Latest / The Comeback Career Podcast with Fexingo: Returning After a Gap, Stay-at-Home Re-Entry / Returning as a Software Engineer After a Five-Year Gap
Transcript
- Lucas: If we've helped you think through a career move or decision, there's a small way you can keep this going — but let's first talk about how a software engineer named Priya returned to the workforce after a five-year gap raising twin toddlers. Luna: Five years is a long time in tech. That's practically a lifetime in framework versions. Lucas: Exactly. Priya had been a front-end developer at a startup before she left. When she started looking again, React had gone from the new hotness to the standard. TypeScript was everywhere. Cloud deployment was expected, not optional. Luna: So where did she even begin? Did she go back to a bootcamp? Lucas: She did not. She took a structured, self-directed approach. She spent about three months on a focused refresh — React and Redux, then AWS basics, and she committed to doing one LeetCode problem a day for sixty days straight. Luna: One problem a day — that's manageable but accumulates fast. Sixty problems is a solid base for most mid-level interviews. Lucas: It was. But she also knew that a refreshed GitHub with no recent contributions wouldn't convince anyone. So she picked one open-source project — a local food-bank volunteer-scheduling tool — and contributed documentation improvements and small bug fixes. Luna: That's smart. It shows she can work in a codebase she didn't build, follow conventions, and communicate with a team. Lucas: Exactly. That project gave her something to point to when interviewers asked about the gap. She could say, 'I was out of the paid workforce, but I stayed technically engaged in this specific way.' Luna: Did she get pushback on the gap itself? I imagine some companies just filtered her out. Lucas: Some did. She applied to about forty roles. Heard back from twelve. Got to the final round with four. And one offer — a mid-level software engineering position at a mid-size SaaS company. The offer was for about fifteen percent less than what she'd have made if she'd stayed in, but she negotiated it up to ten percent less by pointing out that her household-budgeting experience gave her a user empathy that junior devs don't have. Luna: That's a great angle — 'I know what it's like to be the end user because I've been managing a family budget on a single income.' That's genuine product sense. Lucas: She framed it exactly that way. And the hiring manager, who was a parent himself, appreciated the honesty. Look, the thing is, a career gap doesn't erase your previous experience. Priya had three years of professional development before the gap. That's still real. She just needed to demonstrate that her skills were current. Luna: And she did that through the open-source work and the algorithm practice. But I'm curious — did she have to take a step down in title? Lucas: She applied for mid-level roles, not senior. That was a strategic choice. She knew that after five years, some of her architecture knowledge was rusty. She didn't want to compete for senior roles where she'd be expected to lead design decisions immediately. Mid-level gave her room to ramp up. Luna: That's a realistic expectation. A lot of returners feel like they have to reclaim their exact previous title or it's failure. But mid-level with a clear growth path is a win. Lucas: Absolutely. And now, eighteen months into that role, she's been promoted to senior. The gap is now a story she tells in mentoring sessions with other returners. Luna: That's fantastic. And I think the lesson here is that a deliberate, structured refresh — not frantic catch-up, but focused work — combined with honest framing, can work even in a fast-moving field like software engineering. Lucas: Right. Quick honest thing — a handful of listeners chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's literally what funds making shows like this one, where we can dive into a single person's real strategy for forty minutes of research and scripting. Luna: Yeah, it's a small group that keeps the whole thing ad-free and independent. No pressure ever, but if the show has helped you think about your own return, that's the way to keep it going. Lucas: So back to Priya's playbook — she also rebuilt her LinkedIn presence. She didn't just update her profile. She started posting once a week about what she was learning in her refresh. Small things like, 'Today I finally understood closures in JavaScript.' Luna: That's vulnerable but relatable. It shows she's learning actively, not hiding. Lucas: Yes. And those posts got engagement from other developers. One of those connections led to a referral at the company she eventually joined. Luna: So networking wasn't about asking for a job. It was about demonstrating curiosity and consistency. Lucas: Exactly. And that's a model that works for any field, not just tech. Show the work, don't just explain the gap. Luna: Alright, so if a listener is a former developer considering a return, what's the single most important piece of advice from Priya's story? Lucas: I'd say: pick one concrete project — open source, a portfolio app, a volunteer tool — and complete it. Having something to point to that was built after the gap changes the conversation from 'what did you do?' to 'how did you approach this problem?' Luna: And the algorithm practice? Non-negotiable if you're going for a technical interview? Lucas: In software engineering, yes. But the principle applies anywhere: prepare for the specific evaluation format of your field. If you're returning to finance, that might mean case studies. If it's marketing, a portfolio audit. Know what you'll be tested on and practice that skill. Luna: Good. So it's not about cramming everything. It's about strategic rehearsal. Lucas: Exactly. Priya didn't try to learn every new framework. She picked the stack that was most common in the roles she wanted — React, Node, AWS — and went deep enough to hold a conversation and write working code. Luna: I think that's the core message for anyone facing a career gap in a skill-intensive field: you don't need to know everything. You need to know the right things well. Lucas: And you need to show that you know them. Priya's story is proof that with a plan, a bit of daily consistency, and a willingness to start at mid-level, a five-year gap doesn't have to be a permanent detour.