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career advancement

Lisa Kimmel, Edelman Toronto's general manager, hired back Rob Manne as vice-president after he left to work at a social media company.

Changing jobs to broaden his experience was a revelation for Rob Manne: He was more valuable to his former employer.

"When you talk with a former manager about coming back, you're a much more known quantity to them than if you're applying to a new employer. They know the kind of work you do and if there's an open position you'll be a prime candidate for the job," said Mr. Manne, 37. He left Edelman Canada in Toronto as a senior account manager in 2009 and because of the skills and growth he'd gained at a social media company was hired back at the public relations company 18 months later at the higher title of vice-president.

A boomerang career move like this can be particularly effective to jump-start the rise of young professionals in junior roles who aspire to be managers, said Curtis Odom, author of a new book, Stuck in the Middle.

"Even as you amass more experience and knowledge, management may continue to think of you in the junior position they hired you for originally. It can be difficult for them to see you've grown," explained Mr. Odom, principal of consultant Prescient Talent Strategists LLC to in Westport, Mass.

Even though the pace of job growth in the economy remains sluggish, "you can have a faster advancement and be more in demand if you show initiative by moving to broaden your skill set than you will if you stay put and expect to get rewarded with a promotion for your loyalty."

Feeling stuck is increasingly a problem for workers in their 30s and 40s, who are seeing older Baby Boomers delay retirement from jobs they hope to move into. But it can happen to people at any age who see promotion prospects remain frustratingly far on the horizon.

Mr. Odom suggests giving any job three years. "The first year is all about trying discover and understand the organization, the focus of the second is delivering and developing a reputation in the organization and showing you can do things that add value. In the third year, you'll be able to evaluate whether you still find the role exciting and have the opportunity to move ahead in the way you want to," he said.

If you decide to make a career advancing move, he suggests a process of reverse engineering.

"Determine the role you aspire to have and look at job descriptions on recruiting sites for the requirements, experiences and degrees someone in that position must have," he said. These requisites will include leadership experience and a series of skill sets you may not be able to get at your current job. International experience is also something to seek out because increasingly employers are looking for leaders who are able to be global managers.

Employers are increasingly open to boomerang employees because a job change can also make for more committed employees, said Joanne Boucher, general manager of recruiter Bagg Technology Resources in Toronto. "The grass is not always greener with a new employer, and former employees who return often appreciate their employer more the second time round."

Her own experience was a move in 2005 from Bagg Group, where she had been a branch manager, to a similar role with a large Canadian staffing company that international operations, an area she hadn't worked in before. It gave her more technical skills and more experience in senior-level decision making.

When the company was purchased by a global firm, "I decided to reach out to see how things were going at Bagg," She pointed out the value she could add from the experience and courses she'd taken in information technology. That got her an offer to come back with a step up to general manager. It also led to her being part of what is known in the company as the CEO group, people being groomed for executive positions in the organization.

"I really don't think I would have reached this level without the move. I would still be in an account position," she said. "The move got me interested in learning more and getting involved in a whole new business I didn't know before."

The boomerang trend has prompted Deloitte & Touche LLP to work on ways to ensure employees who aspire to the fast track don't have to leave to find the opportunities to stretch, said Van Zorbas, a partner in human capital for Deloitte in Calgary.

"What characterizes the young generations is less willingness than the Baby Boom generation to just bide their time on their way to advancement," he said. It's not so much an impatience but a willingness to step up and put in the effort to manage their own advancement. So it's more important for employers to look not just at tenure for tenure's sake, and leave the door open for employees who leave to pursue career enhancement, Mr. Zorbas said.

Deloitte encourages employees not to simply count down the 10 or 15 years it takes to reach partner status, but rather to work with managers to find new experiences they could have within the organization in the next three to five years, he said.

"It's about giving valuable experiences that help them gain depth, hoping they'll want to stay longer because they've been satisfied working here," Mr. Zorbas said. And the door is left open for employees who leave to pursue career enhancement at another firm.

