Parents who take extended breaks from the work world to bring up their kids can find it tough to get back in.
By KRIS HUNDLEY
Published June 6, 2004
Stephanie Gibson had been a high-powered account manager for Nestle in Tampa before she took a seven-year hiatus to raise her three children. Then when she decided to look for work in 2002 as a pharmaceutical sales rep, recruiters said her chances were slim to none.
Elizabeth Straw ran a wholesale design mart in Denver and sold school bonds for a brokerage firm in San Francisco. When she tried to get back into the job market in the early 1990s after a dozen years as a stay-at-home mom, she couldn't even land an interview as an executive assistant.
Holly Duncan was a foreign service officer with the U.S. State Department in Germany before starting her family in Clearwater. After eight years at home, she felt lucky in 1980 to be offered a fundraising job making $10,000 a year. Her other option: selling cosmetics at Burdines.
Stay-at-home moms - and dads - have never had an easy time trying to convince potential employers that running PTA meetings and Girl Scout cookie drives translate into credible work experience. But with the job market just coming out of a three-year deep freeze, recent re-entry attempts have been particularly discouraging.
Kim Price, a Tampa headhunter who specializes in the pharmaceutical and medical device industry, said she has talked to dozens of moms - and a handful of full-time dads - who want to return to fast-paced, high-paying careers after a parenting sabbatical. Her response: Good luck.
"I have to explain that my clients' justification for paying me is that I'll find them someone who can hit the ground running," said Price, owner of Ann Grogan & Associates since 1991. "They want people who have current contacts and are up on current issues, like managed care and reimbursements. If you're trying to move back into the market when others are still in it, you're at a deficit."
Census data show that more women with children under age 1 are staying at home, with 55 percent of them in the work force in 2002 compared to 59 percent in 1998. Mothers may be motivated to stay at home as much by a lack of employment options as by choice. A recent poll of women who left careers mainly for family reasons found 66 percent wanted to return to work, according to the Center for Work-Life Policy, a New York nonprofit. The job market, however, has not been particularly welcoming.
Kevin Masar recruits accounting, financial and IT executives from an office in Clearwater. Though hiring has picked up in the past six months, he said it still is about 30 percent of where it was in early 2001.
"It's harder for returning workers simply because there's less hiring going on," Masar said. "It's a numbers game. I have trouble placing people if there's anything unusual in their background. Employers don't want any blemishes."
Most parents would cringe at hearing their stay-at-home period described as a "blemish" on their careers, despite the difficulty of getting back into the game.
Mike Copeland of Tampa recently took a lesser-paying job in a new field after 21/2 years as a full-time dad. "I'd do it all over again," said Copeland, who left a high-paying job selling medical equipment in September 2001. "But it did surprise me it was so hard to re-enter. Companies pat you on the back when you leave but turn their heads when you want to return."
Duncan, the foreign service officer turned fundraiser, said her hiatus in the 1970s gave her time to focus on her family and volunteer activities.
"I'd like to think it made a great deal of difference to my children," said Duncan, whose children are now 29 and 31. "I know it made a great deal of difference to me."
Gibson said she appreciated the time with her daughter, now 9, and 21/2-year-old twin boys. But she admits to some nervousness when she geared up to go back to work.
"There had been a huge tech boom while I was home," she said. "I wondered if my skills were up to date, and how qualified I really was. But I knew I had a strong sales background."
Some companies are responding to the needs of returning workers. Deloitte & Touche is launching a program to offer mentoring and continuing education to any employee on leave for up to five years.
"We're trying to recognize that one of the biggest stumbling blocks (with long-term leaves) is you're out of touch," said Gwen Mitchell, manager partner for north Florida for Deloitte. "We want to make it easier for them to stay up to date and hopefully return to us."
Jack Henard, managing partner of Meridian Partners, a Tampa executive search firm, said top companies recognize that a gap in someone's work record doesn't diminish natural talent.
"If I had someone who had been on the fast track in a high potential career, then dropped out for 10 or 15 years, that would not scare me at all. That person still has the same talent," he said. "But in this lousy market, with an "A' player on every corner, it's a tough sell."
Henard can argue persuasively on behalf of returning career women: He has hired more than a half-dozen former stay-at-home moms to work part-time for his firm. "It's the very best way to find talent in Tampa," he said. "But these women really have to sell themselves to employers one on one. And most won't fit into a corporate environment. They've been there, done that."
Straw, the bond broker who couldn't get a job as an executive assistant, would agree. After she and her husband moved to Sarasota four years ago, the couple started Where-Tech, a company that sells fleet management hardware and software. Straw is part-owner and focuses on manufacturing and product testing.
Despite discouragement from recruiters, Gibson networked her way into an interview with a pharmaceutical company. She landed the job, but recently left for a position with a financial services company. For that, she began commuting for three months of training in New York City.
"Those first two years back in the work force helped rebuild my confidence," Gibson said. "I'm absolutely happy I took those years off. But I needed more at the end of the day."
- Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Kris Hundley can be reached at hundley@sptimes.com or 727 892-2996.
