Getting or jumping back to work can be a difficult task for stay-at-home parents. The biggest reason behind this is that they have lost touch with most of their professional contacts. While making this transition, many parents occupy jobs that do not actually match their professional level. Becoming successful while jumping back into a career after staying at home for 5-10 years require a job search strategy. Given below are some top tips for long time stay at home parents for getting back to work and start a career of their choice. These career planning tips come to you straight from career experts.

Re-establishing Your Professional Network
It should be obvious to jobseekers that the most number of job vacancies are not advertised. They are filled through networking or people's references. Therefore, it is important for stay-at-home parents to consider who they know and revive their professional contacts if they have lost touch. Get into the networking loop again and re-establish the network to receive job information and being referred to employers through your contacts. Be aware of networking rules . And let your contacts be informed about what career opportunities you are looking for.

Are You Planning a Career Change?
In most cases, stay-at-home parents decide to make a career change. By re-examining your career goals, you can make a well informed decision about making a career change . Parents, therefore, need to consider what they want out of their life, what their personal values are and what careers would suit them the most. The career change situation may happen to parents be cause they have learnt a lot of life lessons while raising kids at home. Stay-at-home moms learn a lot about life and themselves while raising children. In any case, the career changing decision should be a right one.

Marketing Your Skills (through Resumes, Cover Letters etc)
Successful career planning needs an effective strategy. Transitioning career seekers need to have a re-look at their job resume and cover letters. Considering the fierce competition of the job market, it is essential for career seekers to stand out from the crowd and market their job skills in the most effective manner. Stay-at-home parents need to know how to create a perfect resume to market their skills to employers. By writing an effective cover letter, you can enhance your chances of landing more job interviews.

Using Your Experience of Volunteering
While you get ready to revise your resume, you should not forget to include your volunteering experience on it. Those who know the benefits of volunteering can use it to their maximum career advantage. Volunteering does not only provide you with some real world experience, but it also builds your professional network that you can use for landing jobs.

Going Backwards?
Many stay-at-home parents when they return to work accept low level or entry level job positions. There are career experts who believe that women should not even think of joining entry level jobs. A re-defined career strategy will enable you to occupy jobs that match your professional level. Women should carefully think whether they want some additional training or courses for updating their job skills, keeping the cost of education in mind. This is important for jumping back into a career of your choice.

Contacting Your Former Employer
Stay-at-home parents can also consider getting in touch with their formal employer to get back into the workforce. If you liked the work culture and the job you did with your formal employer, it would be a good decision to contact the company for a job position. The company may decide to hire you again if you performed well earlier. Many companies will value your work talents when it comes to hiring you back for a job position.

Striking the Work-Life Balance
Work-life balance is a critical issue, particularly for parents. Stay-at-home parents need to decide whether they want to occupy part time or full time jobs according to their specific requirements. There is no dearth of part time and full time work opportunities. However, parents need to obtain jobs that offer them flexible work schedule.

Giving it Time
Getting back into the professional work force and restart a career may take some time, a couple of months. The period may be anywhere between 3-6 months. Parents are advised to devote time to job search on a regular basis or on an everyday basis. Just step out of the house, interact with professional people and start working towards your career.

Work and life are the two sides of the same coin. While being employed or doing a job, it is very essential to maintain the work-life balance. Any disturbance in a job has it influence on ones personal and family life and vice versa. Whether it is about making a career change decision, find a job or starting a career of your choice, each one of them relates to your life. To have a successful career and acquire complete happiness, it is necessary to strike a balance between your work and life. Given below are some important tips on how to get your life in balance.

1. Negotiating a change with your present employer
If you are good employee, employers will always be willing to help you deal with changes that may happen under different family life situations. Whether it is about job sharing, telecommuting or part time jobs , a progressive employer will be ready to deal with all such problems so as to increase the employee's productivity. So, the very first step towards negotiating these changes successfully is to conduct a research on the policies, rues and regulations of the company. Find out about the methods that the employer used to handle such requests preciously.

