Returning to work after a 4 or 5 year career break - any experiences?

[mumofhelen]

I'm planning to return to work after having taken over 4 years off. My eldest is joining reception this September and the other at nursery part of the school. At the moment, I'm planning to return to work at a previous employer by going through an agency (as suggested by a previous line manager), with the intention of eventually joining the company as permanent staff once a vacancy arises (subject to me getting the job in the first place of course!).

Another alternative which has been proposed is that I become self-employed.

Has anyone else returned to paid employment after a long leave? Did you go back to your old job or did you start anew? Someone suggested that now would be the time to consider a different career if I wanted a change - which is rather tempting but is it worth the risk?

I'm just interested in other people's experience.

I did after a 5 year break and moving country. Went back into primary teaching though which I think may be more accommodating/parent friendly than many businesses.

Hi - I went back to work after about 3.5 years off. I stayed in the same field (accountancy) but went to work for a small company in a less demanding role with part time hours (and obviously I took a hefty pay cut!) Also my employer was pretty understanding of childcare difficulties and allowed me to vary my hours quite a bit.

I went self-employed after a few years as it suited both me and employer. Now I work for a larger company where the flexibility isn't so good, but am still able to work part-time.

I found it good to get back to work, although the mental intensity of it was a bit of a shock! I had quite bad headaches for the first week or two!

I'm back tomorrow after five years off! I'm doing a part-time amternity cover so it's only temporary. It's teaching and there's not much p/t work around so I'm taking what I can get. I think it'll be a bigger shock for the dses who'll be at a childminder's for the first time ever!

Sorry, should have added that I love it! Am in a fab school, my kids are at same school and I teach in the class across the hall from my youngest child (6) who often pops in to say hello of give me a hug! I work 3 days a week and sometimes do supply if colleagues are sick. Its still hard work juggling work and home esp with stuff like parents' evenings, planning meetings etc but I have great friends who help me out a lot as my family are in a different country.

I reckon some professions must be very hard to go back to though. I have friends who worked for big companies before having kids where the job entailed lots of travel abroad for weeks at a time. They would now find it really hard to go back to their old jobs.

What line of work are you in mumofhelen?

I've worked predominantly in the environmental engineering field - contaminated land (mainly GIS mapping) and ecological/geological surveying.

There's intense competition for full-time secure positions in the environmental engineering field. There are a few more opportunities for example, in ecological surveying, during the spring/summer time, which for obvious reasons tend to be the best time to conduct ecological surveys.

A major problem with this field of work is travelling. There can be a lot of it and regardless to whether I work through an agency or employed directly by a company, I will be expected to travel. The work is also rather sparse since there's usually more surveyors than survey work - this certainly was the case in 2000-2004 which leads on to another concern.

My concern: I can see things getting worse because of the current economic climate. A major employer of ecological/geological surveyors is the construction industry - an industry which is on the brink of collapse due to the credit crunch. One major construction company has already ceased all house building projects and I'm sure many more building firms will follow. If there is competition for jobs in a downward market, I doubt they'll employ the one whose just return from a career break!

I've mentioned change of career because during the last 4 years I have embarked upon an Open University course. I did really well at the first level, gaining a distinction, but then failed/dropped out of a level 2 course because it was difficult, boring and the exam was only a couple of months after I had given birth to ds and I could not prepare/revise enough to pass the exam. Nevertheless, I'm considering continuing with the course which is in social care. This course would open up opportunities in social work which are more likely to be local - or am I being naive? I've met many social workers and they told me they rarely, if ever, left the county unless it's for conferences and such like.

The downside is that I haven't done much research on social work or what it is like to be a social worker or what are the employment prospects. I've often heard that there are not enough social workers but there's likely to be a reason for this!

I think for the meantime, I'll go back to what I know best, which is the environmental engineering field. I've attended CPD courses during the last 4 years and kept my skills up to date. I'll just have to wait and see what happens.