Tiny Mfihlo
Career Transitions Coach
Two years ago, I sat in my first corporate interview (for a Freelance Consulting role) after an entrepreneurial break and felt something I hadn't expected: complete disconnection from my own professional identity. And again 6 months ago for full-time corporate role.
Successful track record. Strategic career move. Ready to return. Yet every question triggered the same internal spiral: "What if they realize I'm not the seasoned professional I used to be?"
Here's what I discovered: I wasn't suffering from a confidence problem. I was experiencing an identity evolution that nobody prepares you for.
The real challenge wasn't proving I still had my capabilities. It was recognizing that I'd developed new ones.
If you're a seasoned professional preparing to return to corporate after a career break, you're likely facing:
→ Feeling disconnected from your former identity and questioning your right to occupy executive spaces again
→ Obsessing over how to explain your break without sounding defensive, apologetic, or diminished
→ Second-guessing your judgment, over-preparing for conversations you used to navigate effortlessly, and shrinking in rooms where you used to command presence
→ Measuring your progress against colleagues who stayed and concluding you're "behind" when you're actually on a completely different trajectory
