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Home » The 40-Year-Old Intern: Carol Fishman Cohen at TEDxBeaconStreet (Transcript)

The 40-Year-Old Intern: Carol Fishman Cohen at TEDxBeaconStreet (Transcript)

Carol Fishman Cohen

Carol Fishman Cohen – TRANSCRIPT

People returning to work after a career break: I call them relaunchers. These are people who have taken career breaks for elder care, for childcare reasons, pursuing a personal interest, or a personal health issue.

Closely related are career transitioners of all kinds: veterans, military spouses, retirees coming out of retirement, or repatriating expats. Returning to work after a career break is hard because of a disconnect between the employers and the relaunchers. Employers can view hiring people with a gap on their résumé as a high-risk proposition, and individuals on career break can have doubts about their abilities to relaunch their careers, especially if they’ve been out for a long time. This disconnect is a problem that I’m trying to help solve. Now, successful relaunchers are everywhere and in every field.

This is Sami Kafala. He’s a nuclear physicist in the UK who took a five-year career break to be home with his five children. The Singapore press recently wrote about nurses returning to work after long career breaks. And speaking of long career breaks, this is Mimi Kahn. She’s a social worker in Orange County, California, who returned to work in a social services organization after a 25-year career break.

That’s the longest career break that I’m aware of. Prominent people take career breaks. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor took a five-year career break early in her career. And then, there are the fictional relaunchers. Probably the most famos is Alicia Florrick, the character played by Julianna Margulies in the TV show The Goodwife.

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