What do flannel shirts, the Bushes, Clintons, Dr. Dre, “Jurassic Park” and “Star Wars” have in common? They’ve all made comebacks.
You could join the list, too, if you choose to return to your former company as a boomerang employee. As the job market improves and job hopping becomes more common, especially among millennials, a growing number of job seekers are doing just that. Here’s what to do if you’re considering this job move.
1. Do some soul-searching. Specifically, ask these three questions as outlined by Paul McDonald, senior executive director of the specialized staffing firm Robert Half:
What’s changed since I left? “Are the reasons you left in the first place still a factor, and to what extent?” he asks. “And how much have you changed since you left?” If you left a position and gained more experience, ask yourself if you’ve outgrown the company, McDonald says.
Consider both big-picture and specific reasons that may have led to your departure, advises Mary Ellen Slayter, Monster’s career advice expert and founder of the Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based.marketing company Reputation Capital Media Services. Were there broad strategies or a direction the company chose that you disagreed with? Was there a manager who made you want to throw your keyboard out the window? Whatever the case, identify why you left, Slayter says, “and make sure it’s fixed or that you can live with it.”
What’s driving your interest in the company? Say a former supervisor has asked you to return — good for you! “Everyone wants to be wanted,” McDonald says, but you have to ask yourself if ego is leading you back. Strip away the flattery, and ask if this is still an opportunity you’re excited about, he says.
What’s the current state of the company? What direction is your former haunt going? Is it hiring or downsizing? Making money or losing it? Dig around on the Web, via LinkedIn and business reports, McDonald says, and tap former co-workers who are still at the company. A word of caution, though: “You have to be careful of everything you hear, because the rumor mill sometimes runs rampant,” he says.
2. Take the interview seriously. Whether your interview is a formal face-to-face with someone you’ve never met or a chatty phone call with your former supervisor, both McDonald and Slayter recommend you treat it like any other interview. “You may have had an employer-employee relationship with this person, but remember: Today you’re an interviewee,” says McDonald, adding that being too casual in interviews is a common mistake among boomerang candidates.
Be professional, he says, and like any other interview, ask questions that will help determine if this role and organization is right for you.
3. If you choose to return, don’t over-assume. Slayter identifies one of the biggest mistakes she sees among boomerang employees: “They come back in, and they assume things are going to be exactly how they were when they left.”
But the company has changed, she says, and the very fact that you left alters team processes and power dynamics. “It’s kind of like if you were to date someone in high school, and then date them in your 30s. You cannot assume the person has all the same bad habits, or even good ones,” she says. “Just like people, organizations grow and develop and learn.”
She advises treating your return as if it were the beginning of any other job and toning down the how-it-used-to-be comments. “That will just send your new colleagues — even if they’re your old colleagues — into a perpetual eye-roll,” she says.
4. Be patient while transitioning. As Slayter points out, your former company won’t be the same as when you left. That intern you used to load with grunt work? Say “hi” to your new supervisor! (Interns “always eventually become your boss,” Slayter says. “That’s just how the universe works.”)
Or maybe the reverse is now true. You left for a better opportunity, accrued new experiences and leadership skills and have come back to manage your former team. This is a common transition for boomerang employees, who must “build bridges and take [their] time,” McDonald says. Slayter agrees, saying new leaders should be patient as their former team members adjust to the change.
As far as building bridges, “don’t go in with a heavy hand,” McDonald says, “and not on an ego trip.”
Upon returning, he recommends having one-on-one meetings with each team member to review how you’ll work together and ask for input and ideas. With this “collaborative environment,” he says, “you’ll get people on board with you as a leader much more quickly.”
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What to Consider Before Returning to Your Former Company originally appeared on usnews.com