After Years Off, Women Struggle To Revive Careers
Catherine King sat patiently in the office of a Wall Street search firm. She carried her résumé, packed with impressive entries: M.B.A., Stanford University; securities trader, Credit Suisse First Boston; portfolio manager, Chase Manhattan Bank.
But at the end of a 40-minute meeting, the recruiter's assessment was bleak. Ms. King, he concluded, has a 15% chance of getting a job in finance. The problem: almost everything she has going for her, from a recruiter's prospective, ends in 1990. Today she is 50 years old, and with the exception of running some fitness classes, her profession for most of the past 14 years has been stay-at-home mom.
Like Ms. King, many professional women who quit their jobs to raise children are trying to go back -- and they're finding it harder than they ever imagined. The sluggish economy has made jobs scarce for many well-qualified candidates, let alone those with gaps in their résumés. With advances in technology, women who have taken even a few years off likely have fallen behind or feel out-of-touch. The job-hopping of the past decade has meant many of their old professional contacts, mentors and networks are dispersed. And often their families get used to having mom at home and don't relish a change.
Taking time off for family reasons has been a compelling option for women who can afford it. Many mothers say the benefits, especially time spent with their young children, are invaluable. Reversing a nearly 30-year trend, the percentage of mothers in the work force with a child younger than one year old dropped to 55% in 2002 from 59% in 1998, according to the Census Bureau.
But many women ultimately want or need to resume their careers. A recent poll of nearly 500 highly educated women who left their jobs mainly for family reasons found 66% wanted to return to work, according to the Center for Work-Life Policy, a New York nonprofit. (See related article.)
Another survey, of more than 600 female graduates of Harvard Business School, found that 96% of graduates in their late 20s were employed. The rate tumbled as the women aged: 71% of those in their late 30s with at least two children were employed. Then employment picked up again; 82.5% of those in their late 40s said they work.
Some women make the transition easily. This week, Brenda Barnes, who left her job as head of PepsiCo's North American beverage business in 1997 to spend more time with her children, returned to work as the No. 2 executive at Sara Lee Corp. But her move isn't typical of the experience of most women.
"Things change so quickly," says Karyn Roberts, 42, who worked in information technology for Ford Motor Co., and International Business Machines Corp. before quitting work after her first child was born in 1997. Now she lives with her husband and two daughters in Vermont, and recently accepted a job teaching a computer course at a community college. Returning to her old field wasn't a viable option, she says: "I need to be able to translate the business needs into a workable IT solution... and I have no idea what's out there anymore."
Meeting with a headhunter in March, Ms. King, the former securities trader, found she couldn't answer basic questions about some of today's investment products. "CDOs, do you know what they are?" he asked.
"No," she replied.
"Collateralized debt obligations," the recruiter, Michael Maloney, informed her. She wrote down the term in a notebook, as he continued to ask her to identify other terms, "Credit derivatives, interest-rate derivatives..."
Mr. Maloney, an executive recruiter for more than 20 years, says, "The challenge is not only the gap in her résumé," but the fact that the industry has changed so much since she was last working in it.
Besides playing professional catch-up, mothers trying to re-enter the work force face emotional hurdles. A decade ago, Michelle Abt oversaw a staff of about 40 as a vice president at Chase Manhattan Bank. A nanny arrived at her house in Stamford, Conn., at 6 a.m., and she dashed for the 6:25 commuter train to New York City. She returned home to her family around 7:30 or 8 in the evening. In 1994, after she had her second child, she resigned.
"I quit because I never saw my children," she says. Her husband ramped up a business he owned, and she stayed home and had a third child. "Without a question, it was the right decision for us."
With her youngest now in first grade, she says she's ready to go back to work. "I don't want to just go to the gym, have lunch with people and redecorate my house."
But when she told her family, "The kids said 'we don't want to be taken care of by a nanny,' " she recalls. So she promised that they wouldn't. "I said, 'I will pick you up from schooI.' " To do that, Ms. Abt is trying to start her own ceramics business.
Husbands also have mixed feelings. "There's only so much school, class-mother stuff she can do," says David Zuckerberg, an emergency-medicine physician in Waccabuc, N.Y., whose wife, Elisa, just accepted a part-time marketing job. He says he's supportive of that, but wonders how it will "change the way the family operates." Their children, ages 5 and 9, "are used to having their mom at home, and when they're bored they can say, 'Mom, I'm bored, help me not be bored.' "
The pressures of caring for a toddler in the midst of a big trial led Vivian Friedman to quit her job as a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney's office in 1985. She was 37. For the next 16 years she poured herself into her daughter's life, attending sporting events and volunteering at her private school. She says she used her legal skills as president of a civic association. In 2001, as her daughter prepared to enter college, Ms. Friedman decided it was time to go back to work.
