Seven things women can do for their careers while on a break

Carol Fishman Cohen joins Breaking Glass to talk about how women can relaunch careers

Carol Fishman Cohen is an expert in helping midcareer professionals – the vast majority of whom are women – relaunch their careers after taking career breaks. Carol’s story in this space starts more than two decades ago when she stepped out of a successful finance career to raise her children. A decade later she navigated the complex path of rebuilding her career and ultimately pivoted to founding a company specifically focused on helping other individuals do the same. She joined us on Breaking Glass to share her story as well as her tips for how to remain relevant and competitive whenever you are considering rejoining the workforce.  Here are the seven things every woman needs to do during a career break:

1. Take notes about milestones and achievements from your past positions
2. Use this time to figure out exactly what you want to do going forward
3. Become a subject matter expert and get up to speed on what you’ve missed
4. Reinvigorate your networks and reconnect with people from the past 
5. Invest in your technology skills
6. Negotiate for what you need
7. Be patient

The global pandemic and its crippling impact on the female workforce has made Carol’s expertise especially valuable to women. She knows that the women who have stepped out today due to COVID are tomorrow’s relaunchers and she’s here to help. Under her leadership, iRelaunch is supporting thousands of individuals to navigate the overwhelming process of stepping back into the workforce after extended career breaks. She wants to see women recover from the impact of the pandemic and is working with companies to develop return-to-work programs to make re-entry easier for mid- and senior-level employees. Learn more at iRelaunch.