How a returnship can be your gateway to returning to work after a career break
If you’ve taken a significant break in your career you might be experiencing some reservations about returning to the workforce.
Whether you’re nervous or excited about going back to work, you may also be battling some internal gremlins, anxiety, perhaps even, feeling some guilt, and wondering:
How will I know when I'm ready to return to work?
Typically, there are three reasons why someone returns to work following a career break.
Need
This is the financial imperative. Situations include lost income; perhaps your spouse is unable to work, or their job status has changed, or when you’ve become a single parent. These are good signs that you should return to work.
Desire
Many women return to work because they want human connection outside their children. They want to be challenged, and/or they want to be paid for the work that they've been doing such as community/volunteering work.
Timing & Situation
In terms of timing, there are three classic re-entry points for people getting back into the workforce. These revolve around the empty nest:
i) young children entering school,
ii) children becoming more independent,
iii) when children leave home to go to university.
There is a fourth reason that has appeared in the last few years, and that’s returning to work after a pandemic-pause.
It’s worth noting that if you're not ready to return, it will show in your interview and/or in your work. It’s important to assess the reasons for returning, and prepare yourself for the lifestyle changes. You may find some one-on-one Coaching with a professional can help you work through that.
When experienced professionals are ready to return following a career break, a returnship, or a Return to Work initiative, is an excellent opportunity to re-engage.
What is a Returnship?
A returnship is a short-term paid programme designed for experienced candidates resuming a career following a career break.
This sounds like an internship.
Not quite. Traditional internships are paid, fixed-term contracts aimed at school leavers, graduates, and people just starting out in their careers, to help them get into employment.
Although returnships share obvious characteristics with internships, such as a structured cohort-based programme and an assigned mentor, a returner should never be made to feel that they are in the same category as an intern.
The programmes are similar, but not the same.
I’ve never heard of a Returnship. Is this a new thing?
No, returnships and return to work programmes aren’t new.
Prior to the pandemic, career disruptions and return-to-work programs were becoming an important way for companies to hire professionals but they were niche and often flew under the radar.
Originating in the US, Goldman Sachs launched the first returnship programme in 2008. In the same year Sara Lee introduced returnships, offering the four-to six-month cohort experience in marketing, brand management, sales, or professional staff roles.
The notion of returnships grew further in later years after it was adopted by many on Wall Street including Lehman Brothers, and UBS.
It took longer for the concept to take hold in the UK with returner programmes being offered by UK businesses from 2014.
However more recently, the pandemic-triggered recession, which disproportionately impacted employed women, has identified an acute need for these programs.
For most parents, the closure of schools and childcare meant that children required supervision for at least an extra six hours a day. Mothers were one-and-a-half times more likely than their male counterparts to have lost their job or quit since the start of the lockdowns.
They were also more likely to have been furloughed.1
Two years on, only some of these women are returning to the workforce, while many continue to navigate the climate of uncertainty.
I’m interested. Where can I find a Returnship?
The Big Four accounting firms, and the Banking industry seems to be leading the charge when it comes to returnships in the UK. Institutions such as the Aviva, Bank of England, Barclays, Citi, Deloitte, KPMG, Lloyds, Mazars, WellsFargo all have returnship programmes, most of which are London-based.
The specifics such as inclusions, structure, dates and length of the programme, as well as the qualifying criteria, varies from company to company. Some are prepared to explore flexible working and/or working from home arrangements.
Returning to work is a positive thing.
Try to think of your career break as an opportunity to escape a career you may no longer enjoy, or try something completely different; rather than the break being a hindrance to your career.
If you want to remain in the same industry, you can tweak your role to suit the ‘new you’.
Whatever change you want to make, use all your resources to make it happen.
It’s also an opportunity to recognise that you may never get the chance to step off the career treadmill again. Take the time, embrace this chance to really work out what you’d love to do, and be brave enough to go for it.
I’ll hold your hand through this period of change. Be kind to yourself and book a consultation today.
1 29 Institute for Fiscal Studies, How are mothers and fathers balancing work and family under lockdown?, 27 May 2020.