No, a returnship isn’t a type of postal offering for sending purchases back to retailers.
It’s an emerging variation on the internship, only for people who want to return to the workforce after a hiatus for reasons that include taking care of family members.
What’s a Returnship?
Like its name implies, a returnship is tantamount to an internship for people returning to the workforce.
Whether the phenomenon has arisen in response to movies like The Intern and The Internship — situational comedies in which interns are older than their managers — or for other reasons, programs of thiis nature are growing.
Returnships differ from internships in their appeal to better-heeled applicants; but hte two are similar in that they can provide a way to get a foot in the door of a company that can lead to new opportunities, skills development and networking.
Which Employers
As of this writing, half a dozen large companies offer returnship programs, albeit with a variety of different monkers but the same parameters — the intention to provide opportunities to those returning to the workforce after a while away.
These employers include Cedars-Sinai Hospital, Cloudflare, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, GTB, and UniversalGiving.
Some of them address industry-specific needs of re-entry into the workforce. Mos notably, Cedars-Sinai provides a way for physicians to regain clinical privileges after they have left active medical practice — whether the reasons were related to family, switching industries or roles, coming back from retirement, prolonged illness, switching from academic research or even anting to regain hospital affiliation while still treating individual patients.
Making Changes
While the stated objectives can vary, returnships intend to appeal to people who want some form of change.
In showing openness to working with mid-career professionals returning to the workforce — or simply changing industries late in life — these employers appear to be setting themselves apart from the legions of companies that categorically decline this type of applicant.
Does the returnship phenomenon pique your curiosity, readers?
Jackie Cohen is an award winning financial journalist turned turned financial advisor obsessed with climate change risk, data and business. Jackie holds a B.A. Degree from Macalester College and an M.A. in English from Claremont Graduate University.
