Going Back To Work

This is a tricky one, you are going back to work after being out of the employment market for a while. Maybe you have been travelling, raising a family, going back to college or running a business and now you want to be employed again, have an income and be in a working environment.

Don't try to hide gaps in your CV, potential employers will always pick up on them and it makes it appear that you think the gap is a problem. It should not be.

Be open and describe what you have been doing emphasising the benefits, the new experiences you have had earned whilst away from the work environment, what you have learned and any new skills you have acquired.

Perhaps you have been doing odd jobs while you were travelling, learning a new language, waiting on tables - no better way to improve your language skills, than taking orders from hungry customers who don't speak your language. You may be looking for language jobswhen you return.

If you have been running your own business, you will have acquired skills and experience that some employees can only dream of, you will be resourceful, good at multi-tasking, accounts literate and certainly more understanding of management.

As a returning parent your man management and time management skills will be superb. Your negotiating and organisational abilities will also have improved considerably!

Life and common sense skills are invaluable tools in any job and highly valued by employers, so be confident and 'accentuate the positive', don't make excuses for not working, make them good reasons - which they are.