Don’t stop progressing: Keeping in touch with your career during an extended leave -- Guest Post

I’m currently on my second year-long maternity leave, but even though most of the time I’m home changing diapers and washing barf out of things, I feel I’m more focused on my career than ever. 

Keeping up career momentum throughout a parental leave or other extended leave can be tough, but it’s worth the extra effort if you want to keep moving forward in your career. In many countries, maternity and parental leaves can be up to a year of time away from work, and in the US, where maternity leave is not specifically provided, parents of young children often take some time away from the workforce.  Regardless of whether you are returning to an existing position or taking some time out while your children are small, keeping a few tips in mind can help you keep your career life warm for when you are ready to return to it.

1.       Keep networking.  For parents with small children at home, going out to professional development events, conferences, and other networking opportunities can be difficult.  However, this doesn’t mean you have to slow down your networking, if you have internet access at home.  Use LinkedIn, professional association websites, Facebook, and email to connect with others who have similar work interests.  Discuss issues that are common to your field, swap book recommendations, or just talk about ideas.  This can help you keep your finger on the pulse of your field, and when the time comes for you to return, your knowledge will be much more up to date.  I have found it useful to schedule lunches with colleagues- we choose a restaurant where I can bring the baby, and he rocks out in his car seat while I chat with my colleague about how things are going at work.  It’s a great way to stay connected.

2.       Keep learning.  There’s tons of professional development that you can work on while you’re home with a little one.  I regularly attend webinars, read and review books, and work on online courses.  You might find great resources in podcasts (which you can listen to in the car or on transit) email lists, or online conferences.  In technology fields, this is particularly important- keeping abreast of current technology makes it much easier to return to work. Professional development can take a bit of a monetary investment, but consider it an investment that will return to you and then some by increasing your future earning power.

3.       Keep that resume or portfolio up to date!  You never know when opportunities are going to come your way.  Even if you’re not ready to return to work, you may want to use your skills through volunteer positions, or take on a part time position- and it’s so much easier to jump on those opportunities when your resume is ready to go.  As well, keep your Linkedin profile updated- recruiters are increasingly using the service to find talent, and they may be looking for someone like you! Likewise, keep in touch with some potential references, you never know when you’ll need them.

4.       Keep sharing your knowledge.  In many fields, there are publications, conferences, and symposiums where experts can share knowledge they have gained through their work.  Even if you’re not working currently, you likely still have some specialty knowledge to share- and a leave can be a great time to give a conference talk or write an article, since you won’t have full time work as well as kids and day-to-day tasks competing for your attention.  Likewise, volunteer work can be a great way to give back and keep sharing your skills.  Look into volunteer positions with local organizations. You can build your networks this way as well!

With some added effort, keeping your career aspirations alive while you’re away from work can make your return much smoother.  No matter how long you’re away, you will have relevant skills and knowledge to share, and it will be much easier to communicate your value to your employer and avoid losing out on potential earning power!

When she’s not making play-doh spaceships with her two young sons, Jenny Hill, CPLP creates engaging, accessible, and effective learning experiences, so learners can reach their potential and do their most meaningful work.  You can contact her on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferreneehill.

How to Push Your Book...Gently

Writing over at Patch of Sky, today, in case you're interested in that kind of stuff.

Once you publish a book, it seems like it's time to sit back and celebrate, but nothing could be further from the truth. A published book becomes just one of a billion others on the shelf (or virtual shelf), unopened and unloved. With so many out there, why would someone give yours a chance?

Even if your book is brilliant, it will languish in the wasteland of undiscovered if you don't get it out there yourself. Now, this is not to say push it at every opportunity. That will grate on people's nerves and push them farther from you. And don't tell them how great it is. You'll come off as pretentious and self-congratulating. If it is great, the hope is they'll think so all on their own. And definitely stay away from review sites. Do not talk about your own work on them. There can be no good outcome, unless what you're saying is "thank you" for either a good or a bad review.

