St.Louis Business Journal
ADVICE TO FULL TIME PARENTS: KEEP A HAND IN THE WORKPLACE IF YOU WANT TO GO BACK TO WORK

By Anna Navarro

December 2004   - An increasing number of young families today make a choice for one parent to quit working to devote full time to raising children.   Sometimes this is done with the intention of returning to work eventually.   When this is the case, it's important to pay attention to a re-entry strategy from the very start because employers often look with disfavor on people who have been out of the workforce for many years.

When Terri and Michael decided to have kids, they faced a dilemma.   They didn't want a nanny, but it was clear they couldn't both continue to work at the same pace and have a family.  After much discussion, Michael volunteered to stay home.  He didn't make as much money as Terri and he wanted to try his hand at writing fiction, an experiment he thought could blend with raising children.   

Nineteen years later, when their kids were much older, Michael decided to go back to work.   The writing had not panned out into anything significant. He was now 51 years old. He hoped he would be able to start his career where he left off. 

But he was in for a rude awakening.  Employers regarded him as an entry-level worker despite his prior nine years of work experience as a sales rep for an industrial chemical company.  The best job Michael could find was an entry-level sales position. He was asked to do cold calling while his age peers, who were hired at the same time, were assigned major accounts.

Sandra had a very different trajectory because she handled her time as a mom very differently.   Before having her child she worked for a wholesale women's sportswear company.   She quit her job two months before she delivered her baby. She hoped to go back to work after her child was old enough.  

I had advised her to try to get re-involved in her career for at least a few hours a week as soon as she felt she could manage it.  The point was not so much to earn money (though the job needed at least to pay childcare and other expenses of working) but to allow her to keep up her skills, contacts and industry knowledge.  That would make her re-entry down the road smoother.

About two years after her baby was born, she decided she could devote a few hours a week to working.  She needed flexibility in case of emergencies and didn't think she could travel more than two days a month.  

That made it impossible to go back to even a very part-time version of her old job, which was about 80% travel.  So we began to explore what other selling functions existed in the industry.

After exploring a few ideas that didn't work out, we hit on the concept of selling the services of small clothing manufacturers located outside the U.S. who wanted contracts with U.S. companies.

Using her contacts in the industry, she talked to several ex-U.S. clothing manufacturers, and eventually landed a 5-10 hour a week job with a small company in Argentina.  She successfully sold contracts for them for over 16 years, and in that way was able to stay abreast of people and developments in the field.  She did most of her work on the phone and easily managed the limited travel involved.

When her daughter left for college, she was ready to work full time.   She was able quickly to find a position with a company that sold women's clothing to retailers, a job similar to the one she'd had before quitting to become a mom.  But this time she worked for a bigger and more established company.  She entered in a senior sales role and started working immediately with established accounts.  They valued her experience representing an ex-U.S. manufacturer because they themselves sold clothing manufactured in South America. 

If you want to take off from work to raise a family but want to re-enter eventually, consider devoting a small slice of your time to staying active in the workplace.  While it may be a struggle in terms of time, it is probably the best way to avoid repeating the dues paying process required of entry level employees. And it might also offer the added benefit of providing the stimulation that comes from working in the adult world that many parents crave. 

Anna Navarro is the founder of Work Transitions, a nationwide career consulting firm that trains independent career strategists and consults with individual clients.

This column was originally published by the St. Louis Business Journal. The actual title of the column and date in which it appeared in the Business Journal may be slightly different from what appears on WorkTransitions.com.