Hi Janaki,
You seem to be getting very disillusioned by a gap of 6 months. Before rushing to give you advice let me ask a question. I assume you have a professional qualification of some sort. Part of education is intended to give you confidence as a fundamental measure. So first, rediscover it. You have not also mentioned which function you are in and I assume it is HR. If so rest assured there is no decline in the demand for HR professionals in the country.
Second, please look around. I can assure you there are people who have had longer gaps than you and have bounced back none the worse for it. Let's get smart and let me suggest some tips to manage this process.
1. What's the reason you're giving for a break? Generally recruiters are not interested in your personal problems in life. They've got a job to do and would like to know that if you get a job, you would be 100% eady for it - mentally, emotionally and physically. A satisfying asnwer would be that you got married, moved and are now ready to look at a job again.
2. Emphasise your strengths. This may sound mundane, but what you need to do is to be clear about what you are very good at - and talk of these right from the beginning of the interview.
3. Be matter of fact about the break. Yes, it happened - and it is behind you. Don't get too hassled about it and don't seek to berate it too much. Marriage is a part of life - for both men and women - and can cause exceptional calls- so why overplay it's significance?
4.Demonstrate your strengths, if possible, through past achievements. Talk of things done tangibly and which can readily be evidenced through google searches, net access etc.
5. If the challenge is thrown to you, that the break may have caused your professional abilities to suffer, seek the opportunity to demonstrate. (see point 4 above). Ask the interviewer to throw you a live problem to demo your ability to tackle.
6. If you have been doing any sort of work during the break - whether paid or unpaid - explain the same. When I was once fresh out of b school and competing with experienced guys, I used the argument of the official student union positions I held in college to demonstrate that my experiences were equally valuable. There are things you would have learnt during your break that were euqally valuable. List these out.
7. If the company you have applied to is known to be a campus recruiter, emphasise that you are not worried about (dis)parity with your batchmates. this could be an unspoken concern about re-entry careers at times.
Above all keep at it. Any organisation that is stupid enough to believe that a break of 6 months reduces your value as a professional is probably not worth joining. Assess your strengths, assess the merits of the organisation and then decide how far you want to compromise.
I wish you the very best!!
Regards
Sonal Chouhan |
