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Absence from the job market does not make employers
grow fonder of a job candidate. Quite the opposite. People who are
unemployed for a lengthy period of time -- two years or more --
face an incredulous audience when it comes to auditioning for a
full-time position.
There are many reasons for taking a protracted break
between jobs. Women often drop out of the work force to raise a
family or care for an elderly parent. Military careerists might
retire early and then apply for civilian jobs. People who are laid
off in financially-troubled industries might discover that it takes
time to find a new job, and it may even entail training for a different
career.
Regardless of why you've been out of work for an extended
period, you need to assess what you want in a position before you
even start looking for employment. Figure out the type of job and
lifestyle you want. Chances are that your needs and interests may
have changed since your last job.
Maybe you were in finance and now you're more interested
in health care after caring for your dad who had Alzheimer's disease.
Or maybe you've decided to ditch sales, which you were good at but
didn't love, in exchange for doing something that pays less but
is more personally rewarding, such as working as the head fundraiser
at a nonprofit.
Here's how to win over employers and return to work.
Be flexible in your approach
While it's good to examine your interests, also weigh them against
job opportunities. Tom Johnston, president and CEO of the Cleveland-based
recruitment firm SearchPath International, had a client who had
retired from running his own company. After a couple of years of
rest and relaxation, he wanted to get back into the work force,
but his dream job turned out to be a pipe dream.
"He told me he was looking at making $200,000
a year with a minimum of six to eight weeks of vacation and that
he didn't really want to work downtown because of the traffic,"
Johnston says. "I asked him: Do you really think someone is
going to pay you to do that?"
Instead, what Johnston and other experts counsel is
flexibility when it comes to hours, title, compensation and even
the size of the employer you are targeting. Flexibility is your
way to compensate for time off from work. "Let's face it, three
years off makes you three years behind all the other candidates,"
Johnston says.
Or as Julie Hodson, an account executive with the
temporary and permanent staffing firm Segue Staffing in Danbury,
Conn., puts it, "The biggest mistake I've seen people make
is in being too rigid. They seem to have this feeling that they
can't take a step backward and take less money or a slightly different
job title."
Flexibility may also extend to where you look for
work. Smaller is sometimes better. Entrepreneurial firms may be
more interested in your expertise than in how much time you were
unemployed. Also, if job prospects are poor in the industry where
you once worked, analyze your skills and apply them to a different
arena with more opportunities.
Jean Erickson Walker, a managing partner with OI Partners,
a career consulting firm in Portland, Ore., had a client who sold
commercial real estate. When he encountered problems finding a new
job, he switched gears and got a job buying properties for an investment
firm. Similarly, that client could have applied his skills at putting
together real estate deals as a project manager, Walker says.
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