Try to take a step back. Your book isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea. It's not your fault, and not their fault. They're there to review, or they read your book and had something to say. That's awesome. Think of 50 Shades of Grey. Are the bad reviews stopping E.L. James? Heck, no. It's a case of "keep talking, you're making me famous." What's important is that people are talking about your work. What's more important is that you come off as gracious and put-together.


READ MORE:

Playing on Facebook Can Get You a Job

Playing on Facebook can get you a job - I'm not talking about Farmville, though I'm sure there must be something for which those skills can be used.  While Facebook is thought of by many as a way to pass the time, the social network has broad business applications if you use it right.  And it's only one of many networking, aggregating, blogging and mini-blogging sites out there, all of which can be used to pad your resume.

My young cousin is taking a college course entitled "Digital Literacies and Social Media."  After I stopped laughing (not at you, Margaret, and not at your class, but at how very old I am in my young years - when I was in school the height of technology was using an old Dreamweaver prototype to insert annoying music that played automatically on your own web page), I realized how mainstream social media is becoming in the business world.  It's been a part of our personal lives for years now, but corporations and businesses have a lot of red-tape to cut through before they can implement even the slightest change in ideas.  And the use of social media is no slight change.  It's revolutionizing advertising, marketing and public relations.  It's affecting growth, popularity and income in the business world.  And it's something you can learn while you're staying at home with your kids.  And it's something that makes you marketable, should you ever choose to go back to the working world.
Here is how your blog experience can help you in the workplace:

1) Writing skills - By blogging regularly, you keep your writing skills in tune with today's style.  You know what topics draw in readers.  You know which tones keep their attention.  You have, on your own accord, found an audience and grown it.

2) Networking - By creating a Facebook page and Twitter for your blog, you expand your readership.  You allow for maximum readership at any given time, proving you know not only how to write a compelling piece, but that you also know how to spread the word through grassroot avenues.  As more people join these pages, their friends and associates see links to your stuff, and they in turn may join, creating a spiral of popularity. 

3) Marketing - You may have included giveaways on your blog, or participated in blogshares, or done a guest blog.  All of these will increase your readership and are a form of marketing.  You are reaching out to a foreign audience with your 'product' and enticing them back to your homebase, in the hopes of recruiting new audience members - new buyers, in terms of the business world.  There are blog syndication services, and services allowing you to farm your blog out to local newspapers, aggregates and magazines, all increasing your readership and theirs in a symbiotic relationship.

4) Branding - If your blogging, you've had to come up with an idea, a tagline, and a way to draw readers or viewers in.  I'm a writer, so my blog is all about writing, but there are those who showcase photography, or crafting, and some simply use the blogging platform to forward their original ideas.  For instance, a friend of mine decided to start recycle old crayons.  She created a Facebook page, told a few people about it, and within hours had more than 200 fans.  Her idea was that strong.  As you continue in your projects, you are strengthening your brand, something that businesses are striving to do, themselves, with a lot more notoriety and manpower.  If you can build a brand from scratch, it makes you invaluable. It shows you've got the creativity and gumption to find ways to insert yourself into people's lives.  Branding is important.  Branding is the reason you know The Pioneer Woman's name.

5) Partnerships - if you review products or give them away, you are forging a partnership with the businesses that make those products.  You are forming relationships, connecting the personal lives of your audience to the professional service of that particular business.  You've become not just an end-point, but a link.  Those businesses may eventually offer you advertising, and you will offer them a new audience they'd otherwise be unable to reach.

As businesses struggle to catch up to the personal lives of their consumers, they are looking for people who have honed these skills.  This marks a change from the hireability of just a few years ago.  Where previously, you would have been hardpressed to explain to an employer that while you stayed at home with your children for those few years, you were working on your 'brand,' in today's world, that's exactly what they want to hear.  And it gives you an edge that those who have stayed in the business world do not have.

