9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
People returning to work after a career break

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I call them "Relunchers"

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Those are people who have taking career breaks

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for elder care or child care reasons

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
pursuing a personal interest or a personal health issue

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Closely related are career transitions of all kinds

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Veterans, military spouses, retirees

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
coming out of a retirement or repatriating expats

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Returning to work after a break is hard

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because it's disconnected between the employers and the relunchers

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Employers can view hiring people with a gap on the resume

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
as a high risk proposition

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And individuals on career break can have doubts about

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
their abilities to relunch their careers

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
especially if they have been out for a long time

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This disconnect is the problem

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that I am trying to help solve

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Now successful relunchers are everywhere and did every field

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This is Sami Kafala

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
he is a nuclear physicist in UK

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who took a five-year break to be home with his five children

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The Singapore Press recently wrote about

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Nurse returning to work after long career breaks

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And speaking of long career breaks

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This is Mimi Kahn

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
She is a social worker at Orange County California

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who return to work in a social services organision

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
after a 25 year career break

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That's the longest career break that I am aware of

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Prominent people take career breaks

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
took a 5 year career break early in her career

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And then there are the fictional relunchers

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
probably the most famous is Alicia Florrick

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The character played by Julianna Margulies

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in the TV show - "The Good Wife"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
She is a lawyer who return to work

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
after a 13 year career break

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Here is a really person who take a 13 year career break

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This is Tracy and her family

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Tracy answered the call for .... by the ...

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
from people who were trying to returning to work

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but having a difficult time of that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Tracy root in a mom of five

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who love the time at home

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But she had gone through divorce

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and need to return to work

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Plus she really want to bring work back into her life

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because she loved working

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Tracy was doing with so many of us do

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when we feel like we put in a good day in the job search

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
She was looking for a financial or accounting role

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and she has just spend last 9 months

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
very diligently researching companies online

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and applying for jobs with no results

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I met Tracy in June of 2011

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
when the Today Show asked me

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if I could work with her to see

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if I could help her turn things around

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The first thing I told Tracy was

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
she has to get out of the house

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I told her she had to public with her job search

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and tell everyone she knew about her interest to returning to work

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I also told her

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You are going to have a lot of conversations

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
don't go anywhere

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expect that and don't be discouraged by it

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
There will be a handphone

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that automatically lead to a job opportunity

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I will tell you what happened with Tracy a little bit

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but I want to share with you a discovery

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that I made when I was returning to work

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
after my own career break of 11 years out of full time workforce

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And that is

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
people's view of you is frozen in time

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What I mean by this is

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when you start to get in touch with people

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and you get back in touch with those people from the past

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the people .... worked or went to school

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They are going to remember you as you were

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
before your career break

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And that's even if your sense of yourself has diminished over time

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
as happened with so many of us

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the far we move away from our professional identities

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So, for example

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
you might think of yourself for someone who looked like this

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This is me!

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Crazy day after driving around my mini Van

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
or here I'm in the kitchen

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But those people from the past

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they don't know about any of this

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they only remember you as you were

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and it's a great confidence.... to be back in touch with those people

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
hear their enthusiasm about your interest of returning to work