Why employment gap is not considered - 2+ yrs gap due to maternity and child care need

gayathri-paramasivam1
Hello Seniors, Need your valuable advise in my case.
I have 9 yrs HR experience and with 5 HR related certifications. Have 2+ yrs gap due to maternity and child care need.. I am trying to get myself employed for a full time job.. But people point only on the gap and looks like not considering the profile, and also say some reasons on package etc..
I travelled and attended almost 4_5 interviews but looked like my resume was not screened properly prior and just interviewed and say reasons on package, gap, over qualified etc. .. Its basic thing to screen first and call, it was like waste of time, money (outstation), etc for me.
1) My question is, even I was a HR professional before and I am aware of interviewing things...
Even so I face things like, not screening properly and pointing on budget, sending us by not giving proper interview result notification, and make us waste our time, money etc...Had to think about regular people..how would they feel
2) As HR people, we know some reasons are very common in a girl's career break in life like marriage, maternity, personal child care etc..
Why is that not considered for reemploying us?
Looking forward for your valuable input for further proceedings in my life
Excuse for any typo or written errors
nelsonthomas9102
Hi Partner,
I really do understand your situation and would say please do not lose hope yet. I will just use a short example so that it would be easier for you to get an insight.
Imagine if I was visiting a professional hair salon and there were two hair stylists. One of the stylists has 5 years of experience, but for the last 3 years he has not worked due to having got married and having to take care of his family. The other stylist has 2 years of experience and has been on the job till date. My preference would be for the member with 2 years of experience because I may think that he is up to date with the latest methods and styles ( I could be wrong). The other member has 5 years of experience, but my worry would be whether he is up to date on the developments of the last 3 years and I am not going to give him a chance to experiment on my hair, to clear my doubts, because if anything goes wrong, then for the next 1 - 2 months I have to live with it. But then if the salon owner for whom I am a regular, tells me he is good and that is why he recruited him, now I may take a chance.
It is the same thing when you give an interview. The interviewers are worried about whether you are up to date on the HR developments of the last 2+ years and not your maternity related factors. For some companies, an additional factor of how you are going balance your time between the company and your child also crops up.
So, you can do your research on what has changed over the last 3 years in the HR field in your area. There are lots of online and offline articles and forums for this. This gives you an idea about changing trends and when you speak for interviews on the trends, the interviewer gets the feeling that you are interested in learning ahead and updating yourself, that you are really into the HR stuff.
The next factor is to get registered with any known HR associations in your area and start socialising or networking. The more people you get to know, the more chances of references based on your interactions. Get into HR debates and presentations.
The next part is abut hands on experience. Some members take a small pay cut and work in an organisation until they get the experience again and then move on to a bigger company. Others would still stick on to the same pay and keep on researching, networking and giving interviews until they get what they want. Even attending interviews gains experience for you, especially when you are having two way discussions with each interviewer. Though you may not get the job, an impressed interviewer keeps your details ready for future prospects.
About having to travel out of station for interviews, if required you can ask for a telephonic interview initially or even a video call like skype calls. After that, if everything goes well, then you can go for the face to face. To ensure you get the maximum benefit, go with a learning attitude that in an interview you are also going learn from the interviewer as well by asking back the right questions.
I am sorry to be putting this down too long. But I hope these details can help to provide a start for more learning and experimenting, for you. I wish you all the best ahead.
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