How I Got a Job at Johnson & Johnson After 9 Years as a Stay-at-Home Mom

Have you ever had to explain a gap in your resume during a job interview? It’s often an uncomfortable moment, trying to convince someone at a company you want to work for that the time you devoted to raising a family shouldn’t raise any red flags.

I am an engineer, with experience in aviation and automotive technology. I worked for a while with two young children, and when my family continued to grow, I decided to concentrate on being a mom. The nine years I spent outside of the workforce raising my three beautiful girls with my husband was an important time in my life and an immense achievement to me. Luckily—and thanks to a loyal and active network of friends, community members and former colleagues—I discovered that I wasn’t the only one who thought so.

A Pathway Back

I spent about two years networking and researching different opportunities. It was important to me and my family that I find the right fit. After that and sharing my aspirations with my support system, I found my way.

I learned about the Johnson & Johnson Re-Ignite return-to-work program on the sidelines of the soccer field from a fellow team parent. He works at Johnson & Johnson and had heard about a new initiative designed to help individuals in science, technology, engineering, math, manufacturing and design roles transition back into professional work after career breaks. It included mentorship and training, but most relevant for my career, it gave me a space to hone what I already knew while learning about new ways I could apply those skills. One email and a phone call later, I was ready to formally apply to the program online through Johnson & Johnson’s website.

I was open to exploring new areas of engineering, so I interviewed for a few positions within Johnson & Johnson before finding the perfect opportunity. My Re-Ignite mentorship team shared interview advice, suggested approaches for talking about salary and work schedule, and encouraged me to go in there and share my experiences. I just had to be confident that they would help get me where I needed to be.

Engineers are focused on precision and efficiency. We reduce friction in processes, make things run smoothly. But sometimes, it’s important to trust what you don’t know, trust yourself and the community of support you’ve built, and jump heart-first into a new personal or professional pursuit without knowing exactly how it will work out.

That’s what I did, and after six months working full-time in the returnship program, I became one of the first women at Johnson & Johnson to complete the Re-Ignite program, then still a pilot, in 2017. Following the program, my manager and I worked together to determine if there was an opportunity to transition to a permanent role that suited my skill set, professional ambitions, the needs of the business, and the flexibility I needed. For me, the perfect match was a part-time position with Ethicon, one of Johnson & Johnson’s Medical Device companies, as a Senior Development Engineer.

The “What-Ifs”

To kick off my participation in the program, my team of mentors at Johnson & Johnson learned about me and my career goals and mapped them to the part of the company where I’d have the most impact. From there we worked together to upskill as needed. I ended up switching from my former area of expertise to focus on precision robotic surgery devices.

Entering a new industry did worry me. What if I have to program the robot? I don’t know how to do that. What if the tools have changed while I’ve been away? What if I’ve been out of the workforce for too long? What if my family can’t handle me being away from home all day? It can be especially difficult for tech workers to stay up to speed in the ever-changing suite of programs, programming languages, terminology, systems, approaches and trends integral to performing our jobs at the highest level. And when your next breakthrough could change the lives of actual people, you take your training very seriously.

I quickly overcame my fears thanks to the support and resources through the company's global employee network. Don’t get me wrong, I still have fears and think about those “what-ifs.” More than anything else, however, I feel excited to work in the new robotic world. I continue to learn right along with my colleagues who have been working at Johnson & Johnson for years.

Full Circle

My family is proud of me for what I’ve accomplished, just as I’m proud of them for thriving while I took these steps for my career. My girls were going through critical points in their lives, but so was I.

I view this experience as professionally valuable, as well as personally fulfilling. When my daughters are making decisions about their own futures, I want them to remember this time as bold and empowering for all of us, so that when they finally walk in my shoes—maybe even go through similar experiences with their own kids or careers—they’ll have the confidence to step outside their comfort zones too.

And that’s how I now see myself: more confident about my perspective and the views I bring to the table every day. I don’t have a nine-year gap on my resume. I am proud of the unique, real-world experience honing leadership and project management skills while prioritizing my family. No matter what your background or how you spent your time, people who have paused full-time careers, including moms, have something valuable to offer. We bring a perspective that nobody else in the room has. We aren’t here because we know the answers already. We’re here because each of us is part of an important team that will figure it out together.

And look how far you’ve come already.

The Re-Ignite experience at Johnson & Johnson, started in 2017, is built around empowering people of all genders, backgrounds and career goals to return to jobs in the science and technology workforce after a break of two years or more. The first five selected to be part of Re-Ignite were all offered permanent positions, and Johnson & Johnson's goal is to retain 90 percent of program participants. For more information about Re-Ignite and current openings, visit careers.jnj.com/re-ignite.