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If you take N years off from a career, you should expect ahead of time to become a less compelling candidate to hire for highly skilled work. 1) your skills are

If you take N years off from a career, you should expect ahead of time to become a less compelling candidate to hire for highly skilled work. 1) your skills are assumed rustier and 2) you have fewer years left in your career so you have less room for promotion to executive levels (big companies need to be thinking about hiring their CEO 20 years from now). If you don’t want this to happen to your career, 1) get better at something that can be objectively measured or 2) don’t take N years off from your career.

mattgreenrocks 4y ago
3) make your career about something more than climbing up an imaginary ladder that largely exists to motivate you into giving more while getting less and less in return. YMMV, of course!
lapcat 4y ago
> 2) don’t take N years off from your career. I don't think the author is looking for life advice from you. "Being a stay-at-home mum was my choice." She doesn't appear to be kicking herself for becoming a mother. Whether she "expected" this or not, whether it was a "surprise", is not particularly relevant. That's not the issue, it's a red herring. She made her choice, willingly, and now she's looking to restart her career. It feels like some commenters are looking more to be judgmental than helpful. The survival of humanity itself depends on people having and raising children. But then we turn around and act like it's some kind of personal mistake, a poor choice for which someone deserves social punishment, as opposed to a natural part of life. Why is a gap in someone's résumé viewed as abnormal rather than expected? If anyone deserves to be lectured, it's the employers who are "surprised" that résumé gaps occur and "expect" candidates to have no gaps.
- spoonjim 4y ago
  Sure, treat having children as the norm, I have kids, I love it. But I expect to be leapfrogged in my career by people who passed on a family and chose the career grinding lifestyle, and that's in fact what happened. But I'm not going to make a surprised Pikachu face about it.
  - lapcat 4y ago
    The article author did not expect to get her old job back. Nor did she expect to come back at the exact same level as before. "I started my career hunting by applying to many junior positions." She's just looking for a job in her field. So you're arguing against a straw man. Or straw woman.

mattgreenrocks 4y ago

3) make your career about something more than climbing up an imaginary ladder that largely exists to motivate you into giving more while getting less and less in return. YMMV, of course!

lapcat 4y ago

> 2) don’t take N years off from your career. I don't think the author is looking for life advice from you. "Being a stay-at-home mum was my choice." She doesn't appear to be kicking herself for becoming a mother. Whether she "expected" this or not, whether it was a "surprise", is not particularly relevant. That's not the issue, it's a red herring. She made her choice, willingly, and now she's looking to restart her career. It feels like some commenters are looking more to be judgmental than helpful. The survival of humanity itself depends on people having and raising children. But then we turn around and act like it's some kind of personal mistake, a poor choice for which someone deserves social punishment, as opposed to a natural part of life. Why is a gap in someone's résumé viewed as abnormal rather than expected? If anyone deserves to be lectured, it's the employers who are "surprised" that résumé gaps occur and "expect" candidates to have no gaps.

spoonjim 4y ago
Sure, treat having children as the norm, I have kids, I love it. But I expect to be leapfrogged in my career by people who passed on a family and chose the career grinding lifestyle, and that's in fact what happened. But I'm not going to make a surprised Pikachu face about it.
- lapcat 4y ago
  The article author did not expect to get her old job back. Nor did she expect to come back at the exact same level as before. "I started my career hunting by applying to many junior positions." She's just looking for a job in her field. So you're arguing against a straw man. Or straw woman.