That doesn't always mean that people who come back will be offered a role at a higher level, "but having the extra skill sets will make the climb to that next level a lot shorter because you've broadened yourself," Mr. Zorbas said.

Edelman is also building in ways to broaden employee experiences so they don't have to leave to gain new skills, said Lisa Kimmel, general manager of the Toronto office, who had left the door open for Mr. Mannes and hired him back. Half of Edelman's total work force is millennials, people in their 20s, "who have short attention spans in terms of their career," she said.

"We have eight people in the Toronto office who are part of what we call our comeback club," having returned in the past two years. Six of the eight were born in the 1990s. "Recognizing that they want to jump from job to job to get new experiences, we're trying to figure out what motivates them and will help us retain them." Managers are held accountable in their performance reviews to demonstrate how they are developing their people and letting them know they have opportunity to gain valuable skills at the firm.

In hindsight, Mr. Manne realized that he hadn't been as strategic as he might have been in his career moves.

"A lot of career momentum comes from keeping up an active relationship with managers. In my first years with Edelman all I had to do was put up my hand and say I would like to try this." Keeping in touch is also important if you do leave. He stayed in touch, having lunches and keeping up with Toronto office friends on social media.

"When I was on the outside looking in, it was kind of a weird feeling. But when I came back, it was like I was welcomed back into the family."

Tip: Make sure you'll be welcomed back

If you might want to return to an employer, make sure you leave on good terms

The best thing an employer can say is: "Remember, you're always welcome back," said Amy Morin, who had a stint with another company that she believes helped her rise to vice-president at Hill+Knowlton Strategies in Toronto.

She joined Hill+Knowlton's technology group in 2000 as an assistant working with commercial clients during the tech boom days. She left in 2002 to join a 20-person boutique agency that specialized in social marketing programs.

"It was a tough decision to leave because I loved working here but I wanted to move from generalist to specialist and I wanted to find somewhere I could jump in and go deeper."

Those words from her manager came back to her three years later as she realized she missed the environment of a bigger agency.

When she found out that H+K was starting up a new practice in corporate responsibility, "I literally cold called the person who was heading up the area asked [if we could]talk. I laid out the hands-on experience I'd accumulated with successful launches for charities and campaigns for complicated social issues that are hard to market."

Two weeks later, she was back at H+K.

She came back as a consultant which was a better title than she'd had been before. Ms. Morin was promoted to vice-president in 2011 and is now leading the company's "good works" specialty department, which handles dozens of not-for-profit groups and corporations in their corporate responsibility communications and campaigns, as well as public awareness campaigns and fundraising.

"I think I would have been able to rise in the organization without leaving, but because of the experience, it allowed me to rise quickly in an area I wanted to develop."

Don't let just dollars lure you away

Leave to gain better, more varied experience not just cash

Never make a job change for the money, advises consultant Curtis Odom.

"That's less important than the title and the experience you can gain. In fact, it may even be that you may have to take a pay cut to get the position and experiences that will make you more valuable in the long run," he recommends.

"Most hiring managers want you to have been there and to have done that; they don't want to have to train you." Once a title is on your résumé, you've reached that level," he said. "If you can say you've been a vice-president, there won't be a question of whether you are capable of being a vice-president."

It's also vital to have a broad external network and be active in industry organizations to be able to show you have leadership abilities because the more people in your network who see you in a leadership role, the smoother your trip to senior levels will be.

You also need to make sure you've created a clear path for a potential return to an organization you admire and might like to work for again. Make sure you know and are known by the organization's key players who are in positions of influence and authority, Mr. Odom recommends. "It's important for everyone you worked with to be able to say you left for an opportunity but would like to see you come back."

The strategy when you're leaving your old employer is to be open about your desire to move to a new opportunity for growth. "Tell your managers you love the company and the culture but you want to stretch your wings and if you came back you'll be able to offer more to the organization," Mr. Odom said.

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