Job After 15 Year Career Break

Discussion in 'Education & Personal Growth' started by traveldream, Aug 18, 2021.

  1. traveldream

    traveldream Senior IL'ite

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    Hello,

    A little background about me. I turned 40 this year and it struck me that I don't have any great accomplishments career wise . I was very ambitious when I was younger and wanted to be a CEO of some big organisation ... have a great career etc. I worked for about 6 years after my college (including a couple of years after my marriage) . I took a break and due to various reasons, never got back to work . Mainly had issues with finding employment after the 5 year mark had passed. It has been 15 years now and I am feeling very disappointed when my thoughts turn in this direction.

    I did an MBA during my break (in the 1st 2 years of my break) and I thought it might be easier to get back to work after doing my MBA but I had my 2nd child soon after and I didn't get too many opportunities.

    Anyways due to my family situation as well, I didn't pursue it. I tried my hand at a business for a couple of years . It was not very successful and in fact lost money. I wound it up last year, due to even worse business conditions due to Covid. I had some part time subcontracting work for the last few years but it wasn't fulfilling.

    After I wound up my business , I also quit my part time work as it really was not leading to anything. Just the same work for the past 4 years.

    I found myself to be interested in Digital Marketing and enrolled myself in some course and I am doing well in terms of skills I have acquired in the last few months. I am able to build wordpress websites, write SEO articles, Social Media Management and so much more but as I am about 6 months into this.. there is a lot more to know and learn.. than what I presently know.

    Ideally I want a job where I can learn and improve my knowledge base. I am finding it very difficult to get interview calls and even after showing my experience by building my own websites , a couple of free lance projects etc that demonstrate my skills , most employers are not very receptive to hire a 40 year old with a 15 year break.

    I find that I would prefer to work in an organisation where I have a structure and backup as well as compared to working in freelance projects. Can someone guide me about how to get a job ? What should I do to land a good job? Please guide me and help me get back my career.

    Please provide feedback even if it's criticism. I want an honest opinion if I am on the right track and what I am planning for is feasible.
     
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  2. Needtobestrong

    Needtobestrong Platinum IL'ite

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    It is not in my place to give an opinion here, as you’re senior to me in age and experience and I myself now have large career gaps due to family and personal reasons.
    But very inspiring to read how you’ve been updating yourself.
    Hope you get a job soon, will be useful if you update as and when you get some opportunity.
    Actually ,I am also interested in digital marketing, some of my acquaintances are working in this field, of course they’re fresh passouts with just couple of years experience. They’d even gettin good package and enjoying work too.
    May I know what certifications you’ve done in Digital marketing?where did you do the course , online or offline? And what books, online resources you referred?
    How did you learn Wordpress development?
    It would be useful to me too, as SEO is really popular now and is being applied for all sectors , I want to get some good technical knowledge on this.
     
  3. traveldream

    traveldream Senior IL'ite

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    Hi @Needtobestrong

    I am not sure about landing jobs as in corporate roles but digital marketing is definitely something that can help you earn working freelance jobs / projects.

    I learned most of what I know from the internet and there are a lot of courses available for free to get started.
    Also I will value the certificates very low as not many(employers / clients) give importance to it.

    What is more important is getting actual hands on skills.

    I will recommend you to think about an actual product (for ecommerce) or a service you can sell and practice making a wordpress website with hosting. Don't hesitate to spend the 3k (approx) for a year or so and you can learn most of the things from youtube. I particularly liked videos by Tyler Moore / Darrel Wilson for learning how to make wordpress websites.

    Digital marketing itself is a huge ocean. learn about the various aspects and specialise on a niche you find interesting.
    I did join a course but I will say the information you get from the course is definitely something you can easily get on the internet...however having said that ..the main benefit of joining a course is the community. If you are active in the community / groups, you can learn a lot from others who are taking the course as well.

    Once you have learned some skills , start practising..you can also start with freelancing projects. You can join some relevant groups in FB / Telegram and you can get projects via that source. You can also set up gigs in Fiverr / upwork , etc and land some projects but its very competitive on these platforms. Share with friends and family that u have started learning DM and you may land your first gig through this route.

    First you need to focus on creating a portfolio of work and bcoz whenever you approach anyone for a project this will be the 1st question. No one will care if we have a certificate or not, if you can show practical skills.

    Also once you are fairly confident in a particular area, you can take a small test in linkedin and if you are in the top 30% of the people who hv taken that skill test, you can display it on your linkedin profile.

    I was able to land clients in about 3 months time .. If you need recommendations for course, go with anyone of the below : Digital Scholar (Saurav Jain) , Digital Deepak , Growth School.. etc. But first ge started with a free course and as you gain understanding , go for a course based on your need. For SEO you can refer to this site Learning SEO: A Roadmap to Learn SEO with Free Guides & Tools .

    Also invest in some tools once you have built a website to learn in depth for if u only use free tools, your learning will be limited and you might find it difficult to progress. This is my experience.
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2021
  4. Needtobestrong

    Needtobestrong Platinum IL'ite

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    Thank you so much for the detailed reply,
    I’m interested in digital marketing as I’m not a very technical person and it’s quite interesting and I was told that there is a lot of flexibility, and options for wfh and freelance. I read about SEO and found it quite fascinating.
    I’ll follow your suggestions.
    Will post here or contact you if I have any other queries..
     
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  5. lavani

    lavani Platinum IL'ite

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    not sure which country you are in . But you are in the right path. it will take time. i guess if you can make a web site. you can catch up

    JS framework - client side like react,
    css - sass , some frame work too - bootstrap,
    cloud hosting - aws
    server side code - node / .net ( too vast - more specific on pure REST development)
    db - may be a nosql like mongo or some cloud based on like compass in azure
    ci/cd and containers ( advanced)

    there is nothing new i can say. it is going to take some time. getting interview calls in india , you have to try to references - especially in small companies.

    quite sure , you know it. you have your linked in , twitter. shamelessly keep sharing your content / code regularly. that is new resume now a days :)
     
    Last edited: Aug 27, 2021
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  6. traveldream

    traveldream Senior IL'ite

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    Thanks for the response @lavani .

    I am in India.

    You are right, I have to be patient... thats the key.
    I am not from a technical background so... its a bit difficult for me to learn to code and I have a mindset problem that its tough to learn coding. Anyways.. I am more focused on no code website building like wordpress and I am learning webflow also currently.

    I am getting freelance projects but to land a decent job I guess I need to show more results and for DM it takes a bit of time.. Thanks for the inputs.. will check if I add any of the above skills.
     
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  7. Needtobestrong

    Needtobestrong Platinum IL'ite

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    Regarding career break, what has been the experience of ladies who returned to work after a long gap?
    Do employers give attention to the age of the candidate? Like, a lady in twenties who is freshly graduated would be preferred rather than a lady in thirties or forties with more career gap?
    Is age or career gap a problem if you have the required knowledge and hands on experience?
    After reading this thread by OP, and since I’m also in India, I was wondering about these two points as well.
    I had to take a break for family reasons and though I’m not very ambitious by nature, I feel the need and necessity for a good career now.
     
    Last edited: Aug 27, 2021
  8. lavani

    lavani Platinum IL'ite

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    good luck.

    i do not know anything about your domain. never been part of no code website dev.
    but if you have stuck feeling ,

    this is a easy website to start leaning if you want to enter web coding - https://www.freecodecamp.org/
     

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