Emma is returning to work after 10 years raising her family full-time, single-handed.
I’m ashamed to admit that I sometimes find it tough returning to work after a long weekend,
So I can only imagine how Emma feels right now.
Emma is doing something incredibly difficult – something that’s full of uncertainty and unfamiliarity at every turn.
I could have penned a “Go, Go Emma!” cheer-leading, morale-booster of a story (full of ‘you-can-do-it’ and ‘you-go-girl’ cliches).
But I know there’s something more important that can last a lot longer for Emma,
So this is a little spotlight on Emma’s story and what she needs to know.
Returning to work after a big gap is daunting.
The bigger the gap the less credible or qualified you might feel.
But every scrap of your working experience is right with you.
Every little bit of it still happened to you. Nothing has been lost.
Which means, right now, you’re returning to work with so much more.
You’re coming back with more…
Because on top of every experience from your past (and in Emma’s case there was plenty in her working past to make an employer interested today), you’re coming back with something new in the shape of everything you’ve done and everything you have gained since your last job,
Not to mention everything you are still motivated to learn and to do.
Maybe it’s hard to see all of this at first but dig around in your experience for a while and you’ll find real, in-demand qualities that you’ve nurtured and developed since your last job (in Emma’s case all the growth she has seen and lived through over the last 10 years).
Maybe some employers won’t see it but others can and others will.
They’ll see the skills, the dedication, the determination to succeed.
It’s easy for all of us to see and admire the marathon runner’s endurance, the counsellor’s patience, the great leader’s flexibility and poise; but sometimes we find it hard to see the same things without a job title (or a uniform or a label) or when qualities like these haven’t been demonstrated and proven at work.
Sometimes it’s harder to see qualities like these when they’re a little closer to home.
Maybe it’s even harder to see them in ourselves, especially after a break.
Emma’s courage, determination and everything she has learned over the last 10 years,
Paint a much clearer and more accurate picture of who she is and what she has now.
That’s why Emma (and plenty of people just like her) are returning to work – right now – with so much more.
Kudos to you Emma (as they say in the US),
and I say “Go, Go Emma!” too 😉
Looking up
[Image courtesy of artolog on Flickr.com]
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