Hi Miwashi,

I know how you feel exactly. I am now in my 5th year in a government job and have been finding it hard to even clinch an interview for jobs that seem to fit my expertise to a T.

The problem is that, for the last 5 years, instead of actually DOING the stuff I am applying for, I have been involved in the regulatory aspects of the same. Employers just don't see that, by facilitating farmers, I haven't at all, lost the skills of ploughing the fields and sowing the seeds.

OK, enough of the metaphor....

Employers (those whom I interviewed for) ask the same questions. For example...

1. You haven't been hands-on for 5 years. At this price, I can get someone who have actually done it for 10 years. So I can only pay you $X. Do you want to do it? I actually said yes and his reply is that he will only pay me 80% of my last drawn. I said yes to that too, and he said he doesn't think it will work for me. That particular guy never called back after 1 interview.

2. Why did you want to leave? This is very comfortable pay you are drawing. Here we work long hours. When I told him that I understand what it entails to move back to the industry, his reply was that the hours are long and I wouldn't be able to get used to it.

3. You understand that when you left 5 years ago, it was going to be difficult to return? I explained that I never left and that 5 years of researching, studying, engaging industry, speaking and regulating it only made me more well equiped to do it. The interviewer didn't believe.

I am close to giving up, having suffered setbacks after setbacks, including resumes that seems to have been sent to a blackhole. No answers, no replies. And you know what, I am actually EXPECTING a paycut, hoping for one, and wishing that someone will just make the damn offer! I will take it! I want to move back! But it just isn't happening.

Anyway, just for the records, I spent 5 years in the industry doing it, and 5 years in the regulatory body, overseeing the industry doing it. My last drawn salary, inclusive of bonus was approximately 83k.