If you’ve been off work for a long while to raise a family or for some other reason, you may be feeling a bit of trepidation about your future career prospects. It’s true that you may find yourself having to take a few steps back temporarily in order to get back to where you were in your career when you left the work force in the first place. The reason for this is that your skills may be out of date, depending on how long you have been out of the “game”.

You should consider updating your skills at a local community college. Drop in at the local college to pick up a course calendar and speak to an advisor. You may want to take some computer software courses or for that matter, take the opportunity to train for a whole new career. There is also the option of distance learning or online training through college sponsored webinars and teleconferences. These training programs offer students the convenience of learning at home and saving on the expense of traveling. This is especially handy if you live in a rural area and have to travel a long ways to the closest college.

It may take a little bit of time to get back into the flow of working full-time again after a long break so you may want to consider part-time work to start. Take some time to write down what you hope to achieve in returning to the work force and to review your finances so that you can determine your earnings requirements. You may have to take into consideration the added expense of childcare if you’ve been a stay at home mom. Much of your research can be done on the internet. You can pull up salary surveys to determine what you can expect from the job market in your community at the present time. A good salary survey for all types of careers and levels of experience can be found on www.monster.com.

Register with a couple of employment agencies as well. You can talk to an employment agent about your situation and find out more about different career options or current trends in the workforce. Many employment agencies specialize in particular career fields so make sure that you research them first to make sure that they have clients in the market area that you’re interested in.

In all, returning to work after a long break can be daunting but with some research and planning, you can successfully re-enter the workforce again. Take some time to determine your goals and develop an action plan that will get you there.

Laura Whitelaw
Certified Resume Strategist
www.bestchoice4resumes.com