2. Finding a new career
You should be very clear about your career goals in terms of working hours, flexibility and the level of stress you can actually handle. Though some careers can prove to be very stressful, you need to find yourself career opportunities that fit in with your specific requirements. You can conduct research on your own to find a career which does not cause you much stress, is flexible and leaves you adequate time to spend with your family.

3. Finding a new job
It happens many times that you can find a less stressful job without making a career change. You can find a flexible job for yourself while working in the very field of your chosen career. It is essential to have clear goals about the kind of job you are looking for. You need to make a decision about whether you want to work full time, part time, do consultancy work and start a home-based business. Depending on your specific requirements, you can also take up freelancing jobs.

4. Managing time efficiently and avoiding procrastination
Most of the time, the misbalance between work and life is caused due to your being disorganized. If you do not have time management skills, you will be faced with job stress. Equipped with some good time management and organization skills, you can reduce the job stress and lead a happy life. Therefore, find out whether the work life imbalance is happening due to mismanagement of time and act according to the requirement of the situation.

5. Sharing the responsibilities
You may not always be right if you think no one else will be able to shoulder the responsibilities you are handling. By sharing the workload at the domestic front with your partners and family members, you can reduce a lot of undue stress. It is not only a single person's responsibility to look after the family issues and domestic problems. Delegate responsibilities accordingly and become more efficient and productive with your work.

6. Slowing Down
Would you like to let pass some wonderful moments of life in a blur? Take steps and stop to enjoy the nicer moments of life and enjoy your time with people. Manage your time efficiently and do not get busy with meetings every weekend or every evening. Know about things that are causing you much stress and try to distance yourself from these things with affecting your professional life and career.

7. Not beating yourself up every time and letting things go
By letting things go, it means you do not need to beat yourself up for small stuff. For instance, if the house does not get vacuumed everyday, you should not let it cause you stress. That means you need to identify things or small stuff that should not have an impact on your life. Learn to let things go if they are really small to get balance between work and life.

8. Exploring your options
If you think family responsibilities are just too much to handle, you should look for affordable options. There is a solution to every problem if you are eager to find it. For more complex situations, you can also turn to family counselors for expert advice. So, be ready to explore the options available and find out ways to ease the undue pressure and get a work life balance.

9. Setting priorities
If you feel quite overwhelmed with responsibilities, it is time to take charge and prioritize things. Create a list of all the entire important task that needs to be done. Set priorities in order of what is more important than another. It will really satisfy you as you complete each important task and cross them off on your work priority list.

10. Simplifying things
One of the most important points to remember in terms of balancing your work and life is to simplify things. It is natural to want to do too many things. At time we take up too much than we are actually capable of doing. Therefore, it is important to say ‘no' when you want to say no. Do not give in to every request that is made to you. Get rid of the clutter in your life and simplify life.

To lead a happy life, it is important to strike the appropriate balance between work and life. By being organized, managing your time efficiently and following the steps mentioned above, you can get the work life balance you always wanted.

Every one of us faces stress at the workplace. And there is no way to escape job stress. Our success lies only in how we manage the job stress and use it to enhance our job performance. Job stress can be caused due to various reasons. Sometimes, we may feel much stressed due to lack of progress in work. Sometimes, long working hours or extra working hours make us feel stressed. Job stress is never limited to a particular industry. In any case, it is very important for us to deal with these jobs related problems. We should not let job stress affect our mental or physical health. Given below are some essential tips on how to manage job stress and thrive at work. But, before that, let us talk about some of the symptoms and causes of job stress.

Symptoms of Job Stress
While talking of job stress, we should be ready to detect the symptoms of job stress much before they begin taking their toll on us. If identified in time, we can work towards successfully coping with job stress and enhance our job performance at the workplace.

Some early signs of job stress are as follows :

Apathy
Feeling frustrated
Anxiety
Fatigue and boredom
Feeling alienated and depressed
Low morale
Absenteeism
Anger and feeling irritated
Physical problems (including headaches, stomach disorders etc)

Causes of Job Stress
Stress on the job can affect individuals on the basis of their personality. The same hectic job conditions can affect one person while the other remains unaffected. This happens depending on a person's individual personality and coping style. There are other working conditions that can affect just anyone. These problematic job conditions or job stress causes include feeling of insecurity about the job, excessive workload, physically dangerous working conditions, and unrealistic job expectations among others.

