For various reasons, some of us are required to take a break from our careers to focus on life outside the professional sphere. And once we feel ready to get back professionally, we feel swamped with doubts, and are left puzzled regarding how to explain that “gap” in our resume. With Deloitte’s platform, Encore, professionals can discard their worries, and simply focus on transitioning back to a career with confidence, while leveraging what Encore has to offer to them.
It is an overcast day, as Divya1 sits with a cup of tea, looking out through the window over the open area in the distance. In a ruminating mood pondering over her last presentation, a little over a year ago, she lets the thought play out the various possibilities that she stepped out of, to take time out to give birth to her daughter and take care of her.
Her thought is interrupted by a pop-up notification on her phone, and her chain of thought leads her to search for career opportunities. Even as she feels caught in an internal turmoil of wanting to be that care giver and see her daughter grow up, she also misses drawing meaning and putting in effort towards her career and seeing it grow. The feeling of uncertainty kicks in—how to pick up her professional journey from where she left it.
As she begins scrolling through various openings, she comes across an opportunity calling for professionals who’ve been away from the workforce for more than a year. Deloitte’s "Encore" program shows up at an opportune moment. And she jumps right in to apply for it.
It is day two since she applied for Encore and her phone rings. She answers it to find a Deloitte recruiter on the other end, eager to know more about her. The conversation goes on for a few minutes where the two are in discussion, by the end of which she emerges hopeful, happy and excited at the thought of having an offer to join Deloitte at their office for an on-site day long program—her day is made as she thinks of being at a Deloitte office soon.
Days pass, she prepares herself—she ensures she’s well-versed with details from her CV, while ensuring she has her parents to take care of her daughter for the day that she will be away from home, and she puts some thought into what she will wear that day. But in all this time, she realizes an important aspect that she overlooked in her preparation—adapting her mindset to be open to the experiences that come her way.
On the day of the program, she arrives at Deloitte office. With a feeling that this will be a great day, she goes ahead to collect her ID card, some giveaways, and places it on one of the round tables in a huge hall-like space. She looks around to see other participants settling in, and just then, one of the speakers approaches her—the conversation exchange ends up giving her answers to a few questions she had and leaves her with a feeling of a surge of confidence as she’s not felt over the days that led to this day.
Meanwhile, another speaker at the front of the hall gathers everyone to be seated, and there begins a day full of speaker sessions, inspiring stories, speed-mentoring and some much-needed espresso-breaks to refuel everyone. The second half of the day leads into one-on-one interviews with business area leads. And as she steps in to the space for her interview, she is reminded of the first-time she ever sat for an interview as a candidate, years ago. A flurry of emotions passes by as she tries to regain composure, she is greeted by warm faces, waiting to let her ease in, before the conversation begins. This exchange goes on for almost 30 minutes, and as she emerges out of the room, she realized it was an interesting discussion that could only be described as one that brought about a sense of comfort and confidence. She knew at that moment there’s no need to give in to worry. The candidate journey is more humane and understanding, and as of that moment, her fears left her for good.
As she left for the day, the journey back home was interspersed with thoughts of a flashback of the day’s happenings as quite a few messages lingered around in her thoughts.
This is Divya’s journey with Deloitte, who returned to a career with confidence through Encore.
About the Encore program:
Deloitte’s Encore program provides a platform for experienced professionals who have taken a career break to transition back to work seamlessly and help build eminence in the marketplace. With access to leadership development resources, mentors and a variety of client engagement opportunities, you obtain the training, experience and coaching you need to rejoin the workforce with confidence and set yourself up for success.
1 Disclaimer: For purposes of publishing the article, the actual name of the person has been changed.
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