In 2004, Nicki Schroeder walked away from a media law career she loved. Her daughter, born in 2001, had been diagnosed with autism, and the demands of the job couldn't coexist with what her daughter needed. So Schroeder, who had been practicing since 1994, left.

She didn't return to paid work for a decade, as she shared with Business Insider (1).

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When she did, the re-entry was almost absurdly smooth. She spotted a legal role at a media organization advertised with a deadline two hours out. So she scrambled to pull together a résumé and submit it. Four hours later, she had an interview invitation.

"It was funny to see how quickly I snapped back into things," she told Business Insider. "On my first day, someone asked me a question about contempt of court over the phone. It was satisfying to think, 'I know the answer to this (1).'"

Schroeder is now 57 and working as general counsel at a newspaper group. Her career gap, she says, barely registers. "My 10-year break comes up in conversation sometimes, but it's a bit like saying, 'I used to be blonde (1).'"

Her advice to others in similar situations centers around not being apologetic or defensive about taking the break.

"Whether you've been trekking around Australia, bringing up your kids or looking after elderly parents, you will almost certainly have done something during that break that you can talk about with energy and enthusiasm (1)."

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Schroeder is careful to acknowledge her circumstances. Her husband worked in banking and could financially support the family through the break. She stayed professionally engaged — becoming a charity director, completing psychology and English diplomas and serving as chair of the governing body at her daughter's specialist school.

She also kept her professional network intact, leaning on it heavily when she re-entered: contacts helped her prepare for the interview process and assembled a list of key legal precedents from the decade she'd been away.

Those benefits are important, and they're not universally available. For many American workers, the path back after a long career break tells a more complicated story (2).

According to MyPerfectResume, which surveyed 1,000 U.S. workers, 47% have experienced a career break. While 44% say employers have become more understanding since the pandemic, 30% still believe employers view gaps as a red flag (2). The top concern for returners is explaining their gap to hiring managers (38%) (2).

According to Forbes, automated screening systems routinely penalize gaps for caregiving or health events, meaning candidates like Schroeder may be filtered out before a human recruiter ever sees their résumé (3).

The MyPerfectResume report confirms that effect, with 37% of career-break returners saying their top concern is simply finding employers willing to consider their application at all. That said, caregiving was among the most accepted reasons for a gap — 69% of respondents said it justifies a career break, second only to medical issues at 75% (2).

For U.S. workers navigating a work return, one of the most direct paths back is through formal returnship programs — structured, paid re-entry initiatives specifically designed for candidates with multi-year gaps. Goldman Sachs started the model in 2008, and its 12-week program remains one of the most recognized (4).

According to HRLens, JPMorgan, EY, Lockheed Martin, IBM and Tesla are among others running paid returnship programs, most requiring a career break of at least one to two years, with eligibility based on prior seniority rather than recency of employment (5).

Over 80% of participants at the strongest programs receive full-time job offers upon completion, according to The Interview Guys (6).

The things that made Schroeder's return successful translate across labor markets, even if the circumstances or conditions differ.

She maintained a professional identity during her break through voluntary leadership roles that used the same skills she'd developed in law. She reactivated her network before she needed it, not after.

And when asked in interviews whether the gap would affect her performance, she confidently, not defensively, framed it as a non-issue: "Being a lawyer is mostly about having good judgment. No lawyer can advise on absolutely everything without doing some independent research (1)."

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Business Insider (1); My Perfect Resume (2); Forbes (3); Goldman Sachs (4); Hrlens (5); The Interview Guys (6)

This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com under the title: A lawyer took 10 years off to care for her autistic daughter — then got an interview in hours. Here's how she did it

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