Thinking of returning to work after a career break? Here are 4 ways to enable you to jump back in.

They could take a few months to get a handle on, but are well worth it and if you plan accordingly they will be a great investment in yourself, your personal development and your career. No matter what your background was, you will want to prove that time away from working doesn’t translate to an outdated skill set.

Dusting off that CV and updating your LinkedIn profile with new contacts are still of course as important as ever but you also need to have new fresh content to add to them. So where do you start?

Once you are in a position where you have more time on your hands and your family or life commitments allow it is the best strategy to plan out improving your knowledge and qualifications so you’ll have more options.

1.       Get Reading

Visit the local library, go online or download books about the field you are interested in or have come from and get up to date on the latest terminology and trends in the area so that come interview time you have the chance to impress with how knowledgeable you are.

2.       Take a course, webinar or workshop

Refreshing your skills is very important, especially in certain fields, like IT & Technology, accounting and bookkeeping, HR management, and marketing, to name a few. Make sure to add them to your CV and LinkedIn page along the way to demonstrate that you are well equipped to handle the latest versions or information.  You might want to look at enrolling in a local training course in Cork where you can get out and about going to the centre on your chosen days or even learn from the comfort of your own home through distance learning.        

3.       Use real life experience as work references

This will help demonstrate what you achieved while on career break and will certainly help if your work references are a bit dated. For example if you volunteered with an organisation or perhaps you were an active member of the Parent’s Association at your children’s school or led a local fundraising campaign or initiative. You could also just start now and look at some volunteering roles which will then be happy to serve as references a few months down the road.

4.       Participate in LinkedIn groups

Look for groups to join when you update your linkedIn page and become an active participant, you never know when a participant is looking for someone just like you and the beauty of living in Cork is that you are bound to make connections that you know in real life!

Our team in Pitman Training Cork have been working for many years with students looking to return to work after a career break and with an excellent training to employment rate of 87% of graduates working in better careers or earning more money within 6 months they have great advice to offer.  The team works with each student to help build the perfect programme. Our training courses in Cork are flexible and at times to suit each student so they can train part-time, full-time, evenings, weekends and from home.  

For more information on the training courses offered at our Cork centre from a wide range of disciplines from accounting technician courses, bookkeeping training, management training and marketing courses, secretarial training, medical secretarial courses, legal administration to IT and programming courses, technical training, web design and graphic design courses or simply for career advice, CV skills and top interview tips contact us today or call us 021 484 9989 /FREEPHONE 1800 532 632, email cork@pitman-training.ie or WhatsApp 086 7399557