Hi Brett,

Thanks for writing to us.  I’m happy to hear that you wife is cancer free now, but understand that the job search process can be challenging after a prolonged period of unemployment.  It’s great that she has stayed up-to-date on her continuing education credits and is currently doing volunteer work, which is a practical way to get valuable experience to add to her resume.  To your point, would it be possible to her to seek out volunteer opportunities that are more closely related to her field? Sometimes volunteer work can lead to job opportunities at that organization, so that might be something to consider. And even if they don’t lead to work in those environments, it is valuable and updating experience for her resume. What environment would she like to provide her social work expertise? Perhaps beyond the CEs necessary to upkeep her license there could be a more targeted or specific certification that she could get, which would help show her current capacity. Also the job search process can vary in length, taking weeks or months from initial application to starting the job, so the fact that she has had several interviews in the past couple of months is an encouraging sign! 

Since your wife is actively interviewing, I would like to mention that in general, she is not legally obligated to disclose her cancer history with a prospective employer (however if she needs to access a reasonable accommodation she may have to disclose some information to show she’s entitled to it). This is a completely personal decision, but to help her think it through I would recommend watching our webinar to get a better understanding of the issues around disclosure: http://www.cancerandcareers.org/en/community/videos/bwc/2016-webinar-online.  

I’ve reached out to our career coaches to get further insight into your situation, but in the meantime, the following resources might be helpful:

• Job Search Toolkit (2^nd Edition):  http://www.cancerandcareers.org/publication_orders/new (features a advice on improving resumes, cover letters; interview and networking tips and other useful tools to help you during a job search)


• Recording of Job Search webinar: http://www.cancerandcareers.org/en/community/videos/bwc/job-search
  


• Resume Review Service: http://www.cancerandcareers.org/resume_reviews/new
  

• Blog post on Volunteering: http://www.cancerandcareers.org/blog/how-to-go-from-volunteer-to-ca

I hope this is helpful. If you or your wife have any further questions, please feel free to contact us at cancerandcareers@cew.org or 646-929-8032.

A coach will be in touch soon!

Kind regards,

Nicole Franklin, MPH

Manager of Programs

Cancer and Careers

I have a huge gap in my resume. Have been battling cancer for 10 years and I am almost three year post cancer recurrence. I have been a stay at home mom, very active in my community through volunteering in my kids schools and church. I also managed my son's Water Polo career for the USA JR Olympic team for 10 years. I currently have a young child age 10 and finally feeling healthy and strong enough to work. I have read your Linkedin recommendations and have started to build my profile before I make any connections can any of you coach me on improving my profile. I have work experience in the financial services 1 plus year, airline 3 years, public relations and retail 1 year on both. Any recommendations on how I should go about my job search and where I can get some coaching that is not super expensive. Thank you, Karen Galo