Anyone used any careers services for returning to work?

[Astrid]

I think having a plan helps. If I was to do it all again, I would either have moved to a smaller accounting firm close to home rather than sticking in Corporate accounting in the CBD. Would have given me more flexibility with work (well I hope). Either that or I would have spent a year or two striking out with my own bookkeeping business. I started that after DD1 was born, which really was too late, I needed the client base and the work for myself skills before babies.

[fionas]

I was in the same boat (sort of). Professional seeking part-time work. Unfortunately my old workplace wouldn't allow me to work my former job part-time - even by doing a job share with my maternity leave replacement (who subsequently had a baby and wanted to return part-time at the time I did).

I ended up taking a redundancy package, kept my eye out for part-time jobs in my industry but really there wasn't anything, at least not advertised. So now I'm studying with the view to doing a career change - which may be the stupidest idea I've ever had given the fact that I'll be 45 competing against 22 year olds for jobs.

Anyway, that is by the by. My experience did make me consider setting up a website so that parents wanting part-time work could potentially hook up with other parents with the view to doing a job share and then applying as a joint package. Australia may not be ready for that however.

I'm not sure what I'd do in your shoes. I think taking a full-time job and then trying to negotiate down to part-time after you've wowed them by your performance may honestly be the most effective. Yes, it feels all kinds of deceptive but really, if you can do the job part-time, you're actually saving them money.

[wysiwyg]

Anyway, that is by the by. My experience did make me consider setting up a website so that parents wanting part-time work could potentially hook up with other parents with the view to doing a job share and then applying as a joint package. Australia may not be ready for that however.

That is a great idea, it is such a waste to the economy really, also I think there needs to be some sort of advocate group for part time - convincing employers about the benefits - the talk this morning started off interesting talking about reverse marketing - so the agency builds up relationships with companies and then markets the candidates to them (not against specific jobs)- however they also pointed out that really this only works with smallish companies because large corporations have their own HR departments and like to do things there own set way - in my field that is through recruitment agents who really just want as much money as possible and that is related to wage so therefore get less for a part-time. Also not all jobs require an everyday presence, some do and job sharing is a good solution - others have a set amount of work that needs doing and it can't always be equal to whole number FTE's. I know from experience sometimes you need 1.6 FTE's for a task.

I wonder if other countries do this better?

Someone was on about a productivity commission study into child care fees, but really I think that is only one barrier to returning to work, so really should be looking at it more holistically. It really is a complete waste that people have to retrain to re-enter the workforce (I got my residency in Australia due to my skill set being on the special skills required list, yet apparently those skills are only useful if can do them five days a week - I am quite prepared to work equivalent to five days a week but only 3 days in the office in office hours - considering the amount of work that is required out of office hours due to working with other countries - in many roles I would have thought this is an ideal situation)

I'm not sure what I'd do in your shoes. I think taking a full-time job and then trying to negotiate down to part-time after you've wowed them by your performance may honestly be the most effective. Yes, it feels all kinds of deceptive but really, if you can do the job part-time, you're actually saving them money.

I fear you might be right, I am so loathe to do that though because (stamps foot) it shouldn't have to be like that - that is how my last contract worked, but then I didn't think I would have an issue with full-time and DH was part-time - I had the attitude that lots of dads work full time (mums to) and hardly see their kids all week so why shouldn't I be able to - surely DH and I were reversible in our roles in the family - but I just hated it, so knowing I would hate it again makes it harder. Two children in full-time childcare we would hit the rebate limits as well so childcare costs would go up substantially.

I think if I knew that the jobs were definitely going to be around in 2017 then the above would definitely be the right way to go - but my added worry is that so many of these jobs are going to India/Asia - or require significant travel, would I be better getting ahead of the game and spending this time changing my skill set a little to negate this fact. I think it will go in a cycle and we will hit a point where these jobs come back onshore but it is debatable whether that will be as soon as 2017 or may be much further in the future. If only I had a crystal ball!

