I sometimes get prospective clients who contact me who have long term unemployment problems.
They have spent the last five years playing the futures market while renovating the house, or they’ve travelled the world for seven years and have a lot of beautiful memories.
Unfortunately, if you have been out of the workforce for 18 months to two years and not studying, you are in a pickle.
The reason is employers place a lot of emphasis on the ability to find and hold a job.
I recently had a man who was out of the workforce for 20 years. He was looking after the kids while his wife worked.
He mistakenly thought he could just apply for jobs in his old career.
No resume writer will be able to cobble a story together which will get him a job.
He needs to see a career adviser and explain what he wants to do. He will need retraining and to start again.
Sometimes if you have kept in touch with people in the industry, you can jump this chasm but even then, software and organisational systems and processes have moved on.
You are in a much better position if you are a stay at home Mum or Dad, raising a couple of kids and have undertaken some training and done volunteer work.
But once you hit that 18 month to two year period without a job (even casual work helps), you will find it hard to get back into the workforce.
Hard but not impossible.
You need to see a career adviser first.