Relaunch Advice


Back on the Career Track:  A Guide for Stay-at-Home Moms Who Want to Return to Work by Carol Fishman Cohen and Vivian Steir Rabin is a comprehensive guide for women returning to work.  Advice and strategies are detailed in their seven step ”Relaunch” plan. 

Step 1.  RElaunch or Not?  You Decide

Step 2.  Learn Confidence

Step 3.  Assess Your Career Options

Step 4.  Update Your Professional and Job Search Skills, and Prepare for the Interview

Step 5.  Network, Market Yourself, and Clinch the Opportunity

Step 6.  Channel Family Support

Step 7.  Handle the Job (or Find a New One)

I especially like the readiness quiz that assesses your readiness to return to work based on your desire to work, your care-taking responsibilities and your spousal and family support.  I found this book to be the most useful of the many I researched and recommend it as necessary reading for moms going back.  

I am somewhere in Step 4 and 5 in my own re-entry strategy but should point out that for me these steps have not been sequential.  I channel the support of family and friends continuously, continue to build confidence through my academic and professional training, network and market myself as the opportunity is available (this blog, for example) and assess career options regularly. 

 

 

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April 12th, 2008
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Comment Number:
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Written by:
carol
Posted on:
April 13, 2008 at 8:03 am

Hi Eileen,

Thank you so much for this post discussing our book Back on the Career Track. It is timely because we are holding an all day conference on returning to work after a career break in the Chicago area called the Career Relaunch Forum. It will be held May 8, 2008 at the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. Northwestern’s undergraduate and Kellogg School alumni affairs offices are publicizing the event to Northwestern alums. Please check out http://www.careerrelaunch.com for more information. Also, those on career break might want to check out our websites with resources and more info on the book at http://www.iRelaunch.com and http://www.backonthecareertrack.com.

Congratulations on your relaunch in progress and on your project. We do acknowledge in Back on the Career Track that although the 7 Steps to Relaunch Success are set up sequentially, that often steps overlap, occur simultaneously, or change order. So the fact that is happening in your relaunch is completely natural and to be expected. Please keep us posted on the progress of your project. Carol (Carol Fishman Cohen, co-author, Back on the Career Track, co-founder, iRelaunch)

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
eileenzampa
Posted on:
April 14, 2008 at 10:03 am

Hi Carol,

Thanks for your comment and for the information on the Career Relaunch Forum conference. I plan on attending and reporting on the conference in my blog and will be sure to announce the conference as well. Will you be there? If so, I would love the opportunity to meet you.

Thanks also for the information on your sites, http://www.irelaunch.com and http://www.backonthecareertrack.com. I will add them to my blogroll and include them on my own resources page. FYI, I posted last week about executive education programs and linked to your irelaunch page on the subject.

Would it be possible for me to contact you occasionally (via email) to share my ideas for blog posts or to obtain your expert opinion on issues I may be covering for Mom Goes Back? It would be great for me to have an outside, expert consultant for this project.