Latest / The Comeback Career Podcast with Fexingo: Returning After a Gap, Stay-at-Home Re-Entry / How a Career Gap Can Help You Start a Professional Blog
Transcript
- Lucas: So you take a career gap — maybe you're at home with kids, maybe you're caring for a parent — and after a couple of years, you start wondering how you're going to explain those years to a hiring manager. Luna: Right. The dreaded 'what have you been doing?' question. And your answer — 'raising humans' or 'managing a household' — doesn't always land. Lucas: Exactly. And there's a pretty elegant solution that I'm surprised more people don't use: start a professional blog during your gap. Not a personal diary. A focused, niche blog that demonstrates your expertise, your writing ability, and your initiative. Luna: I love this angle. I've actually seen it work firsthand. A friend of mine, Maria, she was a marketing manager before she had twins. Three-year gap. She started a blog about toddler nutrition — something she was living every day — and within six months, she landed a content strategy role at a health-tech startup. Lucas: That's the exact kind of story I want to unpack. Maria took her lived experience — feeding two picky toddlers — and turned it into a professional asset. The blog became her portfolio. She walked into interviews with 20 published posts, each one showing she could research, write, structure an argument, and engage an audience. Luna: And if we've helped you think through a career move or decision, you know we don't have sponsors or ads. A couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, if you've gotten something out of them. Lucas: Yeah, it's a small thing that makes a big difference for us. Anyway — back to Maria. She didn't start with a big plan. She just picked a niche where she saw a gap. There were tons of mommy blogs, but very few that actually cited pediatric nutrition research in a readable way. Luna: So she found a white space. That's key. You're not trying to compete with the Huffington Post. You're looking for a corner of the internet where people are searching for answers and not finding them clearly. Lucas: Right. And she built the blog on WordPress — a basic theme, maybe sixty dollars for a domain and hosting for the year. She wrote one post per week for three months. That's twelve posts. By the end, she had a body of work that proved she could produce consistent, quality content. Luna: And she used simple SEO. She'd write titles like 'Iron-Rich Foods for Toddlers: A Pediatrician-Approved List' — things parents actually search for. Her traffic grew slowly, but that wasn't the point. The point was the portfolio. Lucas: Exactly. The blog isn't about going viral. It's about demonstrating to an employer that you didn't just sit idle during your gap. You built something. You learned. You stayed sharp. In Maria's case, she even embedded a few infographics she made in Canva — showed she hadn't lost her design eye either. Luna: And the health-tech startup she joined? They said her blog was the reason they called her in. They didn't care about the three-year gap. They saw someone who could write, think, and execute independently. Lucas: That's the power of a blog as a career-gap tool. It's not a substitute for a resume — it's a supplement that makes the gap irrelevant. Your resume says 'stay-at-home parent, 2023 to 2026'. Your blog says 'published 40 articles on early childhood nutrition, grew readership to 2,000 monthly visitors, cited by two parenting websites'. Luna: And you can do this in any field. Finance, tech, education, healthcare. What's the niche you actually know something about? That's the blog. Lucas: Let's talk about how to pick that niche. A lot of people freeze here. They think they need to be an expert. But you don't. You just need to be one step ahead of your reader. If you're a stay-at-home parent who's been researching ADHD strategies for your child, you can blog about that. You're not a doctor — you're a parent sharing what you've learned. That's authentic and valuable. Luna: And you can cite sources. Link to studies, expert interviews, books. That builds credibility. Maria did that — she'd reference the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines. It made her blog feel authoritative. Lucas: So let's say you pick a niche. Next step: choose a platform. I recommend WordPress.org — self-hosted. It costs about ten bucks a month, but it looks professional and you own everything. Avoid free platforms like Blogger or Medium — they look amateurish to hiring managers. Luna: And the design shouldn't be fancy. Just clean, readable, with a simple header. You can use a pre-made theme. Maria used Astra, I think. Cost her nothing extra. Lucas: Then you commit to a publishing schedule. One post per week. That's doable even with kids. You can write in thirty-minute chunks. The posts don't need to be long — 800 to 1,000 words is plenty. Include one image, maybe a bullet list, and a clear takeaway. Luna: And you should promote it a little. Share on LinkedIn, in relevant Facebook groups, on Reddit — but not spammy. Just 'I wrote about this topic, thought it might help.' That can get you early readers and maybe even comments. Lucas: Comments build social proof. When a hiring manager sees that people engaged with your content, it signals that you know how to communicate and build community. It's soft evidence of skills that are hard to put on a resume. Luna: Now, what about people who are intimidated by the technical side? 