At this time of the year, I often hear mothers say: “I want to start work in September”. It’s the beginning of the summer, school vacation is starting, the kids’ schedules are all different with camps, if they have a schedule at all. Perhaps your college kids are back home and you want to savor every minute with them, or maybe this has always been the time you have spent at your beach or lake house and the thought of not being able to do that this summer is too overwhelming. But let’s be realistic. If you do nothing this summer, are you going to start working in September? Likely not.

Let’s reset those expectations. If you don’t already have a job lined up for September, and you intend to do nothing this summer, you will most likely not start working in September.

So where are you in the process of returning to work? Honestly tell me. If I organized an interview for you tomorrow, are you ready to go?

If you answered “yes” and you do nothing this summer, you may be good to start searching in September. That’s right, start searching, not start working. It takes time to identify the companies, positions you are interested in, apply for jobs and go through the interviewing process.

For those of you who freaked out when I asked are you ready for an interview tomorrow, and your answer was NO!, let’s think through this and try to understand where you are in the process.

Answer the following questions honestly:
a) Do you know what you want to do next?
b) Have you identified companies/industries/fields you would like to work in?
c) Have you got a resume, or rather a few versions of your resume, containing the key words matching the positions you would like to apply for?
d) Is your LinkedIn profile up to date and maximized for your job search?
e) Is your elevator pitch ready? Can you introduce yourself and your goals succinctly?
f) Have you been networking? Are you ready to network?
g) Do you have an action plan for your job search?
f) Do you have a professional wardrobe?

I am not trying to overwhelm you. Returning to work is a process. It is a lot of work and involves advance preparation. I can understand that your summer is busy. If you are in New England like me, you’ll also want to enjoy the warm weather and sun while you can. But I want to prepare you. In the least, if you spend just a few hours a week during the summer to get ready for September, then in September you’ll be able to answer “yes” to all the above questions and you’ll be ready to start applying and interviewing straight away. If you only start this process in September, adjust your expectations…

IamBackatWork provides on-demand coaching sessions, webinars, to help you prepare for each step of this process. They are FREE and only 30 minutes long. I promise you, you can find the 30 minutes to watch them. If you really want to fully benefit from them, I would recommend that you sit down with pen and paper, and pause the webinar when a question or exercise is posed and take the time to complete them. You can watch them at your leisure and as many times as you like.
Whenever you have a moment, read IamBackatWork’s blog which contains many further tips on this journey.

We are here to support you!

Miki Feldman Simon, Founder & CEO IamBackatWork