Attention stay at home moms: here's how to get back to work in just 8 weeks

Confidence is often the biggest reason stopping women from getting back to work. That and the feeling of not knowing what to do and where to start.

Does that sound like you? Overwhelmed and lost on the back to work journey?

You may think the decision to go back to work is hard.  That may have been a snap decision driven by circumstances, or a gradual realisation that you are ready to get back to work. But either way, that decision is now behind you. What lies ahead, is how to implement that decision, and that is the real challenge.
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I work with many women who have been out of the workplace, some for 20 years, others for just a year or two. No matter the length of time out of the workplace, nearly all women cite confidence and uncertainty as the main blockers to getting back out there.

I have good news for you.  

There is always a pathway back to work.

And it can happen sooner than you think.

My group programme, Fresh Horizons, is a great way to make rapid progress as women hold themselves to account in twice weekly sessions. We meet once formally around the content of the week, and again in an informal drop-in where we review progress, and problem solve around each person’s individual situation.  We all support each other.  

We started Fresh Horizons South Africa on Tuesday 11th October 2022, an 8 week online programme which is jointly run by Horizons careers and RecruitMyMom, a Cape Town based recruitment company specialising in flexible careers for professional women.  Phillipa Geard, CEO and her team of recruiters, join three of the modules to ensure whatever we do is linked to the real world of recruitment trends in South Africa.  These insights and the powerful weekly sessions offer expert context and advice for women to make the best decisions to advance their back to work journey.  The pace of this course enables participating women to take the accompanying steps each week, in bite sized chunks, and get work ready or even back to work in 8 weeks.

And the progress made by these women is remarkable. Let me tell you about a couple of them. At the half way point, one woman decided she wanted to formalise her accounting practice. She had been servicing friends and family for free. Just one month in, and she already has a paying client and is writing a Christmas letter to her pro bono clients to let them know she is formalising her business.  She says “I feel stronger mentally, getting myself out there”. She is now able to value her time and skills and launch her start up tax business to fit around her busy family life. Another participant was doing background research and administration for free for a family member’s green energy business idea. She realised this is her passion - to grow this start up given its fit to her desire to work on wellbeing/social impact. Her background in marketing offers key skills that the business needs at this early stage to grow. She made a pitch to become the CEO and says  “I wouldn’t have had the confidence if I hadn’t done this course”.

We spend the first half of the Fresh Horizons course really figuring out who we are and what we want from our working lives. We raise our ambition as a collective on what we can do, and how. Some women are ready to go back to work full time, others are looking for project based work or part time eg mornings only.  Each person is different. Each family story is different.

Time wasted you may think, just let me get on with my CV and get registered with recruitment agents. Wrong. What will your CV say your career goal is if you haven’t figured it out. How will a recruiter know where and how to place you, make sense of different parts of your life if you can’t tell your own career story? How will you explain your career break? We answer all of these questions in Fresh Horizons and reality check each other’s career goals and plans.

Spending time at the beginning of the Fresh Horizons course figuring out what you really want to do, and how you want to do, is hard work.  Women on Fresh Horizons said they found the process ‘intense’ and ‘tough’.  But the upside is this.  By putting in this hard work, women hold a super power and that is clarity. The clarity and direction that comes from this self reflection makes for a focused and therefore productive job search, and it deliver results. As one woman said “I’m a different person from the person I was when I left corporate 12 years ago” and this realisation has helped her build a different pathway back to work. 

For some women, they have a big ‘Aha’ moment on their direction. For others, it’s a slow burn, following different paths, rather like trying on different clothes until one just feels right, or feels less wrong!  No matter the process, I love working watching the clarity, direction and energy that comes from that deep thinking, and how rapidly we make progress in the second half of the course as we put that into action. In these final modules, we get practical and turn from thinking to doing, ensuring our LinkedIn is optimised, our CV is modern and sleek, our cover letters will make someone want to meet us. Plus we get to practise interview techniques with a RecruitMyMom recruiter, who gets to know each participant personally. This part of the course always flies by and is fun, flowing easily from all the ‘big thinking’ done earlier, ensuring women scout opportunities that align. And the clear direction means recruiters and former colleagues know where to place the new back to work you.

So as we work our way through Fresh Horizons, I just want to salute these amazing women who are beginning to ‘land’ on their preferred careers and are already implementing their career action plans. The first steps might be simple, such as coffee with a former colleague or developing a LinkedIn profile or more complex, such as pitching a business opportunity.  Whatever you want to do and however you want to do it, Fresh Horizons will help you gain the confidence to get back to work in 2023.  Enrol here for the next Fresh Horizons South Africa course, which starts Tuesday 7 February 2023.  Numbers are limited to ensure everyone can make progress in synch with the course itself. Similar programmes available in Zimbabwe too.