Returnships require women to quickly adapt, update technical skills, and rebuild professional networks after career breaks. Confidence, time management, self-advocacy, resilience, mentorship, and strategic career planning are key to bridging past experience with current industry demands for a successful return.
What Skills Are Essential for Women Participating in Returnships Compared to Internships?
AdminReturnships require women to quickly adapt, update technical skills, and rebuild professional networks after career breaks. Confidence, time management, self-advocacy, resilience, mentorship, and strategic career planning are key to bridging past experience with current industry demands for a successful return.
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Visual Guide to Returnships vs. Internships
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Adaptability and Flexibility
Women participating in returnships often need to quickly adjust to changes in work environments, technologies, and organizational cultures, especially after a career break. Unlike internships, which may focus on learning routines and processes from scratch, returnships require adaptability to bridge past experiences with current industry standards efficiently.
Confidence in Existing Skills
Returnships emphasize leveraging prior professional experience, so women must have confidence in their existing skill sets. This contrasts with internships, where the focus is on skill acquisition. Confidence helps navigate challenges, advocate for oneself, and demonstrate value despite gaps in recent work history.
Up-to-Date Technical Proficiency
Due to the potential gap in hands-on experience, returnship participants need to actively update and maintain relevant technical skills to match industry advancements. Interns typically build foundational skills, but returnees must re-familiarize themselves with tools and technologies to remain competitive.
Time Management and Prioritization
Many women in returnships balance work with other responsibilities such as family or continued education. Effective time management and the ability to prioritize tasks are essential to successfully integrate back into a professional setting, often more so than in traditional internships designed primarily for entry-level learners.
Networking and Relationship Building
Networking is critical for women returning to work, as re-establishing professional relationships and expanding their networks can open doors to opportunities. Internships also involve networking but returnships require a more strategic approach to reconnecting with industry contacts.
Self-Advocacy and Communication
Being able to clearly communicate skills, career gaps, and goals is vital in returnships. Women must advocate for themselves in discussions about their career trajectory and potential contributions, something that might be less emphasized in internships where the focus is on learning rather than negotiating roles.
Emotional Resilience and Growth Mindset
Returnships can come with emotional challenges such as imposter syndrome or uncertainty after a career break. Developing resilience and maintaining a growth mindset enable women to overcome setbacks and continuously improve, which might be less critical in internship programs designed for early-career individuals.
Mentorship Seeking and Feedback Acceptance
Women in returnships benefit greatly from seeking mentors and embracing constructive feedback to accelerate their reentry and professional growth. While internships incorporate mentorship, returnship participants often need to proactively build these relationships to regain confidence and skills rapidly.
Industry-Specific Knowledge Update
Staying informed about the latest trends, regulations, and best practices in their respective industries is crucial for women in returnships. Unlike interns who are often newcomers, returnees must reconnect with evolving sector-specific knowledge to add immediate value.
Strategic Career Planning
Returnship participants should possess skills in setting realistic goals, planning career paths, and identifying opportunities for advancement based on their prior experience and current aspirations. Internships typically focus on exploration, whereas returnships require deliberate career strategizing to make a successful comeback.
What else to take into account
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