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As more women stop work these days to raise kids, then jump back into the work force after a few years, they're forgetting a crucial step:
Planning for it.
Many mothers make the decision to drop out as they fall in love with their new babies in the delivery room, at the end of maternity leave or after the birth of their second baby, says Mary Quigley, a New York University professor, based on interviewing and surveying 1,150 women.
Then, driven again by inner desires or by financial need, they return to work, usually five to nine years later. "I live in the suburbs, and it's like 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers.' Everywhere I go, women are returning to work or thinking about returning to work," says Ms. Quigley, whose book on the topic is due out next year.
Their careers damaged by a lack of planning, many take low-level "starter jobs" upon re-entry. "Women need to think this through a little more in advance," Ms. Quigley says. That means shattering old taboos against planning careers to accommodate motherhood.
Even in today's slack labor market, prospective mothers -- and the relatively small number of fathers who plan to stay home -- can ply several strategies to reduce career damage from "sequencing," the most common label for this in-and-out career path.
Develop a portable skill.
This axiom of career management is even more important to sequencers. A
transferable skill set, such as accounting or brand management, is
likely to be more saleable after a job hiatus than broad experience in,
say, investment banking, or than general management experience in any
industry, says Rebecca Zucker of Next Step Partners, San Francisco, a
career coaching firm. "With industry expertise, it's harder to re-enter
because you've missed the dynamics of what's happening" during the
years you were out, she says.
Accounting, for instance, has lured women partly because its skills are portable. The field is 59% women, up from 19% in 1962, says Martin Kohli, a regional BLS economist in New York. Sales is another transferable skill; results in this commission-driven field are easily measured and proven.
Expand the best part of your existing job.
Parents in corporate jobs may be able to build a new career from the parts of their old jobs they like best. One commercial artist for an ad agency re-trained for a more flexible career as an art therapist, Ms. Quigley says.
Darlene DiCicco, 40, of Massapequa Park, N.Y., has used this strategy twice over the years as she changed jobs to meet her two kids' needs. She quit a corporate post as a pension administrator to stay home for two years. Then, she carved out two of her greatest strengths on that job -- writing and making presentations -- and plied them for several years as a part-time university professor of finance. Discovering a love for teaching, she re-trained and is now seeking a career teaching business and social studies in high school, which offers both full-time hours and a schedule that meshes with child-rearing.
Start your own business.
The scenario of Mom nurturing a hot start-up from the kitchen table is so commonplace that it's become a cliche. That's because it works; the number of women-owned businesses has risen 14% in the past five years, twice the growth rate for all businesses. For women with experience and skills, and with the financial strength to cope with erratic income and a lack of benefits, this route back to work can be exhilarating.
A few winning ideas, suggested by Paul Edwards, co-author of "The Entrepreneurial Parent": Marketing consultants are making $50 to $350 an hour styling themselves as brand consultants, e-commerce marketing consultants and the like.
Bookkeeping is another prospect: Many bookkeepers are earning $25 to $40 an hour doing taxes, payroll and other functions for small businesses, he says. An outlier: "virtual assistant." For $35 to $40 an hour, these online administrative aides handle billing, scheduling appointments and other tasks for small businesses via the Internet.
Pick a hot occupation.
This strategy is the most obvious route to employability, but it's also the shakiest. A hot economy that sparks demand for certain skill sets can cool just as quickly and throw entire occupational fields into eclipse.
That said, 14 of the 30 careers on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' current list of fast-growing occupations are in health or medicine. A few that offer decent pay: physician assistant, physical therapy assistant, audiologist, occupational therapy assistant or dental hygienist. Nursing is also a good option at the moment.
Biomedical engineering, or developing devices to solve medical problems, is a growing field, Mr. Kohli says. If you don't mind catering to people's vices, servicing gambling machines is hot. Also, more women are becoming bartenders, a stable and transferable skill that offers flexible hours. Women now hold 51% of bartending jobs.
All these strategies won't eliminate the lasting price parents pay, in diminished pay and advancement, for dropping out for a while. But they may reduce those losses.
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