I attended the Career Relaunch Forum [now the iRelaunch Return to Work Conference] in May 2008 because I was looking to re-enter the workforce in my field of Information Technology after a ten-year career break. In addition to the severe slump in the job market, IT is a rapidly changing field, and my skills were almost completely outdated. But I took your advice from the Forum and began a three-pronged attack on getting a new job: 1) I updated my skills through course work at a community college, 2) I networked like crazy and 3) I persevered.
After submitting my resume for several positions and not even getting a response, I applied for a corporate internship via a program at my community college. Not only did the company consider me, but they matched me with a permanent job instead! The position [Applications Analyst] is with the IT department for a group of hospitals, and I'll be working in a very hot new growing field, electronic records management. Best of all, the job is part-time, which works perfectly with my young childrens' school schedule.
iRelaunch Note: This story is from 2008. Belinda is still working for the NorthShore University HealthSystem and has been promoted. She now holds the position of EPIC Trainer, providing training in the use of EPIC medical records software.
Did this story motivate you or inspire you!?
Do you have a relauncher success story of your own to share with us and the rest of the relauncher community?
Sharing your inevitable success is a great way to give back as your story will inspire and motivate other relaunchers, especially if your story is not the typical story that is told.
It is our hope that all relaunchers are able to see themselves reflected in relauncher success stories as we all know how important representation is. We respectfully ask you to share only the details of your relaunch you are comfortable sharing, but to indeed share your story with us so we can be sure to document and feature a more diverse population of relauncher experiences, background and identities.
