The Comeback Career Podcast with Fexingo: Returning After a Gap, Stay-at-Home Re-Entry

Fexingo

After a career break — whether for parenting, caregiving, health, travel, or burnout recovery — re-entering the workforce can feel like navigating a foreign country whose language you once spoke fluently. In this series, Lucas and Luna dissect the practical and psychological mechanics of that return. Each episode centers on one concrete obstacle: how to reframe resume gaps so hiring managers see depth, not absence; which certifications or freelance projects actually accelerate re-entry; how to negotiate salary when you've been out three years and your old peers are two promotions ahead. They examine real cases — a former marketing director who spent four years as a stay-at-home parent and now runs a boutique consultancy, a software engineer who took two years to travel and ended up pivoting into product management. Lucas brings the data: Bureau of Labor Statistics re-entry rates, employer survey data on bias against gaps, and the surprisingly strong retention numbers for returners. Luna pushes back with the emotional reality — the identity shift, the impostor phase, the moment a recruiter asks 'So what did you do?' and you have no tidy answer. Together, they build a toolkit: how to tell your story in interviews without apology, which industries are most gap-friendly, when to lean on your network versus cold applications, and how to protect the boundaries you learned during your break. Every conversation is grounded in named companies (Dell's returnship program, Amazon's 'boomerang' policies), real salary data, and step-by-step scripts. The listener they serve is the professional who stepped away and now wonders if they can step back — and if so, how to do it on their own terms. The episode that stays with you: you'll know exactly which three things to do next Monday, and you'll feel less alone in the doing. #CareerBreak #StayAtHomeReEntry #ReturnToWork #ResumeGap #BoomerangEmployee #ReturnshipProgram #ParentingAndCareer #WorkforceReEntry #CareerTransition #JobSearchStrategy #ImpostorSyndrome #NegotiationScripts #BurnoutRecovery #CaregiverCareer #FreelanceToFullTime #Careers #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo

  1. 7h ago

    How a Career Gap Helped One Parent Launch a Nonprofit

    Episode 53 of The Comeback Career Podcast explores how a six-year career gap became the launchpad for a nonprofit. Hosts Lucas and Luna unpack the story of Sarah Chen, a former marketing manager who left her job in 2018 to care for her aging parents. When she re-entered the workforce in 2024, she couldn't find roles that accommodated her caregiving schedule—so she founded CareBridge, a nonprofit that connects family caregivers with part-time, remote work opportunities at companies like Patagonia and Buffer. Sarah's journey reveals how the empathy, logistics, and resilience honed during a gap can be directly leveraged into social entrepreneurship. Lucas and Luna break down the specific steps she took: from conducting informational interviews with 30 nonprofit founders, to building a board of advisors during her gap years, to securing a $50,000 grant from the Skoll Foundation. They also discuss the broader trend of 'career gap entrepreneurship' and how parents re-entering the workforce are increasingly starting their own organizations rather than waiting for employers to accommodate them. Tune in for a blueprint on turning a gap into impact. #CareerGap #StayAtHomeReEntry #Nonprofit #SocialEntrepreneurship #Caregiving #ParentingAndCareer #SarahChen #CareBridge #Patagonia #Buffer #SkollFoundation #InformationalInterview #BoardOfAdvisors #GrantWriting #WorkLifeBalance #RemoteWork #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo

    6 min
  2. 19h ago

    How a Career Gap Can Help You Master the Informational Interview

    Many professionals re-entering the workforce after a gap struggle with networking. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how the informational interview — a low-stakes conversation, not a job interview — can be the single most effective tool for rebuilding professional connections and uncovering hidden opportunities. They break down a specific case: a former marketing manager named Priya who, after a three-year gap caring for her mother, used a structured series of informational interviews to land a senior role at a mid-sized ad agency. The hosts walk through the exact five-step framework Priya used: identifying the right people, crafting a low-pressure ask, preparing questions that signal competence, following up with genuine reciprocity, and tracking the conversation for future reference. They also address the elephant in the room — how to handle the career gap itself when the person on the other end asks — and offer a simple, honest phrasing that turns the gap from a liability into a strength. No fluff, no platitudes. Practical, specific, and immediately actionable for anyone returning after a pause. #CareerGap #InformationalInterview #Networking #ReEntry #JobSearch #ReturnToWork #ProfessionalDevelopment #CareerPivot #LinkedIn #JobInterview #Careers #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #ComebackCareer #PriyaCaseStudy #HiddenJobMarket #SoftSkills #InterviewPrep Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo

    8 min

About

After a career break — whether for parenting, caregiving, health, travel, or burnout recovery — re-entering the workforce can feel like navigating a foreign country whose language you once spoke fluently. In this series, Lucas and Luna dissect the practical and psychological mechanics of that return. Each episode centers on one concrete obstacle: how to reframe resume gaps so hiring managers see depth, not absence; which certifications or freelance projects actually accelerate re-entry; how to negotiate salary when you've been out three years and your old peers are two promotions ahead. They examine real cases — a former marketing director who spent four years as a stay-at-home parent and now runs a boutique consultancy, a software engineer who took two years to travel and ended up pivoting into product management. Lucas brings the data: Bureau of Labor Statistics re-entry rates, employer survey data on bias against gaps, and the surprisingly strong retention numbers for returners. Luna pushes back with the emotional reality — the identity shift, the impostor phase, the moment a recruiter asks 'So what did you do?' and you have no tidy answer. Together, they build a toolkit: how to tell your story in interviews without apology, which industries are most gap-friendly, when to lean on your network versus cold applications, and how to protect the boundaries you learned during your break. Every conversation is grounded in named companies (Dell's returnship program, Amazon's 'boomerang' policies), real salary data, and step-by-step scripts. The listener they serve is the professional who stepped away and now wonders if they can step back — and if so, how to do it on their own terms. The episode that stays with you: you'll know exactly which three things to do next Monday, and you'll feel less alone in the doing. #CareerBreak #StayAtHomeReEntry #ReturnToWork #ResumeGap #BoomerangEmployee #ReturnshipProgram #ParentingAndCareer #WorkforceReEntry #CareerTransition #JobSearchStrategy #ImpostorSyndrome #NegotiationScripts #BurnoutRecovery #CaregiverCareer #FreelanceToFullTime #Careers #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo