Guest blog: Your 6-Step Guide to Returning to Work with ivee

Returning to work. It’s something you try not to think about, or maybe something you spend a bit too much time thinking about. How do you even begin returning to work? Can you really balance family responsibilities and a career? Why even bother returning to work now that your priorities have shifted? 

Cue ivee, the experts on returning to work, who connect women returning to work with companies eager to access their untapped talent. They’re  here to answer any pressing questions and demystify the return-to-work journey with a simple 6-step guide, taking you from not knowing where to begin, to tackling that all-important interview (eek!).

Why should I return to work?

You’ve started a family. Your priorities have shifted. Your whole life has shifted. Despite the joys you get from your home life, you deserve to discover who you are now outside of the family bubble. With great childcare initiatives like CocoRio offering reliable (and fun) childcare, and the number of flexible working policies that are now the new workplace norm, parents should be more empowered than ever to return to work. Don’t worry, empowerment doesn’t just come overnight, we’re going to work towards it one step at a time. Let’s go!

Step 1: Identifying your career goals
and job opportunities

A lot has changed since before you started your family, and you may not even want to re-enter the same field you were previously working in. In this section, we’ll explore how to discover your professional aspirations, identify your new skills, and uncover how to find job opportunities that align with both your professional goals and your family responsibilities.

The current job market, and why it suits you:

The workplace:

Since COVID, the workplace has become more flexible than ever. It is unrecognisable, in a good way. A work-life balance is now at the heart of company culture, with many companies (particularly in sectors like technology, marketing, and finance) offering entirely remote roles

Skills in demand:

Proficiency in tools like Microsoft Office (and its Google counterparts) are helpful for nearly every role. Luckily, there are plenty of free courses online meaning you can learn the ropes, or refresh your knowledge, whilst on your career break. Check out coursera and reed for free courses!

Diversity and inclusion:

There is a strong focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in hiring practices. Companies want to diversify their workforce, and are becoming increasingly more eager to hire candidates who have taken career breaks, particularly those related to family responsibilities. This means that if you find a role suited for you, and that you think you’d be a great fit for, but there is something about the job description or the hiring process that is putting you off, get in touch and voice your concerns! Hiring managers will make all kinds of amendments to ensure the process works for you.

Know what you want - identifying your career goals:

Start by asking yourself the following questions:

1. What do you want from your career?
- Do you want stability? A challenge? Flexibility? To make a difference?

2. What are your long-term objectives?
- Where do you want to be in 5 years, or 10? Do you want to work in a large corporate company, start your own business, or uncover an entirely new industry? The choices are overwhelming, but that freedom makes them exciting.

3. What role does work play in your life?
- Determine how you want your career to fit in alongside your other responsibilities. This will help you determine the level of flexibility you require. Maybe you want a whole new social life, and to be in the office a few times a week, or perhaps you want a remote role that is stimulating and pays the bills. Need to be around for school drop-offs and pick-ups every day? Find a job that can offer you core hours!

4. What industries or roles align with your skills and interests?
- Try and match your interests and your skills with industries that are thriving currently. For example, if you love scrolling through social media, maybe social media marketing is for you! If you used to work in technology, but want to feel like you’re making a real impact, you might want to consider health tech or telemedicine.

Step 2: Build confidence and know your skills

You’ve got skills!

- Try to create a skills inventory by listing out all of your skills (no matter how small!) and dividing them into hard skills (Microsoft Suite, HTML, copywriting) and soft skills (teamwork, attention to detail, creativity). You can include skills from both professional and personal experiences. For example, no one can multitask like a parent!

- Identify any skill gaps you might have by looking at job postings in the industries you’re interested in. Maybe you realise you really ought to learn how to use Excel, and sign up to an online Excel course.

- Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback. Ask your friends, old colleagues, and family members to tell you what you’re good at, and what you might need to work on. It’s usually easier to do this for others than it is to evaluate yourself!

Build that confidence:

 At ivee, we know that one of the biggest challenges faced by career returners is the lack of confidence. It really can feel insurmountable. Here’s how you can strengthen it:

 - Acknowledge your achievements, both during your career and during your break. Managing a household and completing personal projects are all worth celebrating, and provide so many skills that are transferable to a workplace.

- Prepare thoroughly by updating your CV, practising for interviews, researching the relevant industry so that you feel as prepared as possible

- Seek support from the people closest to you. All the strongest people do

- Set small goals in your job search, such as getting a reply from a role, asking for feedback from an application, and applying to 5 jobs that really excite you.

Step 3: Refresh your CV

Revisiting your CV can be a bit painful but refreshing it can also be empowering. Treat it like a sales pitch, and brag brag brag!

 Here are some CV best practices:

 - Keep it brief, and do not exceed 2 pages!
- Use action verbs, such as ‘managed’ and ‘developed’.
- Quantify achievements with exact numbers, such as ‘increased sales by 20%’.
- Keep it clean and easy to read with simple fonts. Applicant Tracking Software (also known as ATS, the mystery robot that scans your CV!) often can’t read fancy graphics.

 A simple structure for your CV:

- Contact information: name, email, phone number, and your LinkedIn profile
- Opening statement: a quick bio about your key skills and what you’re looking for.
This is where you can show a bit of personality
- Work experience: list in reverse order, from most recent to oldest, highlighting
your responsibilities and key achievements.
- Education and skills: include your highest degree, your main hard and soft skills,
alongside any certifications.

Wait… I should use AI to write my CV?:

 AI can be a bit daunting, a technology most of us don’t know much about. However, it is definitely not something to shy away from. It really can be a job searcher’s best friend!

ChatGPT is very easy to use, and is totally free. You can use it to refine your bullet points, and optimise keywords for Applicant Tracking Systems. It can also be used to tailor your CV to each job application by using the keywords from the job description. Simply paste the job description alongside your CV into ChatGPT, asking for it to tailor the CV to the key words in the job description.

Addressing career breaks:

Transparency is the best policy. Don’t shy away from speaking about your career break but be honest about the skills you gained during that time alongside any relevant work or personal projects undertaken, such as organisational achievements and involvement in committees.

Research shows that, for returners, a hybrid CV is twice as likely to get chosen by a hiring manager. But what is a hybrid CV? It combines a CV that organises experience via chronology and a CV that organises via skill, resulting in a CV that outlines skills alongside the cumulative years that each skill has been had for, a bit like you would frame how long you held a specific role for, instead of organising the CV by work experience. This CV format helps to conceal a career break from the ATS, which unfortunately often filter out any candidates with career breaks (which is really terrible!).

You can download a free hybrid CV template here!

Step 4: How to write a cover letter

The basic structure of a cover letter is very simple, and once you’ve written one, you’ll get into a real rhythm and discover what works well, and what doesn’t work so much. Just begin by including your contact information, the date, and the employers details in the header, before addressing it to the hiring manager (alternatively, use ‘Dear Hiring Manager’ if you cannot find their name).

You’ll want to introduce yourself and explain why you’re a strong fit for the role. You can show a lot more personality here than on a CV, but you still want to keep it brief – don’t exceed one page!

 Use a few paragraphs to highlight relevant experiences and achievements from your CV, expanding where necessary. Tailor to the job description and the company as much as you can, and let your enthusiasm speak for itself!

Don’t be afraid to use ChatGPT for improvements and proof-reading, just as you would have done with your CV. It’s there to help.

If you apply to a role and don’t hear anything back, don’t be afraid to ask the hiring manager for feedback. This should provide you with some useful tips for improving both your CV and cover letter for next time. You’ve got nothing to lose by asking.

Step 5: Searching for jobs and using LinkedIn

LinkedIn for dummies: 

If you’re considering returning to work after starting a family, it’s likely you haven’t looked at your LinkedIn in a while, or maybe you don’t even have a LinkedIn. The good news is, it’s a lot less intimidating than it seems.

