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TED Talks Daily

How to get back to work after a career break | Carol Fishman Cohen

TED Talks Daily

TED

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4.111.9K Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2019

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If you've taken a career break and are now looking to return to the workforce, would you consider taking an internship? Career reentry expert Carol Fishman Cohen thinks you should. In this talk, hear about Cohen's own experience returning to work after a career break, her work championing the success of "relaunchers" and how employers are changing how they engage with return-to-work talent.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to a special archive presentation of TED Talks Daily.

0:05.1

This talk features career re-entry expert Carol Fishman Cohen, recorded live at TEDx Beacon Street, 2015.

0:15.8

People returning to work after a career break. I call them relaunchers.

0:21.6

These are people who have taken career breaks for elder care or child care reasons,

0:27.6

pursuing a personal interest or a personal health issue.

0:31.6

Closely related are career transitioners of all kinds, veterans, military spouses, retirees coming out of retirement,

0:40.3

or repatriating expats. Returning to work after a career break is hard because of a disconnect

0:48.3

between the employers and the relaunchers. Employers can view hiring people with a gap on their resume as a high-risk

0:56.5

proposition, and individuals on career break can have doubts about their abilities to

1:01.9

relaunch their careers, especially if they've been out for a long time. This disconnect is the

1:08.1

problem that I'm trying to help solve. Now, successful relaunchers are everywhere

1:14.3

and in every field. This is Sammy Kaffala. He's a nuclear physicist in the UK who took a five-year

1:22.3

career break to be home with his five children. The Singapore Press recently wrote about nurses returning to work

1:30.3

after long career breaks.

1:32.3

And speaking of long career breaks, this is Mimi Khan.

1:36.3

She's a social worker in Orange County, California,

1:39.3

who returned to work in a social services organization

1:42.3

after a 25-year career break. That's the longest

1:46.2

career break that I'm aware of. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor took a five-year

1:51.6

career break early in her career. And this is Tracy Shapiro, who took a 13-year career break.

1:59.5

Tracy answered a call for essays by the Today Show

2:03.0

from people who were trying to return to work

...

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