Relaunching your career: notes from the iRelaunch Forum

On October 29th, I represented the Families and Work Institute at the Career Relaunch Forum at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. I am a relauncher myself, having returned to work after a 14 year hiatus raising my children and organizing community programs, so the Forum was of particular interest to me. I wish these services had been available 11 years ago when I began my search to return to the workplace!

With more men than women having lost their jobs in the recession and with the increasing alignment of attitudes and behavior between young men and women concerning child care, ambition, and home chores (see the Families and Work Institute publications Times Are Changing: Gender and Generation at Work and at Home and The Impact of the Recession on Employers), women who have taken career breaks are needing or wanting to return to work.

The Career Relaunch Forum was a one-day return to work conference educating mid-career professionals on career break about the return to work process, and bringing them together with employers interested in meeting them. The goal of the Forum was to educate the participants on the realities of their re-entry to the workforce and to give them confidence on the opportunities in front of them.

I moderated the panel entitled Employers Discuss How Relaunchers Should Approach Today’s Job Market with Allison O’Kelly, CEO of Mom Corps (specializing in the “flexible” exployment market); Trish Pescatore, US Recruiting Director for Accenture; Priya Trauber, Director of Diversity for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and Elana Weinstein, Learning and Development Professional with Bloomberg, Inc.

Issues addressed by the panelists included:
•    What the job market is going to be like in their industry over the next 12-18 months;
•    What the driving forces for company diversity initiatives are and how the economy will affect those efforts;
•    Opportunities available at each company that are especially suitable for relaunchers; and
•    The panelist’s advice on the two or three things relaunchers must do and on mistakes they should avoid.

Participants were high-caliber professionals with significant experience prior to leaving the traditional workplace. 100% of participants had an undergraduate degree, and approximately 80% had graduate degrees. More than half of the participants are looking to return to the workforce or make their transition within the next six months. Their backgrounds are varied with the majority in the following categories: financial services, management consulting, consumer products, advertising or PR.

The Forum is designed to offer guidance on defining next career stages; help participants determine skills, training and knowledge necessary to re-enter; learn more about how the workplace has changed since they left; and facilitate networking with peers and potential employers. Interestingly, 10% of the participants were men.

The participants heard some heartening stories about successful relaunches including that of a woman who had been out of the traditional workplace for 21 years and was now rising in the ranks at Goldman Sachs. Allison O’Kelley emphasized the importance of looking at small and medium sized companies if you are searching for flexible work options, as they are more likely to offer them. Priya Trauber said that Morgan Stanley Smith Barney was eager to train relaunchers to enter their sales force, but that relaunchers shouldn’t initially expect to work part-time in corporate settings. Bentley University and MIT offer educational programs for would-be relaunchers. The group brain-storming sessions on skill-based future work options were very effective and gave participants and injection of optimism and new ideas.

Fox News broadcast from the event: and Examiner.com ran a story by Amy Impellizzeri on the Relaunch Forum.

Co-founders of iRelaunch, Carol Fishman Cohen and Vivian Steir Rabin, introduced participants to The 7 Steps to Relaunch Success, Dr. Pamela Stone from Hunter College moderated a panel of successful relaunchers who told their stories and the afternoon breakout sessions covered “Assessing Your Career Options, and “Networking and Marketing Yourself.”

For more information on future iRelaunch events and Carol and Vivian’s book Back on the Career Track, you can go to www.irelaunch.com. And if you are a relauncher and are interested in sharing your story, please comment below and we will post your story.