by Glenn Magas

Created on: February 17, 2010

Many people getting back on the saddle and actively hitting the job market may have had past experience, but due to a time layoff may have been away from work for quite a long time. Managing the ‘daily grind’ will eventually come back to them but without continued practice of their skills, their experience may take a while to catch up.

Here are 3 things to close the experience gap when going back to work.

1. Be Prepared
2. Be up-to-date
3. Practice makes perfect

You know you ‘had’ the skills, now you need to get back on track and be ready to use them once again. Many people say: “If I spent more time doing (fill in the blank) I can get better at it.” And these people are talking about their current job and the tasks involved. If you have been ‘out of it’ for several years, it will be incredibly hard to get back ‘into it’ and your interview will prove nothing more than what you ‘used’ to know.

1. Be Prepared

The 6P rule states: Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance. This is directly related to everything you do in life – and as you are actively seeking employment, the 6P rule means you need to prepare for the job market, prepare for the interview, and prepare to handle a job like there was no break at all.

The best analogy would be like getting back together with your best friend after being away for several years. You just get back into the friendship like there was no time away at all.

How do you do this? Revisit your daily routine in your past job. What did you do and how did you do this in a full days work? Get to know your old job as if it was yesterday, and know the tools, the skills, and the demands you once had and be prepared to handle it like you had to do it all over again tomorrow!

2. Be up-to-date

In any industry, staying away for any amount of time means you have missed out in technological advancements, different policies and procedures, licensing, certification, etc. Do you have up-to-date skills and training needed to do the same job now that you did many years ago? If you do not know – find out.

Once you find out what you need to do to be up-to-date, get involved right away. Do not wait till the interview or the first day on the job, get that new software and be an expert all over again, sign up for recertification for the skills you need to have, and make sure you are up-to-date on all skill requirements on the job description before you look like someone with no experience when interviewing for that job.

3. Practice makes perfect

Practice your craft, whether its cold calling sales to spread sheet analysis.  Practice means education, learning more, learning the things you missed out on the past several years, and self educating yourself to be ready to go ‘hands on’ when the time comes.

Practice makes perfect is how the greatest athletes are great – and are paid to do what they do. Take this philosophy in jobs outside of that area and apply it to whatever it is you want to do and will do on a daily basis. Practicing what you used to do will close the bridge faster and makes you a more qualified applicant in the job market.

Applying 3 simple things immediately will prevent problems later. You do not want to feel overwhelmed and do steps 1 thru 3 the day before an interview, you want to be prepared and do them in advance, and as you are actively coming back from a long layoff from work.

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