For those that have been out of the workforce for quite some time and are striving to get back into it, the three pieces of advice I’d share are:
- Be resourceful.
- Seek out help.
- Don’t give up!
Speaking from firsthand experience, these three things can get you where you want to go. It may take a while to find success, but it is achievable.
My determination to resume a career in IT after a decade and a half of staying at home to raise my children eventually landed me what I consider the best job in the world. If it can happen for me, it can happen for you.
Prior to having children, I was an IT analyst and mainframe coder for many years. After the youngest of my three girls entered middle school, I decided I wanted to go back to restart my career. Initially, I tried a few part-time jobs, including working at a deli and being a paraprofessional in an elementary school. I found the pay was low and, worst still, I was treated as though it was my first job out of high school.
With considerable reticence, I decided it was time to return to the tech world. I was nervous to jump back into IT and worried that my skills were outdated. I also wondered if a company would hire me when they could instead hire a young professional just out of college.
Resources I leveraged to find help
I soon discovered that there are amazing job-seeking resources at my local library. When attending meetings and presentations, I was amazed to find how helpful everyone was. It wasn’t just the camaraderie of fellow jobseekers, though that was great. There were also gracious people who were there just to help women in my situation. A retired, former IT director offered to review my resume and give me suggestions. Others offered IT presentations and classes, explaining everything from how to get your application past screening algorithms to how to have the best LinkedIn profile.
I found job networking groups at many libraries, and I joined several of them. I also took free online classes to brush up on my skills, listened to podcasts, and read whatever I could find on current tech trends and topics.
It wasn’t a fast process. I spent many months getting up-to-date and tapping into an array of resources. I even participated in speed interviewing (think speed dating) with prospective employers.
At one of these events, I connected with the Vizionara team, through an organization that helps women re-enter the workforce. It was a trial period that turned out to be a great fit with a terrific team. My new manager recognized that my lack of current technical knowledge needn’t be a deal breaker because technology is always changing and my core IT background provided the foundation needed to be successful. They hired me for my experience, work ethic, and ability to learn — rather than for the skills I had at the time.
Getting up to speed on changes
Returning to IT as a technical analyst, I encountered a few hurdles. To start, I quickly realized that many things have changed in the industry in the 15 years I was away. I had missed a lot of the IT concepts and methodologies that other employees picked up along the way. When I left, popular terms were JIT (Just in Time) or waterfall project development. Fast forward two years and I was integrated into Agile teams, worked on MVPs (Most Viable Products), and learned to configure new SaaS applications.
At the same time, there was a host of tools to adjust to, including Zoom, Slack, Cloud applications and AI tools.
With all that swirling around me, I embraced each new tool that was thrown my way. I realized that although the tools had changed since I opted out, fundamentally, the key components were the same and I did have the base foundation I needed.
Learning is still an ongoing process — I still take online classes, tap into seminars, and listen to podcasts. The world of IT is an ever-changing environment.
It took a lot of effort, but I am back in an industry that I love, doing work I enjoy with a great team. My advice – don’t give up. Keep leveraging resources, join a group, learn new things and read, read, read. Don’t be intimidated by what you think you don’t know, instead focus on the foundation you have and build on that. Everyone’s journey is different, but you can definitely achieve success and find your path like I did.
— Sue Kozlowski is a technical analyst at Vizionara.
