know of. Chances are that at least one of them will know about and maybe even refer you to an unadvertised job opening. If you can get into the running early and with a glowing reference then you greatly increase your chances of landing the job.2. Get Plenty of RecommendationsEven if your network cant help you find a position in the hidden job market, it can probably help you find the next best thing an influential inside contact who can vouch for your character and skill.Having an influential contact on your side is a great thing, as studies show that people who are referred are twice as likely to be called to vorstellungsgesprch and 40 percent more likely to be offered a job.If you do find a strong contact at a company youd like to work for, consider sending in a speculative application, using your reference boost your appeal and get on the employers radar.However, you dont want to just drop the references name. Rather, you want to ensure that the reference is actually attesting to a particular skill or valuable business quality that you possess. If your reference is just a flashy name, your speculative application wont garner any attention.3. Emphasize Your Transferable SkillsMany employers (and job seekers) wrongly assume that long-term unemployment always leads to a loss of skills. The reality, however, is that a long break away from the workplace can actuallyboostyour skills.For example,a survey from CareerBuilderfound that taking a career break to be a stay-at-home parent for a while helps people develop some highly valuable skills. More than 66 percent of hiring managers surveyed by CareerBuilder said that parenting skills can be very relevant to the corporate world.Some examples of highly valued parenting skills includePatienceAbility to multitaskTime managementConflict managementProblem-solvingEmpat hyMentoringNegotiationBudgeting and finance managementProject managementDespite the value of these parenting skills, just 8 percent of parents mention these skills in their applications, meaning many parents are missing a greatopportunity to impress prospective employers.So, if you are a parent returning to work after a long break, make sure to play up your highly valuable parenting skills during the application and interview processes.4. Emphasize What You Have LearnedAs mentioned above, a career break can be a great way to develop new skills.No matter what those skills are or how you learned them be sure to emphasize them in your resume.For example, perhaps you did a little freelance work while you were away from your career, and this has helped you develop greater levels of business acumen. Or perhaps you used your free time to teach yourself a new language or some coding skills.Whatever the case, you want to be positive and give employers the impression that your life away fro m the workforce has benefited you. Moreover, you want employers to know that youll be able to pass along these benefits to them if they hire you, that is.-There is no doubt that coming back from a career break is a unique challenge, but with a positive approach and a finely tunedjob search strategy, you should be able to pick your career up where you left off with relative ease.