Dear Rachel,
From 1978 to 1995 I had a wonderful career in advertising in Los Angeles and Florida. Then I spent seven years working as the marketing manager/director of a manufacturing company. Then I went into the mortgage business for four years. Now I want to go back to the work I love, media and account planning. The combination of my experience level, plus the employment gap and the advent of interactive, seem to put me in an uncompetitive hiring position. My best work was done in smaller, very creative ad agencies, where I built the media department from the ground up as a profit center, or interfaced with a buying service and took the planning back inhouse while riding herd on their buyers for quality and consistency. In those agencies where I held senior titles, I participated successfully in new business acquisition and developed new business protocols to identify the types of accounts to be pitched. I know I still have the skills to make a strong contribution to any agency that would give me a chance to prove myself. But everyone out there seems so preoccupied with interactive experience. What should I do?-- Just As Good As I Was

Dear Good,
Making a career change is hard, even if it's to a career you've already had. Being away from media for more than a couple of years can present a serious obstacle, especially if you are looking to return at a managerial level.

Your biggest problem is one of a lack of currency, not the dollar kind but current experience. The world has changed so much since last Tuesday that anyone out of the business even for a year has some catching up to do.

People who've been away for years, as you have been, will have missed out on huge changes, and not the least is the rise of the internet, as you mention. All areas of media have changed as a business, and that goes for all the traditional media, cable, broadcast, radio, newspapers and out of home. Too, there's all sorts of new software that didn't exist back then, plus new streams of data.

Many people assume that they can catch up by reading. And that might be so for someone out of the business for a year or several. But you've been gone far too long. 

But that's not to say you can't pull off a comeback. You can pick up interactive and the major changes as you go along. Young people with no experience are entering the business every day.

Perhaps your biggest challenge will be in overcoming a sense within yourself that you know more than you do, or an inclination to attempt to rely on your past experience rather than opening yourself up to new experiences. You need to accept how much you don't know and be able to admit it freely.

And of course you will have what so many young people don't have, various talents honed over the years. Your people skills, good judgment and business experience can’t be matched by some tech-savvy newbie.

But before you go out looking, you'll need to immerse yourself back in the business. It's one thing to admit how little you know, quite another to come off as utterly clueless.

“I suggest you spend some serious time rereading your old media plans, talking to friends still in the business and reps that you may be able to track down, and getting an overview of what's going on,” says Kurt O’Hare, president of the New York recruiting firm O’Hare and Associates. “This should include how the accounts you've serviced in the past have evolved and what they are doing today.”

Also, begin thinking out how you can present your more recent experience to the best advantage. Focus on creativity and innovation, especially in your dealings in the areas of marketing and sales.

And if you've worked on the company web site, so much the better. Make a point of it. The goal is to make people realize that you may have left the industry but your interest and love of the business has stayed with you and that the skills you have gained since you left are transferable.

“Your best bet may be going to a mid-sized to smaller agency where they may need someone without the technical experience needed to run a major client, an IBM or P&G, for example,” O’Hare says.

Also, don't expect to come into an agency with a lofty title. You'll have to prove yourself, and beyond what you may assume.

“Be prepared to start at a lower title and salary than the one you left-- and be ready to work yourself back into a leadership role,” advises O’Hare.

Keep in mind that this may take quite some time. That will mean waiting patiently until the opportunity to show your stuff arises.

But before you begin any of this, sit down and think through whether you really want to do this. We often harbor the best feelings about our past experiences while forgetting the less-pleasant times. Look back and remember why you left media back in 1995. The last thing you want is to sell yourself into a job and then realize months into it that your life has really moved on and that you're quite unhappy.

You'll have a lot of explaining to do--and not just to yourself.