In the past month I’ve spent time planning something I never thought much about: my 30th high school reunion. While I went to a really good small high school where everyone knew each other, I never really felt like my high school years delivered the optimal experience. Call me a late bloomer, but I have always preferred my adult life to the years that came before. So I didn’t really keep in touch with people, even though I had some good friendships lasting throughout.

A friend of mine just went back to work after having spent many years doing lots of other things: raising multiple children, consulting, contributing as a board member to her pet causes. She is a person of great energies and interests and always felt that when the time was right, she’d return to full-time work. Her main concern was that she had so many responsibilities outside of work that ultimately she would be derailed. Or go crazy.

I had lunch with a colleague yesterday, a woman named Suzanne Zemke, whom I met through coaching. Having worked in big corporations for most of her career, Suzanne was given the “gift” of a layoff several months ago. Instead of going back to the same type of job with the requisite steady paycheck, she decided to take a risk.

I am consulting with an organization called Nexxt Phase, for women in career transition. We are in the process of redefining the vision of the group and determining ways we can help women achieve their career goals. We put together a list of tips for job-seekers, with special focus on women returning the workforce. I thought I’d share them here.

As a consultant, I find it tough to get organized. I am not shy about mentioning this, since I talk to other consultants all the time, and they usually have the same problem. Not that being super organized about my work has ever been a great strength! My tendency is to work in a more stream of consciousness way, which means that I stay open to opportunities that present themselves, which can be good except…when the day ends and I scratch my head and think “What did I do today?” This is not a great feeling.

Yesterday I was the lead speaker at a seminar for women considering going back to work. This was the first in a seminar series called Mind Your Own Business Moms, started by two women I know through my kids’ school. It was held in a restaurant, and there were about 25 women there, prosperous and engaged in their lives but looking for a career to complete their fulfillment.

Today I was interviewing a search consultant for a project I’m doing: a series of interviews about the current hiring climate in various sectors, for the career management website BlueSteps.com. We were talking about a common acquaintance who recently took a very senior job. It turns out that this particular search consultant had been considering this candidate for another very senior job, and at the very last minute the company withdrew their offer. Why? Because in conducting their due diligence, the search firm found that the candidate had inflated his graduate degree. He said he had an MBA, but it turns out he had something different.

Lately I’ve been attending plenty of conferences, but not blogging as I should. Since I last wrote there was the IACPR conference where one of the panel discussions included a VP of HR for a major investment bank claiming that they couldn’t find enough women interested in their re-entry program. Turns out the program welcomes women of all financial services stripes — not only alumnae of that particular firm. Well, this is interesting. Name brand banks and consulting firms, among others, are welcoming back women to work on a project basis or on flexible schedules. The reason? We’re in a Talent Shortage.