Returning to Work after being a Caregiver

After a stint as a caregiver, many people decide to go back to careers that were temporarily put on hold.

Here are some strategies to make the re-entry process less intimidating:

Be honest: Disclose more about your full life. Be appropriately open about why you were not working and where you’ve had to make trade-offs. Be authentic.

Be transparent: The first thing a recruiter will see is your resume or LinkedIn profile. Make sure these are up to date and that your dates of employment are accurate. People now add “Time out for Caregiving’ in italics on their resume. Recruiters and hiring managers welcome this disclosure.

Share what you have learned: Make it clear that this was time out — not time off. You likely were just as busy and faced with many challenges. Share what you learned during this time.

Don’t dwell on the gap in employment : Don’t apologize for prioritizing your family. This can show a lot of who you are, and the character that you will bring to an organization.

Get support : Conducting a job search is invariably full of challenges, which can feel even bigger after taking an extended leave. Working with a Career Advisor will be a good source of support and can help you merge smoothly back onto the career highway.

We can help you. It’s what we do and we do it well. Contact us at Calgary Career Hub