Back on the Career Track: A Guide for Stay-at-Home Moms Who Want to Return to Work

I can't believe reviewer Martin Nemzo read the same book I did. As reviewer Rachel Towle mentioned, I do not have an advanced degree, yet I found Back on the Career Track to be a realistic, refreshing guide to career reentry. Women who had "relaunched" careers in all sorts of fields and work configurations are profiled and the advice and strategy is accessible and I think equally effective for those of us without graduate degrees. In fact, I think the stories from the authors and their subjects were unusually candid, which made the points the authors were trying to illustrate even more compelling for someone in the position of being at home trying to return to work. Looking at Mr. Nemzo's background, he does not appear to be in this situation which is why he might have missed the major points of the book. Finally, his comment about the authors backgrounds is clearly inaccurate to the point where I wonder if Mr. Nemzo had some sort of agenda to diss these authors. His comment that one of the authors is noted in the NYTimes for marrying a physician happens to be her wedding announcement from 1988! From their company website (www.iRelaunch.com) and some of my own googling, I found out that Cohen, a mother of four, resumed working after 11 years out of the full time workforce in a full time job for an investment company. She left after a year at which time Harvard Business School wrote a case study about her journey back to work after her time at home. Rabin went into the executive search business after seven years at home with her five kids. These two authors appear to me to be the only authors of books on career reentry who have actually gone through the entire process of working, taking a career break and then returning to jobs unrelated to writing about or starting a company in the career reentry field. They wrote their book and started their company after they went through the entire return to work process. That's why they understand it so well! They now run a company that creates career reentry programming for people on career break and they have spoken internationally on the topic. Just take a look at their list of speaking engagements to see the wide range of audiences they address. Mr. Nemzo - I think you better do more careful research next time before tossing out the ridiculous references you make in this review. I give Back on the Career Track five stars and highly recommend it for those on career break interested in a strategy to return to work after a hiatus. Nicole, mom of 1 with one of the way

I found the book very helpful. It puts into words what's been happening in my life for the last ten years and the reasons it has been difficult to get back into the professional realm. Lots of great advice! And the beauty is the confidence that comes from knowing there are others out there experiencing the same thing and there is a path for career "success" (however you define it) if you go for it!

This book has two great strengths. One is that if offers a calm, practical strategy for breaking down and following through on the many tasks involved in going back to work. This is really important and welcome, since in the busy day-to-day of parenting, it is often hard to look at the big picture and think strategically. The second is that it talks about the practical AND emotional hurdles to going back to work, and manages, in an upbeat but balanced way, to talk like a firm but supportive friend about overcoming them. There' s a lot written lately about how mothers are foolish and naive if they don't work for pay, a point of view bound to alienate mothers who aren't currently working. This book, by contrast, is not ideological, but helpful and eminently practical. It's a great resource if you are just starting to think about (and feel your way through) this complex question.

I've been thinking about going back to work, and I thought this book masterfully covered the pros and cons as well as laid out a clear 7-step process I could follow if I decide to move forward. I found the authors' ideas about assessing career options, in particular, to be very helpful and innovative. The book was comprehensive in that it looked at all sorts of work arrangements, including conventional fulltime jobs, part-time positions, job shares, consulting and entrepreneurship. The women's stories cited were engaging and varied. I also really liked the second half of the book in which the authors look at the whole issue of women returning to work from the employers' perspective. In short, I highly recommend this book to any women thinking about going back or even thinking about leaving in the first place.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about this particular issue and I found Back on the Career Track to be right on point! It is a very thorough guide that takes you through essential steps in figuring out the next steps of the professional journey that women in mid life face. It contains helpful suggestions on how to jump start the process and lots of examples of women who have made successful transitions. I also liked that it highlighted some structural changes that are happening in the workforce and that it discussed ways to work with younger women to ensure that they have more options than we do. It has helpful reference materials and it takes real life situations and tells how to make them work for us instead of holding us back. I work with many women who are "in this space" and I have recommended it to everyone who is either actively looking for her next project or even women who are at the very beginning of the process. It is a wonderful reference and I highly recommend it!