'I don't know how to set up a website.' Lucas: Fair question. But honestly, the barrier has never been lower. There are YouTube tutorials that walk you through installing WordPress in ten minutes. Hosting companies like SiteGround or Bluehost have one-click installs. If you can follow a recipe, you can set up a blog. Luna: And if you really don't want to deal with tech, you could use a platform like Squarespace or Wix. They're more expensive but drag and drop. The point is to start, not to have a perfect setup. Lucas: What about imposter syndrome? That's a big one for career-gap folks. They feel like they have no right to write about a topic because they don't have a degree or formal experience. Luna: I think the trick is to reframe it. You're not claiming to be the ultimate authority. You're documenting your learning journey. People connect with that. Maria's first post was literally 'I Have No Idea What to Feed My Toddler — Here's What I'm Trying.' It was honest and relatable. Lucas: And that authenticity is actually an asset. Corporate blogs are often stiff and jargon-filled. A personal blog with a real voice stands out. You're showing personality, which is something companies struggle to assess from a resume. Luna: So let's talk about the payoff. You've been blogging for three months. You have 12 to 15 posts. What do you do with them? Lucas: You turn them into your portfolio. Create a simple 'about' page that says who you are and that you're re-entering the workforce. Include a contact form. Link to your LinkedIn. Then when you apply for jobs, include the blog URL in your resume header and cover letter. Luna: And in interviews, you can say, 'During my career break, I started a blog on to stay sharp and share what I was learning. Here's a post I'm particularly proud of.' That's a concrete example of initiative. Lucas: It also shows you have writing skills — which are valuable in almost every white-collar job. And it demonstrates digital literacy: you can use CMS platforms, maybe basic HTML, SEO tools. All of that is marketable. Luna: One thing I want to emphasize: you don't have to blog about your previous career. You can blog about something adjacent or even completely new. Maria was in marketing, but her blog was about nutrition. She was hired for content strategy — which is marketing-adjacent — but her topic was different. Lucas: That's a great point. The blog doesn't have to be about your old industry. It can be about anything that shows transferable skills. If you were a teacher and you start a blog about classroom management strategies for new teachers, that shows you can write, analyze, and mentor. Those skills apply in corporate training, HR, or even sales. Luna: And if you're worried about time: one post per week is about an hour of writing, plus maybe thirty minutes for research and formatting. That's ninety minutes a week. Over three months, that's about eighteen hours total. For a tool that can completely transform how employers see your gap. Lucas: It's one of the highest roi activities you can do during a career break. Compare it to a degree or certificate — those can cost thousands and take years. A blog costs maybe a hundred dollars and three months. And it's more specific to you. Luna: Plus, you own it. It's not a credential that expires. You can keep blogging after you get a job, or you can leave it as a historical record. Either way, it's yours. Lucas: So to recap: pick a niche where you have genuine interest and some knowledge. Set up a simple WordPress site. Commit to one post per week for three months. Promote it modestly. Then use it as a portfolio piece in your job search. That's the framework. Luna: And remember, you don't need thousands of readers. You just need a few good posts that show what you can do. Maria's blog had maybe 500 monthly visitors when she got the job. That was enough. Lucas: Yeah. And that job changed her trajectory. She's now a senior content manager, three years later. All because she spent a few months writing about pureed peas. Luna: I love that. It's such a practical, low-risk strategy. I hope some listeners give it a shot. Lucas: Me too. And if you do, we'd love to hear about it. That's all for today. See you next time.