Reachire, or "And then depression set in..."

I am part of a "get a job" group for women who are attempting to return to the workforce after an extended absence for raising kids. Julia, our leader, sent out an invitation asking us if we wanted to attend another event with her sponsored by another organization, Reachire, which is also trying to help women return to the workforce after parenting.

This organization is different than Julia's. According to its website, this group selects women who attended competitive colleges and worked in corporate jobs before leaving to have kids. Julia's group takes a variety of women--teachers, sales people, journalists, business owners--not just those who attended Ivy League schools or want to return to a middle management job.

Reachire provides training in the latest office software tools, as moms have not likely been using SharePoint or Tableau in their daily lives. Reachire also different because it gives women temp work at corporations before helping to place them in "returnships" at large employers in the region. My understanding is that Reachire works with companies to create these returnships to help women return to the workforce. Some of these jobs require an extended leave from the paid workforce.

This sounds awesome. There is a fee associated with the program--$2,000 for sixty ours of training over five weeks--which is not listed on their website but can be found with a Google search. But hey, if I can get a job with a large, local employer, the fee would be less than my first month's salary, which is more than I am making now. It could be a worthwhile investment if I got a job afterward.

The day after I saw this, I got a bullet from one of the jobs I applied for. I researched this job, learned how to use SQL and Tableau, and activated with my network to talk to the people who worked in this department.

And then, as Bill Murray said in Stripes, depression set it. It wasn't that this program Reachire wasn't cool: it made me realize how firmly the front doors are shut at large corporations against women who have taken time off to raise their kids. Those doors are closed so tightly that a group like Reachire, started by a Stanford and Northwestern University's Kellogg graduate, had to create a side door for moms to get back in. Me and a thousand other middle-aged moms would have a better chance getting into the hottest and hippest nightclub in New York wearing yoga pants than getting a job at Amazon.

Julia posted an article on LinkedIn called "There is NO 'Gap in My Resume'" discusses how parents looking to return to the workforce can talk about their experience while parenting. We have lived and learned during this time. One of the most telling comments was from a man who posted that HR folks don't even want to look at people who have a month long gap in their resumes.

Wow. A one month gap? That sucks. My resume and the resumes of thousands of other moms returning to the workforce would never get read in an organization with that criteria.

So what to do? Find a job a job where I am overqualified but will help me get my feet wet? Give up on Corporate America and go with a small company willing to take a risk on someone like me? I could go back to consulting, but I fear the true workaholic job. One firm looked interesting until I saw on their website that they promise their clients 100% travel from their consultants. I get it. Before kids, I'd hop on a plane any day of the week except Saturday for my job. Some years, I'd have very little travel if I had local clients. Other times, I was out of town three or four days a week. My family already has one workaholic parent--I am not sure my teenage kids could handle a second. (The day my youngest leaves for college, I am considering taking one of those traveling jobs if I have to beg to get it.)

I am figuring out what to do next. I ran into a friend at my daughter's cross country meet and she returned to work when her oldest of three daughters was a senior in high school. Looming college tuition bills scared her husband and he nudged her to get a job. She loves working for a small company. She gets to wear a million hats and every day is different. The leadership opportunities there abound, albeit on a smaller stage. Maybe that is the way to go.