Latest / The Comeback Career Podcast with Fexingo: Returning After a Gap, Stay-at-Home Re-Entry / How a Career Gap Helped One Parent Return as a Corporate Recruiter
Transcript
- Lucas: Alright, Luna, today I want to talk about someone who returned to a role that, honestly, I think is one of the most gap-friendly careers out there: corporate recruiting. Luna: Interesting. Why do you say that? Lucas: Because recruiting is fundamentally about reading people, understanding their motivations, and convincing them to take a chance — and if you've been a stay-at-home parent, you've basically been doing that for years, just without the job title. Luna: Okay, I see where you're going. So who's the person we're talking about? Lucas: A woman named Priya. She had a seven-year gap after leaving a junior HR coordinator role to care for her two kids. When she decided to go back, she didn't want to just do any job — she wanted something with growth potential. She landed a returnship at a Fortune 500 financial services firm, and within nine months, she converted to a full-time corporate recruiter. Luna: Seven-year gap — that's a big one. What was her first step? Lucas: She did something really smart: she looked at her volunteer work. She had been coordinating volunteers for her kids' school events — think scheduling, interviewing parent volunteers, matching skills to needs. That's basically recruiting, just without the salary. She reframed that on her resume as 'Volunteer Talent Coordinator,' with bullet points about screening and placement. Luna: So she didn't just list the volunteer role as 'PTO volunteer' — she gave it a professional title that actually spoke to the skill set. Lucas: Exactly. And she also took a free online course on applicant tracking systems — just to get familiar with the software side. She put that right under her education section. Luna: That's practical. ATS systems are the gatekeeper for most corporate jobs. Lucas: Right. Now, the key move: she found a returnship program. This particular company, a large bank, had a structured 12-week returnship for parents re-entering the workforce. It wasn't heavily advertised — she found it through a local chapter of iRelaunch, which is a group that helps career returners. Luna: So networking — she went to an event, or found the group online? Lucas: She attended one of their virtual meetups. And she made a point of connecting with someone who had gone through that returnship the previous year. That person gave her the inside scoop: what the interview was like, which hiring managers were most supportive, even what to wear on day one. Luna: That's the kind of intel you can't get from a job posting. Lucas: Exactly. So she applies, gets into the returnship, and the program places her in the talent acquisition team. For the first few weeks, she's basically shadowing, learning their ATS, sitting in on candidate screens. Luna: And how did she make the jump from returner to full-time recruiter? Lucas: She did something I love: she treated the returnship like a 12-week job interview. Every week, she asked her supervisor for feedback on one specific thing — 'How could I have phrased that question to the candidate better?' or 'Did I handle the salary conversation well?' She showed she was coachable. Luna: That's smart. Supervisors love people who ask for feedback proactively, not just at the end. Lucas: Absolutely. And then around week eight, a junior recruiter on the team gave notice. Priya went to her manager and said, 'I think I can cover the role for the rest of my returnship. You don't have to hire me yet — just let me try.' It was a gutsy move. Luna: And it worked? Lucas: It worked. She took over a small requisition — about five open roles for customer service reps. She sourced candidates, screened them, set up interviews. By the end of week twelve, she had two hires made and three more in the pipeline. The manager offered her a permanent position right then. Luna: So she essentially created her own opening by proving she could do the job while still in the program. Lucas: Exactly. And here's the thing: the manager told her later that the main reason they hired her wasn't her recruiting skills — it was her ability to handle rejection and stay positive. She had called dozens of candidates who didn't get the job, and she was always empathetic, never frustrated. The manager said that's a rare quality. Luna: That makes sense. A lot of recruiting is dealing with people's disappointment. Being a parent probably gave her a lot of practice with that. Lucas: Right. Priya also told me that the biggest mental hurdle was the salary negotiation. She hadn't earned a paycheck in seven years, and she felt she had no leverage. But she did some research on sites like Glassdoor and talked to her mentor from iRelaunch. She ended up negotiating a starting salary that was about ten percent above the initial offer — not huge, but meaningful. Luna: Good for her. So what's the takeaway for someone listening who's in a similar spot? Lucas: First, reframe your volunteer work with professional titles and concrete metrics. Second, seek out returnship programs — they exist at many large companies and are specifically designed for people with gaps. Third, use the returnship as a trial period to showcase your value before you even ask for a job. Luna: And fourth, don't be afraid to negotiate, even after a gap. Your skills aren't frozen just because you took time off. Lucas: Exactly. One more thing she shared: she keeps a 'brag file' now — every time she gets positive feedback from a candidate or a hiring manager, she saves it. She said it helped her rebuild her confidence when imposter syndrome creeps in. Luna: That's a good habit for anyone, gap or not. Lucas: Absolutely. And you know, shows like this one — they take time to research and produce. We keep them ad-free because we think the information should be freely available. Luna: If you've found an episode helpful — maybe it gave you an idea for your own return, or just made you feel less alone — a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going. You can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Right. It's a small way to say this content matters, and it really does make a difference for a show like ours. Luna: So back to Priya — she's now been a full-time recruiter for about a year and a half, and she's mentoring other returners through the same program that brought her in. Lucas: I love that. It's a full-circle story. And it shows that a career gap doesn't have to be a liability — it can actually be the foundation for a comeback that's more intentional and more grounded than the original career path. Luna: If you have a comeback story you'd like us to cover, reach out. We'd love to hear it. Lucas: Absolutely. Until next time.