Developing Strategies to Manage Job Stress
Organizations play an important role in reducing job stress or helping workers cope with it. Apart from that, workers also need to take some measures or steps on their own to cope with job stress and prevent it from affecting job performance at the workplace.

As a worker or an employee, you need to know that jobs are disposable, but friends, family and health are not. So, being too anxious about losing a job should not take its toll on you. If you find you can not handle the workload anymore and it's badly affecting your personal life, you should start looking for a new job.

You can also decide to modify your job situation. In many cases, you may like the employer but not the job. If the job really leads to boredom or it becomes too stressing, you can talk to the employer to tailor the job to your skills. You can also ask your boss or the employer for a lateral transfer, if you are newly assigned responsibilities that are causing you a lot of stress.

To manage job stress, you can also take time out and walk away from the situation. Take a break. Spend time meditating and exercising. Go to a quiet place and spend some time in solitude, while listening to your iPod. It really works wonders and you can reduce your job stress too.

You might have been aware of the fact that clutter in the workplace, at the desk or workspace also adds to increasing the stress of job. So, get to organize the things in the workspace and remove the clutter to reduce the stress.

It is essential to have a support system of trusted people while working. Sharing your stress or work conditions with those close to you can also reduce a lot of stress. By talking about the job conditions with your closer ones, you can get support and empathy from them. And this really can help you manage and reduce job stress. Similarly, you can choose to have allies at work or co-workers who are supportive to you. Also remember to reciprocate the process and be helpful to them.

Let go of perfectionism and getting obsessed about every minute detail. No one of us is perfect. Just focus on delivering your best. Leave the perfection on god. Another most important thing is to avoid having unrealistic expectations. Having unrealistic expectation on the job makes you feel excessively stressed. It may also set you up for failure.

Keep away from negativism and avoid the company of negative people. Always have a positive attitude. Learn to celebrate even your small accomplishments. And remember, nothing is more important than your health, whether it is the job, your boss or the employer. Identify the job stress situations and causes and try to fix them as soon as possible. By adopting these job success strategies, you will find yourself in good physical and mental health and thrive at work.

Are you not happy with your job and are planning to change you career? There is nothing wrong when you decide to switch careers. It really takes a lot of courage when you make career change decisions. You may not love what you are currently doing. You may face a situation where you need to decide whether you should stay in the current job or you should change your career. However, you need to give it careful thought and consideration while making such a decision. To make the right career decision, you need to be equipped with some essential tips. Only you will be responsible for your career and no one else. Always make a well informed decision and avoid the mistakes given below.

Changing Careers because You Hate Your Job
Fist and foremost, a job and a career are two different things. You may find yourself hating your current job. However, it is essential to find out the reason that makes you hate your job. Do you hate the job? Do you hate the employer? Or, do you hate the employer? Whatever may be the reason, you need to think carefully and only then make a career change decision.

Making a Career Change without a Plan
You can not just make a career change decision all of a sudden and jump to a new career. To become successful, you need to have a specific action plan or strategy in place. You need to develop this career plan including things like finances, research, education, training etc. Switching careers without having a specific plan is a big mistake that you need to avoid.

Making a Career Change Decision for Money
Do not just run after money while you make an important career decision. You also need to be true to yourself and be happy with the career you choose. You may come across numerous very profitable careers. If you do not find yourself comfortable or loving the career that you switched to, you made a mistake. On the face of it, a career may look quite alluring. And it may not be rewarding tomorrow. So, you are always advised to follow some principles and be honest when making a career change decision. In any case, money will not buy you happiness.

Making a Career Change Decision Because of Some Pressure
There are many who make career change decisions because their parents or relatives want them to do so. Some outside pressure may compel you to change or switch a career. Be clear, it's none of their business. And it is only you who will be responsible for your career at the end of the day. So, never get influenced by any kind of outside pressure while making career decisions.

