Effective Ways to Reboot Your Career After a Break

This article is contributed By Nishant Agarwal, Founder of Proctur

Taking a break from a career can have several reasons ranging from personal to professional. Apart from working for a job and earning a salary, a person can obviously have other passions to pursue, maternity/paternity leave to take, or simply have the urge to improve oneself for a job switch. And truth be spoken, it is absolutely fine to take a break from a career. However, resuming work after a hiatus can be challenging because of various factors such as lack of relevant skill sets, inability to keep up to speed with the demands of the industry, difficulty in orienting your state of mind immediately to the working space, etc.

As the world is witnessing the emergence of Startups, MSMEs, freelance jobs, there is actually no dearth of opportunities if one starts searching at the right place and persists on upgrading their skills. Read more to learn the effective ways to reboot your career after a break.

Upskilling is Unavoidable
Work on Your Soft Skills
Create a Professional Network
Try Your hands at Short Term Projects
Conclusion

Upskilling is Unavoidable

The working environment across the globe has become a highly dynamic space, with the demand for technology related skills taking a front seat in order to stay relevant. The need to adapt to such advancements for a person who wants to restart their career is more than it was ever required. Upskilling would make a person more desirable in the eyes of a recruiter as they would be part of the workforce, which would help close the skill gap emerging within the organization. Moreover, having additional and pertinent skills in one’s quiver would not only serve as a testament of their relevance but also secure a satisfactory salary. Up-skilling would also have a massive impact on their personality and self-confidence.

Assess the skills that have become relevant in the industry that you want to enter and accordingly begin your learning through a course or talking to a mentor. Finding people who can help you with important insights about any industry is just a touch away on LinkedIn. Having a professional guide, you through your relaunch journey can make you feel comfortable with what the job might entail and also expedite the entire process.

The onset of Covid 19 has led to the digital transformation of every field. And that is why the most important aptitude that everyone needs to learn, irrespective of the industries they want to enter, is digital upskilling. Digital skills such as awareness about information technology, social media, web development, digital business analytics, digital design and data visualization, digital marketing, data science, etc. are the most in demand.

Work on Your Soft Skills

Before dwelling into why soft skills are important for restarting your career, it is imperative to understand what soft skills are. It is an umbrella term to represent various aptitudes such as adaptability, emotional intelligence, listening skills, mindfulness, motivation, teamwork, leadership skills, work ethics, etc. In a world that is becoming more and more automated, the significance of possessing appropriate soft skills cannot be stressed more.

Possessing a proper set of soft skills can make you stand out as it will definitely help a person who does not have immediate past experience to strike a chord with the recruiter. In a fast-paced world, it is not only the technical skills that find importance but how a particular individual is to work with also matters to a large extent.

Although technology driven machines play a major role in handling work, they cannot manifest soft skills that bind an organization together. Luminaries like Warren Buffet also consider “integrity” to be the success mantra of a long-standing organization. In a technologically advanced world, the recruiters tend to observe if the applicants are flexible enough to shift gears, manage uncertainties, adapt to the team’s needs, handle different responsibilities, etc. This is why people who are more open minded, agile, creative and flexible stand a higher likelihood of getting recruited.

Create a Professional Network

Having a widespread and strong professional network can work wonders for people wanting to restart their careers. Talking to working professionals can provide you with a lot of pertinent trade information; create a bond by exchange of ideas and help in reassessing your qualifications.

Just a simple conversation with the right individual may lead to opening doors to newer opportunities or provide you with much needed professional advice which will enable you to become more competent. Talking to new people on a regular basis, will also help you get out of your comfort zone and build invaluable social skills. This will charge your self-confidence which is a must after a long hiatus.

Observing the accounts and assessing the accreditations of people who are currently working will help you take further actions towards adding the necessary certifications and skills. It is a way to gain information about how the industry operates at the present time.

Try Your hands at Short Term Projects

Dabbling with short term projects and freelance jobs will give you a chance to find the skills that are required and polish them, and at the same time make money. It is basically a way to either explore new jobs or better your already existing skills. Since, someone who wants to restart their career already has some experience; therefore, getting hired for a short-term project would not be difficult as well. This is an effective way to refine one’s skills before entering a long-term opportunity and gives a major boost up to confidence.

Conclusion

What we have discussed above is an ideal plan of action that one must practise when deciding to make a come-back after hiatus. It is important to keep in mind that it will be a process before one gets comfortable after a break and not an overnight assimilation to the environment. Therefore, have a steady learning process and do not quit!