Return Journey

Returning to work after a career break can be a daunting prospect. Despite the fact that more people than ever are pressing pause on their careers - to care for children or elderly parents, for health reasons, to relocate or simply to try something new - the roadmap for moving from out of action, to Returner, to Returned, is still unclear. 'Career returners' have often lost their professional confidence. There are psychological, logistical, and systemic blockages every step of the way - how do you regain a sense of professional identity after so long out of the game? Where are the role models of other career returners to look up to? How should your CV look? How do you tackle the unconscious bias of hirers? Where do you even start? RETURN JOURNEY gives career returners a sense of possibility and motivation. Practical, empathetic, and inspiring, this book is the go-to blueprint and source of encouragement for any professional looking to get back to thriving from fulfilling work after some time out. Julianne Miles, co-founder of Career Returners, lays out a roadmap for the journey, from helping the returner feel positive about the decision to go back to work, to providing the returner with tools to adjust to the emotional rollercoaster of the first six months back. Drawing from case studies based on real life returners, RETURN JOURNEY dives into the challenges attendant on each stage of the return and breaks them down into simple psychological models, to be addressed by handy self-coaching exercises.