HELP: Male Trying to Return to Work after Career Break

Hi there

I'm a 42 year old man, married with three kids. I left a successful IT career 4 years ago to relocate my family down the country, build a house and generally spend sometime with my children.

My wife was given an opportunity at the time to further her career and we felt it important that one of us was at home with the children.

I've really enjoyed the time with the kids and having me around has made a huge difference. My wife is now in a position that she could go part time if I went back to work. And I'm starting to miss the outside world. It was always a temporary measure.

Here lies my problem! Where we are living there is little or no IT. After about 6 months of sending out CVs and no interviews I have decided to look for contract work in Dublin.

I only started looking last month but so far no interest.

I've over 18 years experience in the IT industry. I was a director of the last company I worked for and I'm prepared to start off on a lower rate just to get my foot in the door.

I'm finding it hard to get agencies to return my calls. I've had my CV checked by various professionals who have all given it the thumbs up. I've even got several different versions of my CV.

I'm not sure if it is the career break or my age or what is causing the lack of interest. There are jobs in Dublin which I could do in my sleep but I'm not getting to the interview stage.

Any advice? I'm really frustrated as I know if I was female a career break would be considered quite acceptable.

I'm not in a financial or emotional position to retire at 42. But I'm running out of options fast!

DO you have a speciality ?

My previous role was as a Software Development Director for a finanical software house. I'm currently looking for a contract project management role. I have a Prince II qualification in PM.

Anyway you could set up at home / close to home as a consultant? Maybe an area that you specialise in can be worked on from home?

SEPhoenix said:

Any advice? I'm really frustrated as I know if I was female a career break would be considered quite acceptable.

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Surely that's not the issue here. You have left a senior IT management position and moved "down the country" where these types of positions are pretty scarce. Where are you living?

If you're not able to commute to Dublin (and to a lesser extent, the other Irish cities) you're going to find it pretty difficult. The fact remains that most IT work in this country is to be found in Dublin. Did you consider this before you made the move?

I would say the problem is as likely to be with agencies. Some are good, but many are just interested in matching as many CVs up with positions as possible & if you don't slot into a convenient box for them or they don't have anything suitable at that moment in time, they forget about you.

Tiger, your right. I used to work as a rec' consultant and any CV with a gap in it was disguarded or filed. Agencies need red hot CV's as there is so much competition. Have you considered voluntary work or temporary work so at least the last thing you did isnt nothing? What will also help is making appointments with agencies and spending as much time with them as possible. Meeting them face to face will certainly give you an advantage over someone without a face.

I feel for you, being without work and searching for a job is a fulltime role in itself...just with no pay! Good luck.

I'm based in the South East where most employment is manufacturing or pharmaceutical.

I have no problem working from home but had thought that it would be better to get a few projects under my belt first.

We did think about the employment situation in the area we lived in and had intended to buy or setup a business locally. However, after investigating several different businesses I decided to go back to what I know best.

I've no problem working in Dublin during the week for a year or two to get myself back on track. The are some IT insurance jobs locally but I don't have insurance or banking experience. So my plan was to get a contract job in one of these areas first. The idea being that I would at some point in the future get a permanent job locally.

I've been honest on my CV and now it seems to be costing me.

Any ideas on how I can get to the interviews? I'm sure once I'm there I'll have no problem.

Thanks

Why not contact companies directly rather than through agencies?

Diziet

Phoenix, surely someone with your extensive experience can apply their skills to any industry and any management scenario. Maybe it's time to consider a move away from IT?

Kramer16

Have tried that but I'm either over qualified or don't have the industry experience. I'm more that happy to move into manufactoring, sales and would pretty much consider any management position.

The move to Dublin is the last on a long line of things I've tried.

Thanks everyone for your responses. I'll continue to keep plugging away at it. I'm going to try and get face to face meetings with some of the agencies and approach companies directly.

Cheers

SEPhoenix