Your first steps (after creating a profile) will be to make sure your experience, skills, and photo are up to date. We all hate parading pictures of ourselves online, but this is the one place it truly counts. Make sure you’re facing the camera and smiling, with a plain-ish background. Don’t worry too much about it being uber professional – we don’t all have photography studios at home, and nobody expects you to have a corporate headshot!

You can do some browsing on LinkedIn to see the kind of photos other people are using. Don’t be afraid to examine their profiles to gain ideas on how to write your biography, headline, and frame your experiences.

Networking can seem scary, so start small. Connect with people you know, and don’t be afraid to repost content that resonates with you, comment on your friends’ posts, and join groups that interest you.

 Searching for jobs:

 Here’s the information you need to begin searching for roles:

 - Ideal industry.
- Role level.
- Location.
- Flexibility.
- Salary.

 It’s just like searching for a house. You’ll have your non-negotiables alongside elements that are less important for you. Once you’re clear on what you want, you’ll be able to search for exactly that.

 Not sure where to begin? Check out some popular job sites:

- LinkedIn.
- Indeed.
- ivee (all of the roles on our jobs board are vetted by our team to ensure they are suitable for parent returners, with great flexibility policies!)
- Flexa.

Step 6: Interviewing and negotiating 

The interview 

The interview is famously the most terrifying part of the job application process. It’s important to remember that an interview is not an exam. They are not inspecting you or judging you. They have a problem (a vacant role), and you are offering them a solution (working in that role). It’s a two-way discussion, and you should treat it as such! Ask questions, sell yourself, and make your priorities and non-negotiables suitably clear.

Here are some tips for the interview itself:

- Research the company, its mission, values, and products.

- Practise common questions (you can find some returner specific questions here!). 

- Prepare your questions for them.

- Dress appropriately and ensure you’re prepared for virtual or in-person interviews.

- If your interview is online, get to grips with the platform they’re using. This might be Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or Google Meet. If you’re unfamiliar with the technology, try setting up a fake online meeting with a friend. That way, you can test out your set-up, sound, camera, and microphone!

 
The negotiation

 Negotiating is daunting but think of it more as just a conversation. You’re allowed to have priorities, non-negotiables, and to know your worth, and asserting these things just demonstrates your confidence as a professional! It’s normal and won’t be off-putting to the hiring manager.

 Did you know? Men are more likely to negotiate the initial salary than women.

- When getting a graduate level role in the US, 57% of men are likely to negotiate the initial salary versus only 7% of women. The negotiation average ended up being around $10,000!

Know your worth, and research industry salary ranges. You do not have to accept the first offer, but can request specific benefits alongside your salary.

Negotiating is tough, but you must remain flexible and open to compromise, like additional benefits or a review period.

Many of our career returners at ivee have successfully negotiated further flexibility benefits, such as compressed hours allowing them to work a 4-day work week, or core hours, ensuring they can complete the school run when needed. These are just a few examples of flexible policies you might want to request

 If you have successfully negotiated, ensure all terms are confirmed in writing, and then congratulate yourself!

Conclusion

Congratulations! You’ve made it through this 6-step guide to returning to work. We know that starting your return-to-work journey is often the hardest part, with that first step appearing as the largest and most intimating. Luckily, you just reading this blog post can be your first step. This means you’ve done the hardest part already!

Each step of this guide has been designed to help you regain your confidence, refresh your skills, and practically prepare for the next phase of your career journey. If you’re looking for more hands-on support, ivee’s Return-to-Work Bootcamp provides just that. You’ll get a 1-on-1 CV makeover, a LinkedIn profile revamp, and personalised strategies to highlight your key skills and boost your confidence—all designed to increase your chances of landing your next role. Because we’re such fans of CocoRio’s awesome work, we’ve partnered with them to give you 20% off our bootcamp.

You can sign up to the Return-to-Work Bootcamp here. Use the code “IVEE20” to retrieve your exclusive discount.