When I start applying for jobs, it's true, I'll have to tell them that I have not stacked or lined a news show in two years.  And, yes, I'm afraid they'll not take me back.  But I'll be able to show them well-rounded growth in an area that not many people have the opportunity to dip into, in an area that has become very desireable in the eyes of an employer.

I'll be able to tell them that in addition to changing diapers and heating bottles, I wrote pieces that were picked up by such and such publications nationwide.  I'll be able to tell them that without previous name or reputation, I built a following of hundreds of people.  I'll be able to tell them that when I write about breakfast cereals, thousands of people take a peek.  I'll be able to offer them the network I have painstakingly built for myself, and more importantly, I'll be able to offer them the skills I learned while building that network.

This is what they mean when they say mommy bloggers are taking over the world.

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Social Media and Moms - An Introduction

Social media has revolutionized what it means to be a mother.  Sure, the basics of mothering remain the same throughout the ages, but with all the information of the internet at our fingertips, new theories catch steam quickly, unsafe practices are brought to light in front of large audiences, and people can pick and choose which parenting methods work best for them in real time, as these methods are being used and tested by others.

One of the largest drawbacks to staying at home with your kids is the broad-stroked isolation you feel as your friends continue on their paths while you stop your own development to jump start your babies' development.  Though spending hours upon hours with your kids is fulfilling in a way nothing else can be, it is also lonely, as your main mode of conversation becomes: "Do you want this or that?  Do you have to use the potty?  Please, stop crying."

Gone are the days of idle chat with your peers, the coffee shops, the restaurants, the heart-to-hearts.  You can barely get an entire sentence out without addressing your kids in some manner, which is off-putting to conversational attempts to say the least.

Social media and Web sites bring the world to you.  If you want to talk about parenting, there are sites devoted to parents sharing pictures and stories of their little ones.  If you want to read the newspaper, you can catch up on current events with the click of a button.  You can interact with others and discuss the stories you're reading in the comments section.  You can keep in touch with friends via Facebook.  Most importantly, you can devote just minutes at a time to any of these activities and go right back to your kids without looking socially awkward.  A thread on Facebook, or in a forum, can develop slowly throughout the day, so that you can comment on something interesting to you, leave to play with your kids, and come back to comment again on the thread when you have time, without missing any of the conversation.  Drive-by internet conversations are practically tailor-made for the stay at home parent.  It caters precisely to the kind of chatter we can handle.  The kind that takes just two minutes at a time and can handle long lapses in between.

As the world catches up to the technology available to us, work from home opportunities abound - moms can invent, can create, and can produce viable products and ideas in their spare time, possibly making money, but, more importantly, keeping their foot in the business world's door, as more and more employers respect and desire the know-how necessary to keep online projects afloat, the marketing and networking skills acquired through creating a brand for yourself online.

Back in the 1970s and 80s, women were still struggling to prove themselves in the workplace.  Taking a year or two off to start a family stunted progress in that battle, and individuals often felt not only isolated in their choice, but ostracized as they tried to get back into the career they'd worked so hard to be a part of.  As much as staying at home with your children is given lip-service, it's rarely looked upon positively behind closed corner-office doors.  How can a woman who's left the working world for an extended period of time be as efficient or as appealing as a person who has been working and growing with the industry all along?

I must admit, when I made the decision to start staying home, these fears weighed heavily on me.  Would I be hirable after my hiatus?  Would the technology have completely changed?  Would all my backbreaking work throughout my childless years be forgotten or obsolete?  What could I possibly have to offer after such a long "vacation?"

I worried I may well be putting the nails in my only half-built coffin by leaving television journalism when I did.

I no longer worry, though, and tomorrow, I'll tell you why.  It has to do with the internet.  It has to do with social media.  It has to do with this blog and the desireable skills I have, quite accidentally, honed each morning while Sesame St. is on.


(If you are interested in this topic, you may also enjoy the Parenting Online Series: 1 and 2)


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