She mailed 50 letters to prospective employers in New York -- on Sept. 10, 2001. After a delay for spinal surgery, she started looking again in January 2003. Since then, she estimates that she has contacted more than 100 employers -- law firms, banks, other businesses, government offices, even temp agencies.
Last year, she applied for an executive-assistant job. "I'm not above it. I can read mail, write letters, review business plans. I can make coffee," she says. When she arrived for an interview she was asked to take a typing test. She didn't get the job.
Ms. Friedman, 56, now spends hours scouring online job sites. She's meets with headhunters. She scans the newspaper for ideas. "I refuse to accept the fact that I'm not employable," she says. "I always thought it would never be hard for me to go back to work."
Some employers say no matter how strong the case, volunteer work doesn't stack up against years of professional accomplishments -- especially in an era when openings are scarce.
"If an employer uses the criteria 'We will hire the best person for the job,' I think it's very difficult to choose someone who's been out of the work force that long," says Tory Johnson, founder and chief executive of Women For Hire, which pairs job-seekers with recruiters. Applicants sometimes point to their volunteer work, or experience as "head of the household...the women who does everything," she adds. "The theory of it sounds really great, but the reality is it's very difficult."
Many women quit work in their 30s, prime career-building years. By the time they think about going back, they're into their 40s, or older. Women like this "are going to have to be a little realistic -- they don't have the perfect package," says Kevin Ryan, CEO of DoubleClick, a New York computer company. "They're going to have to take a step back" from the salaries and positions they left.
Laura Jeffress, 42, managed a staff as director of international marketing for a sunglass division of Bausch & Lomb in the mid-1990s. She says she left her job -- and a salary of $100,000 -- in 1996 after she gave birth to her first son.
After a short stint at another company, two more boys and four years at home, Ms. Jeffress decided to go back to work. In January she started interviewing for marketing jobs, but quickly realized she was being considered for positions that were a big step backward.
"It's so devastating to sit there and realize you are talking to someone who would have been your underling," she says.
She was offered an entry-level management post and annual salary of $40,000. "I said, 'There is no way I can even afford to pay child care on what you just offered me.' "
In frustration, Ms. Jeffress has decided to give up her search for now. Her three sons are eight, four and two. With her husband's work as an attorney, the family has a comfortable-enough income, but they will have to skip some luxuries, including eating out. Last year her oldest son went to two summer camps. This year he won't go to any.
"It's hard to believe that four to six years could damage your career in that way," she says.
Nancy Judson was working as an elementary special-education teacher in Dallas in 1988, when her husband's company transferred him to Portland, Ore. After their first child was born, they decided she would stay home. "We both had working moms," Ms. Judson says. "I wanted to be there and do all those things that my mom couldn't do."
Last year the couple divorced. Ms. Judson, now a 45-year-old mother of three, looked for a job for the first time in over 15 years. Her former field wasn't an option -- she wasn't certified to teach in Oregon, and the special-education profession has changed a lot. "My old terms would be archaic," she says.
She had friends and connections at several major employers, she says. But no one would grant her an interview, not even for a receptionist job. A few months ago, she went to a "panel interview" at a Starbucks. She sat in an Ann Taylor suit answering questions along with 39 other applicants, including a musician and teenagers looking for part-time work. She was hired: 25 hours a week, at minimum wage. "I felt so defeated," she says.
But she took the job. For the past two months, Ms. Judson has been working varied shifts at a suburban Portland Starbucks. She is the lowest in the coffee shop's hierarchy -- a "barista" who works the cash register, operates the espresso machine and mops the bathroom floors. She hopes to work her way up the corporate structure into management.
When women give up their careers to raise children, she says, "you're not thinking 15, 20 years down the road. You're thinking what's best for my kids now." But she cautions, "You don't know what life is going to throw you."
A few companies try to maintain ties with employees who leave for family reasons. Susan Peters, vice president of executive development at General Electric Corp. says the company does so by offering contractual and "very minimal part-time work."
Consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton offers former female employees small-scale contract work, such as proposal writing, idea development and working with clients, which can be done from home. Deloitte & Touche LLP, the accounting firm, is planning to launch a "Personal Pursuits" program this year, which will allow employees to take unpaid leave for as long as five years. The firm will run training sessions for those on leave and assign them mentors to stay in touch with them. The company says it hopes to cut down on turnover costs by rehiring people after their leaves.
