This past Wednesday, 120 attendees participated in our one day return to work conference, the Career Relaunch Forum, at George Washington University (GWU). Part of the day’s agenda was an employer panel, where companies spoke about their interest in the pool of talent on career break, even in the midst of this difficult economy. Additional employers set up booths at the event in order to network with mid-career professionals on career break.
Our Career Relaunch Forum sponsors, Accenture, George Washington University Human Resources, Booz Allen Hamilton, Leodas Search Group, and Axiom Legal are all hiring. They are not all hiring at the rates they were before the economic downturn, but they are hiring all the same.
Academia presents a mixed picture. GWU indicated what we have heard from a range of academic institutions – that in an economic downturn, people return to school to upgrade their skills. We’ve also read that public institutions are cutting budgets across all departments due to reduced federal funding. The New York Times and the Boston Globe recently reported on both sides of the issue: that business school applications are up in a down economy and that Harvard University is looking to cut back across the board.
The host of our Chicago Career Relaunch Forum, the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management in Lake Forest , IL is hiring; in fact, they just hired one of the participants from our Chicago Career Relaunch Forum as an Account Manager there after a seven year career break. Pomona College has openings for positions ranging from Assistant Director of Financial Aid to the campus Rabbi. And here is a link to over 300 open positions in higher ed from the Chronicle of Higher Education (note that many of these links lead to more than one job opening): http://chronicle.com/jobs/search.php?today=2 .
In the private sector, Price Waterhouse Coopers recently announced it was hiring for more than 20 mid- to senior-level positions in its New York office. We mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Sara Lee Corporation is looking for people returning from career break for a new “returnship” program at their Downers Grove, IL headquarters and that Honeywell is hiring engineers returning from career break in several offices nationally. HMO giant Kaiser Permanente is nearly always hiring . Axiom Legal, a non-traditional law firm, is expanding its U.S. presence and is looking for highly qualified attorneys. Leodas Search Group, a search firm specializing in fundraising and development professionals for nonprofits, is actively looking for qualified candidates. Another participant at our Chicago Career Relaunch Forum was just hired by McDonalds’ accounting department after a 17-year career break! Eldercare, health care, accounting, certain technology areas, and engineering are all industries actively hiring. And don’t forget about the U.S. government!
Remember that even if your industry is not represented here, companies in each of these industries need people with a range of skill sets. For example, a hospital might have a public relations or marketing arm, and an accounting department. Larger companies have in-house counsel and in-house corporate training groups. So look for companies in growth industries or geographic areas, and then see if they are recruiting in your area of specialization. Also don’t overlook small- to medium-size companies that are the engine of growth in any economy.
Finally, in tough economic times a range of companies—from the Fortune 500 on down—often turn to consultants to plug resource gaps rather than hiring full time. So consider looking for consulting projects rather than jobs. Consulting can be a great way for returning professionals to put current experience on their resume, get the scheduling flexibility they often seek and “test drive” a new employer.
Photo credit: http://cakeplow.com/uploaded_images/hiring.gifCarol Fishman Cohen and Vivian Steir Rabin are the co-authors of the acclaimed career reentry book Back on the Career Track: A Guide for Stay-at-Home Moms Who Want to Return to Work, and the co-founders of iRelaunch, a company providing career reentry programming, events, and information to employers, universities, organizations and to mid-career professionals in all stages of career break.
For more information on Relaunching, see iRelaunch and check out Back on the Career Track. Carol and Vivian can be reached at info@iRelaunch.com.
Carol Fishman Cohen Vivian Steir Rabin
