Having children can be an exciting time in life, especially if you’re planning on taking a few years out of your career to raise them. But, don’t forget to plan ahead for your return to your career, using as much energy as when you planned ahead for having children.
Recently, a friend of mine went back to her career after having two children and being out of the workforce for a few years. Last weekend as we sat drinking coffee and chatting about her new job, she suddenly got quiet. Then she shook her head and rolled her eyes. “I spent hours and hours planning for my pregnancies and everything that came afterwards,” she mused. “I only wish I had put that kind of effort into planning for the break in my career and then my return to it. If I had done that, it would have saved me a lot of additional work and stress in trying to re-start my career.”
It’s kind of ironic – did you ever notice how much time women spend getting ready to have children? We take pre-natal classes and read everything we can about child rearing, we talk with other moms and ask for advice on what to expect and we prepare for our baby’s arrival down to the tiniest detail; from redecorating a room for the new baby all the way to pre-packing the bag that we’ll take to the hospital when we go into labor. That’s a lot of planning!
Years later we shouldn’t just wake up one day and say, “Okay. I think I’ll go back to my career today” – and then expect it to happen without any preparation or planning involved.
We need to plan for going back into our careers before we even give birth to our children. Just like how we take the time to plan out all the details for having kids, we also need to create our game plan if we want to put our career on hold and then go back to it several years from now. And by the way, that’s how we should think about it – as a “pause,” “break” or “time out” in our career, rather than leaving our career forever.
If you haven’t already had children, now is the time to plan for that “time out” in your career. Here’s how:
- Think through how you’ll stay informed of what’s happening in your industry and within the company where you worked.
- Consider things you can do while you’re raising your children that will help you develop your skills or even learn new ones, such as reading books, taking online classes, doing volunteer work at your children’s school or coaching your child’s sports team.
- Determine ways you can stay in touch with coworkers, such as telephone chats, email or through social media - so you won’t feel disconnected. Manage and expand your professional network so you’ll be able to tap into it when you decide that it’s time to go back into your career.
If you didn’t do this already, it can be intimidating if you’ve now decided to jump back into your career after staying home to raise your children. That’s one of the reasons I decided to write my latest book – because so many women felt intimidated and all alone as they were trying to figure out what they needed to do to go back to work after having children.
So if you’ve decided that you want to have children and take time out of your career to raise them – congratulations! Just don’t forget to plan ahead for your return to your career, with as much energy as when you create your game plan for having kids.
Lisa Quast, author of the book, Secrets of a Hiring Manager Turned Career Coach: A Foolproof Guide to Getting the Job You Want. Every Time. Join me on Twitter @careerwomaninc
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