Catherine King, the one-time Wall Streeter, stayed home after she had her second child. "I had this newborn and a two-and-a-half-year-old who isn't thrilled he has a new brother. A sitter who is overwhelmed with the two....And I want to be home. I thought 'I really want to be with my kids.' " With her husband working as a managing director of a major Wall Street firm, she could afford to quit her job.
During her years at home, she earned a master's degree in Early Childhood Education from New York University "because I wanted to be the world's best mom and it kept my mind active."
Ms. King is finalizing a divorce, but she says that is only one reason she wants to return to a career. Her sons are teenagers now, and she wants to focus on her own ambitions. "I have the ability to put in a ton of energy and time," she says.
In the past few months, Ms. King has tried everything from a six-week career-transition workshop to her ex-husband's connections, and landed interviews at investment banks including Goldman Sachs Group and HSBC. But she hasn't landed a job.
"There's a part of every woman who has had what it takes to succeed on Wall Street that yearns for that type of overachieving applause that you got, and that motherhood does not allow you to have. There's just no applause," she says. "And I miss that."
专职妈妈难返职场
凯瑟琳?金(Catherine King)坐在华尔街一家猎头公司的办公室里面耐心地等著。她的简历写满了骄人的职业经历：斯坦福大学(Stanford University)M.B.A.；瑞士信贷第一波士顿(Credit Suisse First Boston)证券交易员；大通银行(Chase Manhattan Bank)投资组合经理。
但40分钟的会谈结束后，猎头顾问对凯瑟琳的综合评价并不高。他总结说，凯瑟琳在金融业觅得一份工作的可能性只有15%。她的问题是：从用人公司的角度来看，她几乎所有的资历和优势已在1990年划上了句号。如今凯瑟琳已经50多岁了，在过去的14年间，她除搞了一些健身班，她大部分时间都在家里做全职妈妈。 与凯瑟琳一样，很多为抚养子女而辞职的职业女性现在都希望从新就业－－但她们发现找工作远比她们想像的要难。经济不景气使很多条件很好的人都找不到工作，更何况是这些简历上留下很大空白的人。科技飞速发展，离开职场短短几年的女性就会发现自己落伍了。过去十年人们频繁的跳槽，这使她们原来的同事、老师或是其他关系都不复存在。而且，她们的家庭也已经习惯了妈妈在家的生活，不愿意生活发生什么改变。
在经济状况允许的情况下，很多女性都为了家庭放弃了自己的事业。很多妈妈说这样做的好处是无价的，尤其是能够和幼年的孩子呆在一起。美国人口普查局(US Census Bureau)的数据显示，1999年，家中孩子不超过1岁的在职妈妈占劳动力人口的比例已经从1998年的59%下降至55%。
但很多女性最终还是希望或是需要重返职场。纽约一家非盈利性组织工作－生活政策中心(Center for Work-Life Policy)最近对将近500名受过高等教育、曾经主要因家庭而放弃事业的女性的调查显示，有66%的人希望重新工作。
另一项对600多名哈佛商学院(Harvard Business School)女毕业生所做的调查结果显示，96%的人在她们二十八、九岁时还在工作；但随著年龄的增长，这一比率大幅下降，到了三十八、九岁时，至少有两个孩子的人中只有71%的人还在工作；随后这个比率又有所上升，等她们到了四十八、九岁，这个比例又达到82.5%。
有些女性的职业转折比较顺利。布兰达?巴恩(Brenda Barnes)1997年为照顾孩子而辞去百事公司(PepsiCo)北美饮料业务总裁职务的，她本周将开始新的事业－－坐上Sara Lee Corp.第二把交椅。但她的经历并不是大多数女性中的典型。
"世界变化得太快了"，曾在福特汽车公司(Ford Motor Co.)和国际商业机器公司(International Business Machines Corp.)信息技术部门供职的凯伦?罗伯茨(Karyn Roberts)说。今年42岁的凯伦在1997年生下第一个孩子之后就辞了职。她现在和丈夫、两个女儿住在佛蒙特州，最近刚刚找到一份工作，教授社区大学的电脑课程。重新回到她从前的事业已经不可行了，她说，"我从前的工作是要能将根据企业的需求提供可行的IT解决方案...但现在我对这些已一窍不通了"。
凯瑟琳从3月份开始和猎头公司接触，曾经担任证券交易员的她发现自己居然回答不上来一些关于最新投资产品的简单问题。猎头公司的考官问，"你知道CDOs吗？"
"不知道"，她回答道。
"抵押债务证券"，招聘主管迈克尔?马洛尼(Michael Maloney)提醒她。凯瑟琳把这个名词记到自己的笔记本上，迈克尔继续问其他的名词，"信用衍生品，利率衍生品......"
