6 Ways to Restart Your Career After Having Kids

Nothing rearranges your priorities like a tiny human who can’t even hold their own head up yet.

Suddenly your career, the thing you maybe spent your whole 20s building, quietly takes a backseat.

And that’s not failure. Nurturing a life is worth more than any job title.

But once you find your footing, that itch to do something for you again creeps back in.

For some women, motherhood is the ultimate slow-down button. For others, it fires up their ambition because there’s a tiny human depending on them to show up.

Both are valid.

So if you’re standing at that crossroads, wondering how to step back into your career after kids, here are six things I think every woman should know before she starts.

1. Stop Trying to “Get Back to Where You Were”

I know everyone loves the “get back on track” phrase but who told you that you need to return to here you were eebfire having kids.  

Motherhood has changed you. So have your priorities and financial goals. 

That’s why you need to ask yourself what kind of career you want that can allow you to still function as a parent. 

Before the kids came, you probably could work late into the night but now you want  a career that allows you to leave work at 4 p.m. so you can pick the kids from school.

My dear, you are allowed to change your mind.

So before you start applying for your former job, think of where you are and what career aligns with your current situation. 

2. Your Career Break Did Not Erase Everything You Know

It’s easy to convince yourself that you have forgotten everything after spending months away from work.

You see a job description asking for experience with 5 new apps, and suddenly you tell yourself you’re out of touch.

Says who?

While it’s true there’s a learning curve especially if you’ve stayed away for so long, you mustn’t invalidate your experiences prior to the career break.

The same you who spent years managing projects, working with clients, analysing data, leading teams, writing reports, solving problems, or managing budgets is very much still in there. 

What you need to do is find the gap between what you already know and what the industry expects from you now and fill it.

Take a course, learn how to use a new tool, read industry publications and take on small projects.

Don’t throw away ten years of experience because you spent three years away from the office.

It’s like throwing away your entire wardrobe because you bought one new dress.

Which doesn’t make sense.

3. Don’t Hide Your Career Break

For some reason I can’t explain, women tend to return to work with an apology attached to their CV.

They write things like: 

“Unfortunately, I was unemployed for three years due to personal circumstances.”

No, baby. 

You carried a child, pushed out a whole human, and survived. 

Child birth and mummy duties are not for the weak.

And you must never apologize for that. 

There! 

Instead, be honest and professional about it, then focus on what you bring to the table.

Talk about your previous achievements, relevant skills you have developed, projects you have worked on.

Anything you’ve done to improve your skillset that will be useful in your new career, mention them.

The goal is to tell them, “I took a career break, and now I am ready for my next chapter.”

4. Get Evidence, Not 17 Certificates. 

If you are trying to figure out how to restart your career after having kids, you may be tempted to hide in the safety of online courses for the next two years.

Please don’t.

I understand the temptation.

Learning feels productive, and it is much less terrifying than applying for a job only to hear “No.”

So you take one course and then another until your LinkedIn profile looks like a digital wall of certificates.

And still, you don’t feel ready to apply.

At some point, you’ll have to do something with what you know.

Create a marketing campaign if you want to return to marketing.

Do a website audit if you want to work in SEO.

Develop a sample onboarding process if you want to work in HR.

Analyse the company’s financial statements if you want to return to finance.

Create something with what you know. I bet you, you’ll learn more from doing which will make you more confident when you go for interviews. 

Instead of saying, “I completed a course on SEO,” 

You can say, “I recently audited a website and identified these five technical and on-page issues.”

See the difference?

One tells people you learned something.

The other shows them you can use it.

5. Expect Imposter Syndrome to Show Up

Let’s talk about imposter syndrome at work, because it loves women who are trying to make a comeback.

Now that you’ve finally gotten the interview you wanted, there’s this vicid that whisperd nonsense about how undeserving you are.  

First of, you are allowed to not know everything. Who does anyway?

The person who has been working for ten years still has things they don’t know. The difference is that they’re more comfortable admitting it.

Like I said earlier, it’s normal to meet a learning curve when you’ve been out of job for a while. 

The goal is to learn as fast as you can. 

If you want to stop the nagging voicd of imposter syndrome, build an evidence stack.

The only way to stop imposter syndrome is by evidence. 

Have a wins file, and document problems you have solved in your previous workplace. 

Remember to include your audacity to start again. Many give up at first failure, not you. 

You may feel nervous, but nervous also means you care.

6. Build A Career That Fits Your Life Now

When women talk about returning to work after having children, the conversation often centres around getting back into the workforce.

But I think you should ask yourself what kind of career you want to build?

Think about where you want to be three or five years from now.

Do you want a 9-5 or run your own business?

Do you want a remote, hybrid or physical role?

Do you want to work part-time while your children are young and increase your hours later?

Or would you like to try a different industry?

Yes, you need to start earning, but you must be honest about where you are and the work that best fits without having to compromise on your family.