[anney]

Wysiwyg, it really is a waste to the economy. So many well educated, skilled people take any old part time jOb just because it is part time while their may still be a skill shortage in their area of expertise. I also work in IT and went back to work part time after having one child. If we had a second child I am not sure what we would have done but here I am 10 years later in the same part time job. Don't get me wrong, I know I am lucky but I would like to change jobs and nothing is advertised as part time and if I ring to ask , they always so no it is full time.
However I know in my workplace they find it difficult to recruit the right skill set and the work does fluctuate so it seems more sensible to have a good 3 day a week employee who is happy to up there hours when it is required, than have a skilled person who is bored 2 days a week as there is not enough work for them!! ( the girl who sits next to me at work is exactly like that!)
I think you need to get to interview with the actual company and if interview going well bring up work flexibility and if you get a favourable answer, talk about the hours you really want. Getting to interview will help clarify for you what is really out there and how things might look in 2017. Good luck.

[Nai]

It is a pain and ridiculously short sighted of employers to rule out part time workers. Just a couple of thoughts, this side of Christmas there are traditionally very few roles going as companies tend to start recruitment again around the end of January so there may be a lull in the job market at the moment.

Also do a massive look through Seek and the like and see if there are any other roles that you may be qualified for that don't necessarily fall within your current search. There may be something that is slightly left of centre that you can do for a year or so.

I would also look directly at sites like the state government and federal government websites as they advertise separately to Seek and can be more flexible. Also check out Ethical jobs and Infoxchange for community sector roles which also tend not to be advertised on Seek and are often more flexible as well.

[wysiwyg]

Thanks for the replies and the websites I hadn't heard of them - I had had a look at Government ones last time and was ruled out of many by not a citizen but forgot I am shortly to become a citizen anyway. Seems like ACT is the place to be in my area - but there are a few in Mel too - and registers you can go on for temporary opportunities which I wouldn't rule out as could be a way in.

Understand is not a great time - one of the reasons I figure give myself till end of Feb - but speaking to old colleagues the market hasn't been great for a while.

I think I find it more frustrating because often it isn't the employers who rule out part-time is the recruitment agents. I know from when I have recruited my replacement a couple of times, you have to give them a job description (and more often than not that has to be in specific format according to HR rules) but everything on there is an ideal - but the recruitment consultant don't really have the skills or knowledge of the sector to do anything more than look for matching phrases on the CV and job description - whereas in reality you as the employer can tell far more about a person and would be willing to be flexible if you saw their skills - but CV's don't get presented to you like that. Some of the questions you get asked on the phone by recruiters are just ridiculous, how can you sell yourself to someone who doesn't really understand the position. Many times the candidate we have selected is the one who is actually the one regarded as weakest by the agency - but we have seen something else in them making them a good fit for the organisation. (Maybe the SAP world is different but an example is they rule you out because you have experience in say SAP 4.6 and client is looking for SAP ECC 5 but that is like ruling someone out because they know Word 97 not Word 98 - if you are a Word expert you can cope with a few slight differences - is the capacity to learn and the overal grasp of the software that is required, not being able to recall from memory which toolbar the Bold key is located on)

It is a reoccurring theme in my life that I am not very good at "playing the game" when I think the "game" is stupid - I need to get past that, I also need to learn to be more flexible with the truth - I can sell myself or an idea when it is something I whole heartedly believe in - but I am no good at being flexible with the truth at all (I used to get pulled of pre-sales work for being too honest). Have never not been offered a job have interviewed for - so I just need to learn how to "play the game" to get the interview I suppose - instead of getting angry about how the stupid game works :-)

Sometimes I think what is needed is a Current Affair or Today Tonight expose on it - you know dramatic music - sterotypical pictures of people with degrees doing stereotypically low paid jobs with $ dollar signs flashing - that funny serious voice they use "Millions wasted because people not given a fair go" - "Someone should do something" etc etc. :-).

As a slight aside - I read the other day about someone in the UK who is trying to advertise nature to kids in the way consumer items are - after noticing the affect advertising has - maybe part-time workers need their own marketing/ad campaign - maybe I will suggest it to Gruen Planet as a topic for one of their create an advert competitions.

Thanks for listening :-)