Latest / The Comeback Career Podcast with Fexingo: Returning After a Gap, Stay-at-Home Re-Entry / How One Parent Returned as a Copywriter After a Seven-Year Gap
Transcript
- Lucas: Luna, I want to start this episode with a number that has been sitting with me for weeks: according to a recent survey from the career platform Fairygodboss, forty-six percent of women who take a career break of three or more years say their biggest barrier to re-entering the workforce is the belief that their skills are no longer relevant. Luna: That's a staggering number. And I bet it's even higher for men who take long gaps, though we don't see as much data on that. We've talked about so many roles on this show, but today we wanted to focus on a field where portfolio often beats pedigree: copywriting. Lucas: Exactly. Today's guest, whom we'll call Sarah for privacy reasons, took a seven-year gap to raise her two kids. Before the gap, she had a degree in English and two years of experience as a marketing coordinator — not a writer, but she did write some newsletters and social posts. Luna: And if we've helped you think through a career move or a return to work strategy — even just given you one concrete piece of advice you used — listeners like you are the reason we keep this show ad-free. You can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Every bit helps us keep sharing these real-world playbooks. Lucas: Completely agree. Okay, back to Sarah. She knew she wanted to write for a living, but her old marketing role had only given her a handful of samples. So she made a deliberate choice: for six months, she treated her portfolio like a second job. Luna: What did that look like day-to-day? Because I think a lot of people hear 'build a portfolio' and they freeze. Lucas: She started by volunteering to write for a local nonprofit's blog. One post a week, four hundred to six hundred words. Then she offered to rewrite the about page for a friend's small business website — for free. She also did a few guest posts on Medium under her own name, focusing on topics like work-life balance and parenting lessons that applied to teamwork. Luna: So she was essentially creating a body of work that showed she could write in different tones — nonprofit, small biz, personal storytelling. That is smart because copywriting jobs often ask you to switch voices. Lucas: Right. After three months of that, she had about ten solid samples. Then she spent two weeks tailoring her resume — not as a list of duties, but as a narrative. She reframed her marketing coordinator role as 'developed brand voice and wrote content across email and social channels.' She also added a line about 'leading the PTA newsletter,' which sounds small but shows project management and writing. Luna: Did she mention the seven-year gap directly on the resume? Some people try to hide it. Lucas: She chose a functional resume format — the kind that emphasizes skills over chronology. At the bottom, she listed her work history with years but no months. So it said 'Marketing Coordinator, 2015 to 2019' and then a gap of about seven years with no explanation. In her cover letter, she addressed it head-on in a single sentence: 'After a fulfilling period at home, I am eager to apply my passion for clear, persuasive writing in a professional setting.' Luna: That's the right move. If you don't name the gap, recruiters invent a worse story. So she owned it, briefly, and pivoted to enthusiasm. Lucas: Then came the job search. She applied to thirty-five junior copywriter and content specialist roles over two months. She got four interviews and two offers. The first offer was from a B2B software company — a junior copywriter role at sixty-five thousand dollars. Luna: That's a solid starting salary for a returner, especially in a field where many start as freelancers at lower rates. Lucas: She accepted it. The key factor, she told me, was the portfolio. She said every interviewer mentioned at least one of her volunteer samples. They wanted to see that she could adapt her writing to a business audience, and her nonprofit blog posts showed that ability. Luna: So the advice for someone listening right now: start writing for free in a space that aligns with the industry you want. If you want B2B tech copy, write a blog for a small SaaS company. If you want nonprofit copy, volunteer for an animal shelter. Lucas: Exactly. And Sarah also invested in one low-cost certification: the American Writers & Artists Inc. accelerated copywriting program. That cost about three hundred dollars and took her six weeks part-time. It gave her a certificate and a framework for writing sales copy, which she used in a couple of her sample pieces. Luna: Did having the certification matter to employers? Or was it about the confidence it gave her? Lucas: She thinks both. One interviewer mentioned the certification favorably. But more importantly, it gave her a vocabulary — she could talk about 'AIDA' and 'benefit-driven headlines' in interviews, which made her sound like a pro even though she hadn't worked formally in years. Luna: That is such a good takeaway. A small investment in learning the language of a field can dramatically shorten the re-entry curve. Lucas: Exactly. And now, one year into her role, Sarah has been promoted to mid-level copywriter and is earning eighty-two thousand. She told me the most surprising part was how the writing quality she developed during her gap — writing emails to other parents, notes for school plays, even journaling — actually made her a better writer than she was before. Luna: That's a beautiful reframe. The gap wasn't a dead zone; it was an incubation period where she was still sharpening her craft, even if she didn't realize it. Lucas: Right. And that's the message we want to leave you with today: copywriting is one of those fields where your output matters more than your timeline. If you can produce strong writing, you can start earning, whether it's through a full-time role or freelancing on the side while you build confidence. Luna: So you could start a blog or a LinkedIn newsletter today, treat it like a portfolio, and apply for your first copywriting role in sixty to ninety days if you are consistent. Lucas: That has been our takeaway. For show notes and a link to the AWAI program, check the episode page. And as always, if this episode helped you, consider supporting us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. We'll be back next week with another return to work road map.