Making a Career Change without a Self Assessment
It is very essential to make an assessment of your talents, hobbies and skills before making a career change decision. Today, you can find a number o career tests and career assessment tools on the internet. By taking a career assessment test, you can make a well informed career decision. What's more, many of these career tests do not cost you a penny.

Changing Careers without Acquiring New Skills/ Techniques
Whether it is about making a quality resume, job searching techniques, expanding your professional network, upgrading interviewing skills or acquiring new skill sets, you need to consider each one of these while changing careers. Before you make a career decision, you need to fine tune your job hunting techniques and skills. If you take into account these things, you can surely make a successful career decision.

Making a Career Change Decision based on the Success of Others
It is in human nature to get affected seeing other people successful in their careers. When you see one of your friends or a neighbor become successful in a particular career field, you start thinking that you should jump to the same career. It does not mean that you will also make the most of a career in which one of your friends is quite successful. So, be ready to do proper research before you switch into a new career. After all, it's all about you, your career and your happiness.

New opportunities arise and career changes do happen. But, all that you need to ensure is that your career change decision is a right one. By making well informed decisions, you can bring happiness to your family and be happy yourself too.

Career exploration and finding new opportunities should be like the show that must go on. In due course, our professional career can pass through numerous ups and downs. What's most important is to be able to decide whether we need a job or career change. When you examine whether you need to change your career, you may also perceive some barriers to making that change. So, when do you need a career change? You may find at some point of time that things are not working in your favor. It really takes courage to accept that you are in such a situation. The next big thing is to muster up confidence for taking that courageous step which will open new opportunities in your professional career. That's why experts say that career planning should be done on an annual basis to find out what's working, what's not working and what would actually work. While changing careers, a major step needs to be taken with all the courage and confidence.

It happens to many of us that we bury our heads into sand when we actually need to take that courageous step forward for our professional career growth. Candidates, therefore, should be ready to face the need for career change rather than avoiding the change that our career needs. In such situations, instead of changing careers, we make an attempt to convince ourselves that every thing is just right and there really is no problem. If you are the one who does not like taking chances, who does not devote time to career planning on a regular basis, who does not like to take on new career opportunities or create such opportunities at the workplace themselves, you seriously need to change yourself and the way you think. You need to step out of your comfort zone and explore and grab opportunities.

Nothing may be permanent on this earth, but change has been and is permanent. We can never avoid career change issues like we are just blindfolded to them. Many times it happens that you work extra hours at the workplace and even bring the work home. Work is always on our mind and we try to put in as many hours into our work as we can. Try to find out the reason behind your working to excessive limits, as this can be a case of compulsive behaviors. Such behavior also indicates that we are in need of a career change. Be ready to do some self examination and think whether changing the career of job is required.

There are many of us that seem to continue with our jobs longer after it has stopped serving us and you are not actually satisfied with the job. Such circumstances completely wipe out the need for a career or job change. Why are we not ready to face the changes that we need in our lives? Why do we ignore even our own instincts? Why can't we change and stop playing these mental games with ourselves? We should be able to identify the mistaken logic that we apply to no one but ourselves.

Employees who have eliminated the need for changing careers from their life might be suffering from a job burnout situation. Physical exhaustion, emotional exhaustion and mental exhaustion together lead to getting burned out on your job. Under such circumstances, you would feel quite helpless and entrapped and develop a negative self concept. A great career is all about doing a job that you enjoy and love doing. But, when a job makes you feel helpless and entrapped, it is definitely not the career you are looking for. You need to change your career or job. When you start enjoying your job and loving what you do, it becomes a career.

While changing jobs or careers, you should also give it careful though and consideration. Think of what you like to do and what your weaknesses are. Is your current job utilizing the skills that you are strongest in? It is important to consider the reasons that signal a career change. You really need to decide whether you need to change the job or the career. Make a careful analysis of your career and your present job situation. The job outlook in a particular industry may also be an indicator of a career change if situations are really aggravating. If you are planning a career change, you can also go for one of the many free career tests available online. Based on your responses to a set of questions related to your strengths, weakness, aptitude and skills, the career test can actually recommend you a career path that would be most profitable and fulfilling for you.