迈克尔干这行已经20多年了，他负责为公司招聘管理人员。他说，"问题不仅仅是她简历上的空白"，而且和自她辞职以来，这个行业已经变化太大了。
除了要提高自己的专业水平，想重返职场的妈妈们还必须克服感情的障碍。十年前，米歇尔?阿卜特(Michelle Abt)在大通银行担任副总裁，手下管著大约40名员工。每年早上6点，保姆会按时赶到她位于康涅狄格州斯坦福德的家中；她6:25去赶开往纽约的火车。她晚上7:30或8点才能回家。1994年，在有了第二个孩子后，她辞职了。
"我辞职是因为我根本见不到我的孩子"，她说。他丈夫经营自己的事业，她辞职后呆在家里照顾子女，后来她又有了第三个孩子。"毫无疑问，这对我们是个正确的决定"。
米歇尔最小的孩子现在也上一年级了，她说她可以重新开始工作了。"我不想只呆在家里，上上健身房，找人一起吃午饭，或是重新装修房子。"
但当她把这个决定告诉家人的时候，"孩子们说'我们不要保姆来照顾'"她回忆说。米歇尔只好答应他们。"我说，我会去学校接你们回家。"为了能够做到，米歇尔正试著开一家自己的制陶公司。
对于妻子要出去工作的事，丈夫们感受复杂。纽约州Waccabuc的急诊药剂师大卫?儒克波格(David Zuckerberg)的妻子艾丽萨(Elisa)刚接受了一份兼职营销工作。他说，他很支持妻子工作，但他还不知道这会给家庭生活带来多大变化。他们的孩子一个5岁，一个9岁，他们已经习惯了妈妈在家的生活。孩子们不高兴的时候会说，"妈妈，我很闷，和我玩一会儿吧"。
曾任曼哈顿地区检察官的维维安?弗里德曼(Vivian Friedman)1985辞职，当时她在审理一桩大案，可同时还要照顾孩子，工作家庭双重压力让她难以承受。那时她37岁。在后来的16年中，她全身心地照顾女儿，参加女儿学校的运动会，还在女儿所在的私立学校当义工。她的法律专长使她成为一个市民协会的会长。2001年，在女儿即将要上大学的那一年，维维安决定要重新开始工作。
她在2001年9月10日这一天发了50封求职信。后来因为接受脊椎手术拖延了一段时间，她从2003年1月份开始重新找工作。此后，她接触了100多家公司和机构－－法律事务所、银行、其他工商企业还有政府部门，她甚至还求助过临时职业介绍机构。
她去年了申请一份管理助理的工作。"这并不是大材小用。我能读邮件、写信、检查商业计划书。我还可能冲咖啡"，维维安说。当她到公司面试时，考察的项目是打字。结果她落选了。
今年56岁的弗里德曼夫人每天花几个小时在网上找工作。她还与猎头公司接触。她还读报纸找线索。"我不想接受我没有就业能力的事实，"她说。"我总以为重新去工作不会很难。"
有些雇主说，不管你以前的背景有多好，担任义工并不能抹去多年没有就业的事实 -- 尤其现在工作空缺如此之少。
"如果一家公司的用人标准是'我们要为每个工作岗位雇佣最佳人选'，我想那些很长时间没有工作的人就很难被选中，"职业中介机构求职女性(Women For Hire)的创始人兼首席执行长特罗伊?约翰逊(Tory Johnson)说。"求职者有时会将担任义工、'一家之主......全能女性'列在简历上，她说。"这听起来在求职时是有用的，但其实不然"。
很多女性是在三十多岁辞职的，而这正是她们发展事业的黄金阶段。当她们想重返职场的时候，她们就四十多岁了，甚至更老。属于这种情况的女性"应当现实一些-- 她们已经没有强大的综合竞争力了"，纽约一家电脑公司DoubleClick的首席执行长凯文?瑞安(Kevin Ryan)说。相对她们离职时的薪水和职位水平，"她们必须退后一步。"
42岁的劳拉?杰瑞斯(Laura Jeffress)1990年代中期曾经是博士伦公司(Bausch & Lomb)旗下一个太阳镜业务的国际营销主管，年薪10万美元。1996年，当她的第一个儿子出生后她辞职了。
后来她在一家公司短暂工作了一段时间，随著两个小儿子的出世，她又在家里呆了4年。她现在决定重新找工作。今年1月份，她开始接受面试，她应聘都是一些营销职位。但她很快发现，招人的公司都将考虑将她放在一些与她希望获得的工作有差距的职位上。
