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Hey there!

Hi, I’m Renee Rudczynski (ruh-ZIN-ski), a mom of two, who recently returned to work after a SEVEN year career break. I’m passionate about helping others in my position. Whether you’ve been out of the work force for six months or sixteen years, I want to help you!

Posted 10.28.21
Let’s chat!
For the month of November, my way of celebrating Thanksgiving is by volunteering a little time in the evening (East Coast time) to chat with anyone having trouble returning to work after a career break. Here’s my availability: calendly.com/reneerud

Posted 10.18.21
A lot of people have asked me to set up some networking conversations, and I can’t wait to do that. However, I just started my new job and I’m getting my house ready to sell, so I’m a bit swamped right now! In the meantime, I’m sharing a few tips below that helped me land my job. Please connect with me on LinkedIn (at the moment, please just send me a connection request, not a message — I’m having trouble replying to everyone). I’d also love to collect everyone’s emails so I can send out an update when I have time to talk again 🙂

And I can’t give enough thanks to Carol Fishman Cohen, founder of iRelaunch. She inspired me to return to work. Please reach out to her for coaching!

Here are some approaches that worked for me:

• When I decided to get serious about going back to work, I applied to a lot of the returnship programs out there, but also to every startup position I could find on BuiltIn and LinkedIn. I probably did 5-10 applications a day! (Though start small with this and take your time doing one more each day or so).
• I targeted startups for regular full-time roles and had a lot of luck there. Check out BuiltIn.com.
• And then…I got SO many rejections, but also a few interviews. I thought of most of the interviews as practice and that helped calm my nerves. Sooner than I thought, I wasn’t quite as hurt by the rejections. That’s just the job hunting process, even for people without career gaps.
• Madeline Mann, aka the Self Made Millennial, has great interviewing advice on her Youtube channel. It really helped me! Sometimes I would go for a long walk while the kids were at school and just listen to her videos on headphones. I think that helped the advice sink in.
• Lastly, I decided to throw in an attention grabbing cover letter as page 1 of my resume (I kept it in the same document as my resume). Here’s the gist of what I wrote:

Hello,
After taking a few years off to raise my kids, I’m excited to get back to work! I’ve
worked in HR consulting and led HR teams within a variety of environments,
including higher ed, finance, and a post-IPO startup. My combination of emotional
intelligence and data analysis/statistical experience helps me hit the ground running
on complex projects. I love both getting into the weeds and stepping back to take in
and evaluate the big picture.
I’m open to full-time roles, part-time roles, contract and temporary. Given the current
recruiting landscape in this “Great Resignation”, why not take a chance on a
non-traditional candidate like me?
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Best,
Renee Rudczynski

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