Category Archives: Career Advice

After a Career Break, How to Find a Suitable Job

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Finding a suitable job after a break may be challenging. Most employers would not consider your work experience prior to the career break and consider you as an entry level once again. But don’t lose heart, you still have a chance to land your dream job after a break. Here are some tips on how to find a suitable job after a career break.

Assurance. You have to assure your employer that you will be staying with them to work and not go on a break once again. Employers need assurance that they can rely on you to do the task, complete it and not abandon it. This means that you have to explain clearly during the interview the reason why you had a break. A well-explained rational reason is acceptable and takes away the doubt from the employer’s mind.

Knowledge and Skills. You have to be able to show that you still have the knowledge and skills that you have prior the career break and even better after the career break. You should be able to improve your knowledge and skills even during the break. This means that even though you are not working on your career, you are still learning new things and developing your skills. You still have to be updated on the latest things happening on your industry.

Adaptability. You should be able to adapt to new technology and development that occurred while you are on break. You cannot expect that the same tools you were using prior the break would still be the same ones that you will use when you make a career comeback. With the rapid changes in technology and computers, everything gets upgraded to become a better version of the original or prior versions.

Flexibility. You should be flexible enough to take on new roles after the career break. Roles can be related to or not to your prior work experience. You can change roles and engage in a career that is related to the skills you developed while on break. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be coming back to the same career you had prior to the break.

Networking. You should be able to keep in touch with former colleagues and bosses even during your career break. These people can help you once you are ready to come back. They can rehire you or recommend you as they already know your skills and attitude towards work.

Confidence. You should be able to exude confidence that you are now ready for a career come back. No trace of regrets should be shown on having a break rather a positive outlook that there are good reasons for the break and you have benefitted from it. The experiences you had during the career break could actually contribute to your next career.

These are only a few things to keep in mind when planning a career break or while at the middle of a career break or even after a break in the career. What’s important is the decision to come back and face new challenges.

Career and Corporate Life Management Mentorship

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Career and Corporate Life Management Mentorship is an integral part of the holistic human capital development, and yet most ignored by the working professionals. Over many years I have observed how so many professionals go through frustrations in corporate. Such could be avoided if they could engage corporate life mentors. We require mentors that have been there and seen it all. They will accompany corporate professionals through all the A to Z stages of their career lives. That is from deciding on the career direction, to the exiting stage.

What is concerning is that very few professionals see a need to have Career and Corporate Life Management Project that is informed by their life purpose. Many are caught napping when things do not go as expected. They find themselves reacting and in many cases the steps taken are misplaced.

A mentor will alert you, especially when everything seems to be happening smoothly and you are enjoying harmony. That is when you should be preparing for all the possibilities. This does not mean that we have to be paranoid. It is necessary to make our lives happen, rather than chasing after events when they have already happened. We must direct our lives as we wish them to be. There will be times when we do not succeed. But when we make a miss we will not fall far from our targets.

Career Management ought to be an activity from cradle to grave. The corporate life is just part of our bigger life journey. It should not be allowed to throw us out of balance and run havoc with our lives. It must add to our holistic life journey, and not become our journey by itself.

If we had a solid foundation early in our holistic human capital development, guided by our early life mentors, through to corporate and beyond, we ought to be victors in our journey. I have never heard of anyone who has succeeded in life without being assisted by others. We forget such mentors and supporters by choice and ignorance. But we are often reminded of such people when things fall apart. It is often difficult to go to them when we are in trouble, because we are ashamed that we cut connections with them. Mentorship must be a life-long practice, and be accessed through all our holistic human capital development stages.

The best gift for your mentors is to be successful in taking your life forward. The mistake you must not make is to think that you no longer need other people’s help, and you can make it on your own. Life will humble you. Everyone in your life is a gift and they matter until the end of your life.

Career and Corporate Life Management is not a straight line. However, we must master the following generic phases: career development education → enter first job → technician → admin → functional → specialist → supervisory → management → leadership → executive → directorship → board role → retirement → post retirement roles.

At any of the above stages one must be able to exit and take other opportunities that might present them. It is this detour that could throw one out of complete balance, or take one back and fro.

In many cases our career growth is disrupted by ourselves as a result of misreading unexpected developments. For example we resign from our current jobs thinking that we are accelerating our growth or maximizing our earnings, only to find that over a long-term we might have taken our growth ten steps backward.

On the other end the detour is necessary and could be a calling to enter entrepreneurship, self-employment, consultancy, academic, professional, and a complete career change. Such developments must be anticipated and find us ready when they happen. Sometimes the window of opportunity is so small and we must squeeze in momentarily.

Corporate life has its own dynamics. There are many sub-cultures that may not be obvious to us. We cannot be blind and naive to such complexities. Mentors are valuable in helping us deal with such dynamics.

Corporate savvy is what we all need to survive in corporate life. We must also know when we have become corporate change agents and play such roles with responsibility. Take strategic decision to influence the culture of your corporate progressively. If you are not cut out to handle corporate dynamics and complexities you must also be aware of your limitations. It is wise to accept your limitations and make decisive steps to take a different direction that enhances your career management project.

Do not leave your career and corporate life management to chances. Own up and be guided by your bigger purpose in life. Let your mentor be your daily partner. Invest personally in your mentorship program. The returns will surpass all the investments, efforts, and energies spend on your holistic career and corporate life management.

Your attitude to corporate politics, dynamics, and culture determines your success or failure. You decided to apply and join the corporate on your own. Nobody owes you anything. Be a player of the corporate game. Be the best at it. But remember you are not special. You owe it to yourself to be successful.