How To Re-Enter The Workforce After A Long Absence

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m re-entering the workplace after a ten-year absence and could use some advice please.

I made a move to the USA from Canada ten years ago (got married!) and couldn’t work for a couple of years while the whole Green Card app was processed. Once I was a permanent resident, one of my parents had a problem and needed a full-time care-giver. It ended up being me and I have been at home ever since looking after him. Now circumstances have changed again and I need to go back to work full time.

I worked as a help desk technician for ten years. I worked a variety of jobs, ranging from general desktop, network and office software/hardware support to SQL client/server application support and administration. I’m nothing special, no in-depth experience with any one system, and no advanced education other than an A.A and an A.I.T degree. I’m a generalist with a solid foundation who is adaptable enough to fit into just about any support team given enough time to learn their particular system or applications (and I learn quick).

I am fearful my “shelf life” is expired because I am 44 years old and was not able to keep up on current IT certifications during my absence. I kept my hand in where I could, taking some small odd-jobs every year, servicing local small business with their PCs and networks. Nothing complex, just routine maintenance and trouble-shooting. But it looks bad on my resume.

I’ve sent resumes out to recruiters and staffing agencies… with no response from any of them. Most of the local jobs all involve more specialized knowledge to administer their ERP/CRM systems or their networks. So I got rejected from those too.

I’ve been thinking of burying my nose in some books and certifying in either Salesforce or Sharepoint, which seem to be the two most common demands I am seeing in the area (southern Minnesota). Does anyone have an opinion as to the wisdom in dedicating time to either one of those?

TL;DR: I’m an older help desk tech that’s been out of work too long and I don’t know what my best course of action is to land a job. Do I re-certify first and if so, what would you suggest? I’d like to get into more administrative jobs, overseeing B2B application servers. Any advice on that front?

Prongo

2

You may have to start out with a part-time gig, or gigs. Non-profit and/or volunteer work may be in order.

3

Get your foot in the door somehow. When my wife was about to give birth to our first, she dropped out of the workplace. When our youngest was 9 she did get a job as a programmer, but after she was hired, she had to face HR and the guy said, “Seventeen years, that’s a long absence.” As though she had been in prison or something. That job didn’t really work out and she got a certificate in translation and free-lanced for a while, then got a regular job.

4

Start with LinkedIn, work it like a mo-fo. Find all your old connections and colleagues, get a rec from a couple.

Then see if any of them can help you get a foot in the door.

Take a class or two.

5

In addition to the above advice, make your gap sound useful.

“Ran my own IT business”