"让人受不了的是你得坐在那里、接受一些本来应当是你的下属的人的面试"，劳拉说。
她得到了一个入门级的管理职位，年薪4万美元。劳拉说，"我对他们讲，'你们给我的这点钱让我连孩子都养不活'"。
沮丧的劳拉打算暂时放弃找工作。她的三个儿子分别有8岁、4岁和2岁。她的丈夫是律师，所以家里还不缺钱生活，但需节省一些奢侈活动的支出，比如出去吃饭等。劳拉的长子去年参加了两个夏令营，但今年他可能哪个都去不了。
"真的很难相信四到六年的休息会给职业造成如此大的影响"，劳拉说。
南希?贾德森(Nancy Judson)的丈夫1988年被公司调往俄勒冈州波特兰工作，她当时正在达拉斯担任小学特教老师。在第一个孩子出生后，夫妻二人决定让南希辞去工作在家照顾孩子。"我们的妈妈在我们小时候都出去工作了"，南希说，"我想待在家里，做那些我妈没能做到所有事情。"。
这对夫妇去年离了婚。南希如今是三个孩子的母亲，在家中待了15年以后，45岁的她开始重新找工作。她离职前的事业肯定是继续不下去了－－她在俄勒冈州没有教师资格，而且特教老师的工作和以前相比变化很大。"我的那一套过时了"，她说。
她在几家大公司有一些朋友和关系，她说。但没人愿意给她一个面试的机会，甚至连前台接待工作都不考虑她。几个月前，她参加了一家星巴克(Starbucks)咖啡店的小组面试。她身著安?泰勒(Ann Taylor)的套装，与另外39名求职者一起接受面试，回答问题。求职者中有找兼职工作的一个搞音乐的人，还有年轻人。她被选中了：每周工作25个小时，薪水只有最低工资水平。"我觉得太失败了"，她说。
但她还是干上了这份工作。过去的两个月，她在波特兰郊区一家星巴克咖啡店工作，总是不停的倒班。她干的是咖啡店最底层的工作－－收银、冲咖啡以及擦洗卫生间的地板。她希望能够通过努力工作晋升到管理职位。 当女性为抚养孩子而放弃事业的时候，她说，"你是不会考虑15年或是20年以后的事情的，心里想的是怎样对孩子是最好的。"她提醒其他女性，"你不知道生活将扔给你什么。"
有些公司会与那些因家庭原因离职的雇员保持联系。通用电气公司(General Electric Corp.)负责管理培训的副总裁苏珊?彼得斯(Susan Peters)说，公司通过提供一些合约工作和少量兼职的方式保持与老雇员的联系。 博思管理咨询公司(Booz Allen Hamilton)会将一些小规模的项目，如写计划书、策划方案以及与客户沟通等可以在家完成的工作交给离职的女性雇员去做。德勤会计事务所(Deloitte & Touche LLP)计划今年启动一项"个人追求"计划，允许雇员停薪留职最长达5年。公司将为这些员工提供培训，并且有指派专门的人员和他们保持联系。德勤希望这样可以减少员工跳槽后新募员工的换人成本。
曾经驰骋华尔街的凯瑟琳?金是在有了第二个孩子才辞职的。"当时，一个孩子刚出生，另一个只有两岁半，他才不管他有了个弟弟。小保姆被这两个家伙搞得晕头转向....我就想还是在家照顾孩子吧。我当时觉得'我真的想和孩子们在一起'。"凯瑟琳的丈夫是一家华尔街大公司的执行董事，他们家的经济条件完全允许她这么做。
在家的这几年，凯瑟琳获得了纽约大学(New York University )婴幼儿教育(Early Childhood Education)硕士学位。"我想成为世界上最好的母亲，学习让我头脑保持活跃。"
凯瑟琳正在办理离婚，但她说这只是她想重新工作的原因之一。儿子们都十多岁了，她希望以后能专注于自我发展。"我现在能倾注大量的精力和时间在工作上"，她说。
在过去的几个月中，从参加为期6周的职业转型培训，到联络前夫的人际关系网，凯瑟琳尝试了很多办法，终于获得了高盛(Goldman Sachs Group)和汇丰控股(HSBC)等大投资银行的面试机会。但她并没有搞掂一份工作。
"在华尔街取得过成功的每个女人都渴望著人们对其非凡成就的喝彩，但身为母亲就很难再有机会取得那样的成就，也就不会再有喝彩了，"她说，"我很怀念从前"。
