Different is Valuable When Returning to the Workforce At Path Forward, we create return-to-work opportunities in partnership with forward-looking employers such as HubSpot. We asked Shyam Venkatramani, DI&B Recruiting Program Manager, for the employer’s perspective when interviewing job applicants who have a career break on their resume. His insights below provide a thoughtful view on what returners bring to the table and how to make your attributes shine. * *…
We get it. The resume advice you’ll often hear is to hide your career gap. That’s because of the unfortunate stigma still around about hiring people with breaks, especially those who put their careers on pause in order to provide care. For returnship positions, though, the opposite is true! A gap is required and needs to be apparent on your resume. For these opportunities, there’s no need to justify your…
If you have a career break of a decade or more, you might be wondering how to present your skills and experience as relevant to hiring managers. Will employers accept that your professional experience is 10+ years old? Do your volunteer and caregiving experiences count for anything? First, you should take some inspiration from the many Path Forward alumni who’ve successfully restarted their careers after a break of more than…
At Path Forward, we get a lot of questions about which specific technical skills are now in demand — but very rarely does anyone ask about soft skills. And guess what — a lot of times what stands in the way of success at work can be put into the category of soft skills! Now only that, but soft skills are generally the elements that differentiate us from robots (!). …
One of the biggest challenges of returning to the workforce is making sense of what skills are currently sought-after in your chosen field. This is especially true for tech careers, because technology can change so quickly. So what’s the best way to figure out which technical skills are relevant to your industry? There are a few steps you can take: 1. Study job descriptions. Read through the “skills required” section…
Asking for recommendations on LinkedIn, especially when you’re reaching out to someone for the first time in a while, can feel awkward. The best way to open the conversation is to re-establish a connection by asking them for a call to reconnect and get advice. People you’ve worked with – even if it was a while ago – are usually very willing to give a few minutes to offer advice.…
It can be hard to stay upbeat when you don’t get a job after many attempts and applications submitted. One problem people run into is hoping it will be easy to return to work, which actually creates a bit of an expectation that it will be easy. When it isn’t, the disappointment you feel at not meeting that expectation — no matter how unrealistic it was — can be really…
Fall is typically a time of back-to-school and new beginnings, but as with every facet of daily life, the pandemic has turned that upside down. While this has been a challenging year for everyone, we know that it has been especially difficult for working moms trying to maintain their careers while caring for their children, and for caregivers looking to return to work in an unstable economy. While there is…
One thing we hear, pretty frequently, is the idea that someone out of the workforce for many years must be “outdated” in terms of their skills. We hear this from returnees themselves. And we hear it, usually formed as a question, from some recruiters. This is especially true because of how many tech companies we work with, many of whom are focused on hiring engineers. If you haven’t worked in…
Many women lament their inability to create boundaries around their time so they can accomplish what matters most to them. If you find yourself saying, “I have to …” with a sigh for a lot of your calendar items, that’s sure sign that you are spending time in a way that doesn’t bring you joy. Sure, we all have plenty of things we have to do, but many of us have…
