Career Comeback Guide for Moms

As a mom, does your career feel sidelined? Maybe you took a career break to settle into this full-time mother role, and feel it’s too late to get back in. Maybe you took some time off after the birth of your first child, or maybe you needed a break from an increasingly demanding corporate existence. Whatever the case may be, you are not alone—and more importantly, there are many ways to get out of this loop.

Motherhood doesn’t need to be the end of the career journey. In fact, it could signal the beginning of an exciting and much more fulfilling one. Career reinvention is never about starting anew. It’s about building from where you are right now, rediscovering what drives you, and learning how to strike the right balance between work and family. You can restart, reinvent, and thrive in your career without giving up on motherhood.

Take Ekta Kapoor, for example—one of the most powerful media moguls in India. She reinvented her career after becoming a mother and transformed Indian TV and OTT while balancing motherhood. If she could reinvent not just her career, but an entire industry, so can you.

Let’s talk facts now. In India, more than half of the female workforce tends to leave work once they have children, some for personal and others for societal reasons. The good news, however, is that the job market seems to be changing. With rising telecommuting, freelancing opportunities, and the gig economy, there is much better flexibility for working mothers. More companies are seeing the need for flexible work environments if they want to retain female talent.

Challenges and Solutions

1) What Can I Do About the Huge Gap in My Career History?

Challenge: A huge gap in the employment history may make it difficult to get into the workforce again. Here’s how you can tackle questions about your skills, experience, and commitment to potential employers.

Solutions: 

Highlight Transferable Skills by explaining how you used project management, multitasking, and problem-solving skills during your career break. Such skills are transferable in many professional disciplines. For example, taking charge of a household requires organisational skills that can be applied to managing a project at work.

Enhance your skills and qualifications by enrolling in online courses or certifications that are relevant to your target industry. Platforms like Coursera or Udemy are useful for upskilling while providing flexibility. You can fill your career gap through such courses and display them as proof of your dedication to your work.

Join professional networking groups and get on the radar of good mentors. Be it LinkedIn or SHEROES, you can connect with people who can mentor and support you in your transition, or, for that matter, guide you through the job market.

2) How to Manage the Transition in My Household Once I Am Back to Working Full-Time?

Challenge: Even going back to a full-time job will disrupt the rest of the family life and require many transitions for everyone.

Solutions:

Build a detailed plan for distributing childcare responsibilities among family members during the transition period. You might have to hire extra help to take care of the children, establish a structured schedule, and assign chores to other house members. Having everything planned can make this transition easier since everyone will be ready to take up additional tasks.

Openly communicate with your family about your return to work, establish task expectations, and allocate responsibilities among your loved ones. Misconceptions can easily lead to a problem without proper communication; adjustments become easier.

Negotiate flexible work arrangements with your employer like working from home or having flexible hours. This flexibility will help you strike an effective balance between your professional and family obligations.

3) When To Go Back to Work?

Challenge: You’ll need to weigh your career trajectory against focusing on your child’s development. Sacrifices may be required initially, but remember that it’s possible to achieve both in the long term with proper planning.

Solution:

Consider your child’s developmental stage to understand their needs and anticipate necessary adjustments based on their growth and development. For instance, if your child is about to start preschool or school, it might be a good time for you to get back to work because they would not require full-time care.

Understand your preparation to re-enter the workforce by considering both the emotional and logistical aspects of managing work and family responsibilities in advance. This will make it clear when the right time to return to work is.

Consider starting with a part-time or flexible job if you are not ready to return to full-time work immediately. This will ease your way back into working without missing out on your child’s life.

4) How to Get Started?

Reflecting on your skills, talents, and interests is a crucial step in reinventing your career. This process involves closely examining your abilities to understand how they have evolved and exploring any new interests that have emerged since your career break. This self-awareness will help you make informed decisions about a new career path that aligns with your skills and promotes personal and professional growth. Let’s see what you can do:

1. What Transferable Skills Have You Acquired from Your Experience of Motherhood?

Surely, being a mother is the training camp with an A+ for skills like time management, multitasking, patience, and problem-solving. Undeniably, you have naturally developed these skills as a parent and they are immensely valuable in the workplace.

2. Reflect on What Gets You Motivated

Take time and reflect on what is exciting for you before changing careers. Consider this: since you became a mother, your passions may have evolved. It’s important to consider what brings you happiness and fulfilment in your current life stage.

5) How to Upskill in a New Career After a Break?

1. Learning Platforms Online

Learning new skills in the present scenario has never been easier. From Coursera, Udemy, and Skill India, you can learn nearly everything. And the best part? You get to learn at your own pace, whenever you feel fit.

2. Micro-Learning

You don’t need a lot of time to upskill. You can actually learn in short bursts – a type of learning that motherhood and a career especially need, as you juggle multiple responsibilities simultaneously. You can learn in 15-30 minute blocks during nap times or when the kids are asleep.

3. Networking and Mentorship

Recognise the power of networking. Be part of professional groups or forums for working moms, like SHEROES or JobsForHer. They also offer a mentorship opportunity, providing guidance from women who have navigated successful career transitions themselves.

Return-to-Work Programmes

Return-to-work programmes are designed to help ease the transition to work for professionals, especially working moms. These programmes generally provide training, skill development, mentoring, and short-term employment to regain confidence and update the knowledge base.

1. Return-to-Work Initiatives

Some Indian companies, including Tata Group, Axis Bank, and IBM India, have designed return-to-work programmes that help women re-enter the workforce after a career break. 

2. On-boarding Support

Employer-provided onboarding support significantly eases the transition process for returning to work. These may include refresher courses or mentorship programmes to assist working mothers in quickly adapting to new job roles and responsibilities.

Conclusion

Career reinvention is a significant opportunity to reassess and redefine your career path. As a mother seeking a career change, believe in your abilities, passion, and resources; don’t allow anyone, including yourself, to hinder your progress.

From networking to acquiring new skills and exploring flexible work options, a diverse range of opportunities awaits. You can explore your strengths, interests, and personality traits through the psychometric test provided by Mentoria. Here you will get insights about your strengths, interests, and personality, which will help you understand career paths that correspond with your natural talents and interests.

Remember, you are not alone on this journey; you have support throughout the way. A positive mindset, strong support system, and clear vision are essential for successful career reinvention and thriving in both professional and maternal roles.