Latest / The Comeback Career Podcast with Fexingo: Returning After a Gap, Stay-at-Home Re-Entry / How a Career Gap Can Help You Build a Network from Scratch
Transcript
- Lucas: So you take a career gap — three years, five years, maybe longer — and one of the first things people worry about is, 'I've lost my network.' Luna: Right. That fear of starting over from zero. It's real. Lucas: It's real, but here's the thing I want to push back on today: a career gap might actually make you a better networker. Not in spite of the gap, but because of it. Luna: Ooh, I like that framing. How so? Lucas: Because when you haven't been in the grind for years, you don't have the bad habits. You're not sending copy-paste LinkedIn messages. You're approaching people with genuine curiosity — and that's actually what works. Luna: So the gap forces you to be more intentional. That makes sense. Lucas: Exactly. And I want to ground this in a real story. A woman named Maria — she was a high school English teacher, took five years off to raise her kids. When she wanted to go back, she didn't want to teach anymore. She wanted to move into corporate training. Luna: Big pivot. And she had no network in that world, right? Lucas: Zero. Her entire professional network was other teachers and a few administrators. So she had to build from scratch. And she did it in a way that I think is really instructive. Luna: Let's hear it. Lucas: Step one: she identified three target industries where her skills could translate — corporate training obviously, but also edtech and HR. Then she found thirty people in each industry who held roles she might want. Luna: So ninety people total? That's a lot. Lucas: It is. But she didn't reach out to all of them at once. She started with ten. And her outreach was very specific: 'I'm a former teacher considering a move into corporate training. I'd love to hear about your experience transitioning into this field. Could I buy you a coffee for twenty minutes?' Luna: That's a great script. It's honest about the gap, it's not asking for a job, and it shows she's done her homework. Lucas: Right. And she got about a fifty percent response rate, which is actually high for cold outreach. I think because it felt genuine. She wasn't selling anything. Luna: So what happened in those conversations? Lucas: She listened. She asked what their day-to-day looked like, what skills mattered most, what she should read or study. And at the end, she'd always ask, 'Is there one other person you'd recommend I talk to?' Luna: Classic networking move. But it works. Lucas: It works because it's a low-friction ask. And within three months, she'd had forty conversations. That's how she built her network. Not from her past, but from the future. Luna: I love that phrase — 'from the future.' But I'm curious, did she ever feel like she was bothering people? I think a lot of listeners might worry about that. Lucas: She told me she did at first. But she realized that most professionals actually enjoy talking about their work to someone who's genuinely interested. The key is to make it easy for them — short ask, clear purpose, no hidden agenda. Luna: And she had the advantage of being a former teacher. Teachers are good at asking questions and making people feel heard. Lucas: Exactly. That skill translated directly. But the bigger point is, her career gap gave her something that people who've been in the same industry for ten years don't have: a compelling story and a fresh perspective. She wasn't just another candidate. Luna: So she leaned into the gap instead of hiding it. Lucas: Completely. And eventually, one of those informational interviews led to a referral for a corporate training role at a mid-sized tech company. She's been there two years now. Luna: That's the dream outcome. But for listeners who are earlier in the process, what's the one thing they should do this week? Lucas: Identify ten people in a field you're curious about. Spend an hour researching them — look at their LinkedIn, see if you have any common ground. Then send five thoughtful, personalized messages. Don't worry about all ten. Just start with five. Luna: And if they don't reply? Lucas: Follow up once after a week. If still nothing, move on. The goal isn't to get every yes — it's to find the people who are open to talking. Maria's fifty percent response rate means she got five conversations out of ten. That's plenty. Luna: And those conversations are gold. Not just for jobs, but for understanding what you're getting into. Lucas: Exactly. And I think this is where a lot of people miss the point. They treat networking as a transaction — I talk to you, you give me a job lead. But the real value is learning. When you approach it as a learner, the pressure drops, and the relationships form naturally. Luna: It's like the difference between asking for a favor and asking for advice. Advice puts the other person in a helper role, which feels good for them. Lucas: Right. And you know, we talk a lot on this show about practical tools for re-entry. If this kind of advice has been helpful to you, a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these episodes coming — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, if you've gotten something out of them. Luna: Yeah, it really does make a difference. And it keeps us ad-free, which we love. Lucas: So back to Maria — after those forty conversations, she had a map of the industry. She knew which companies had training teams, what they valued, and who the key people were. That's a huge advantage going into any interview. Luna: And it's something you can't get from a job board. It's insider knowledge. Lucas: Exactly. So if you're sitting at home thinking, 'I have no network,' remember: everyone who has a network today built it one conversation at a time. Your gap doesn't put you behind — it gives you a clean slate to build something intentional. Luna: I think that's a really empowering way to look at it. One conversation at a time. Lucas: And that's the takeaway. Thanks for listening, everyone. We'll be back next week.