It’s called the resume gap, and standing on one side (where you have taken a few years out of the workplace to raise children) and looking across to the other (where there is, you pray, an employer who will hire you now that you are ready to return) it can look more like a canyon.
Enter the “Returnship”, a word trademarked by Goldman Sachs several years ago, and now the subject of a recent article in the Harvard Business Review -- archly titled "The 40-Year-Old Intern." The catchy names are being used to describe programs, some formal, some not, that companies are creating to “try out” older workers rather than hiring them full on. The benefit to the employer is they are not saddled with an employee who is not a good fit. The benefit to the employee is a potential foot in a door that might not be otherwise open, as well as an added bit of work experience to bridge that resume gap.
There are downsides to these programs, too, and on the TODAY Show this morning HuffPost senior columnist Lisa Belkin joined Carol Fishman Cohen, the co-founder of iReLaunch and the author of the HBR article. Watch the interview above. Then use the comments to tell us your experience getting back into the workforce. Is it welcoming to parents who have stepped away for awhile? Could you have used a program like this? Or are these just a way for companies to take advantage of cheap labor?
WATCH:
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy