Want to Get Ahead? Get Back

Martin Cox left his job at Lotus Development Corp. in 1994 to chase a dream that he couldn't realize there: to ship a piece of software that had his name on it. After years of working on a tool kit that supported other developers, Cox, now 38, longed to be a developer himself. So he jumped ship and went to Individual Inc., where he helped build First! in Brief, a customized news-delivery program that ran on the Lotus platform.

Fast-forward two years: First! in Brief shipped successfully, and Cox was hungry for new challenges. He had become a topflight software programmer, and now he wanted to deepen his understanding of how companies use software to reach their business goals.

Cox decided that consulting to other companies would give him the knowledge he craved. He believed that his gold-star résumé would make him a shoo-in at companies like Andersen Consulting. But, after a year of soul-searching, he decided to consult for Lotus, the company that he'd left not so long ago. He figured that his work with Lotus software, which he knew cold, would give him an invaluable head start there.

Today Cox is back at Lotus -- and he's not the only Lotus vet to reenlist. At companies large and small, people are choosing to return to where they once belonged. Call it boomeranging, the next logical step in the evolution of corporate free agency: People are getting ahead by leaving their companies, acquiring critical experience elsewhere, and returning to their former employers with deeper skills and know-how.

As it turns out, you can go home again. But going back is not risk free. Realizing why you really left your old company takes extreme self-awareness. Convincing your ex-employer to take you back takes considerable negotiating skills. And walking back into your old office and facing down people who may think of you as a deserter takes more than a little courage.

But once you clear those hurdles, you might find that reconnecting with your old company is the best career move you've ever made. What follows is a real-world guide to boomeranging -- keyed to the crucial questions you need to ask yourself along the way.

Did you jump, or were you pushed?

Before you try to go back, you need to reckon with why you left in the first place. Were you grabbing an unbeatable opportunity somewhere else, or were you forced out because you were no longer getting promoted? If it's the latter, think twice about returning. It's unlikely that the people who had held you back before will now eagerly push your career forward.

Even if you're sure you'll be welcomed back, take a cold, hard look at what's motivating you. The urge to repatriate might have more to do with your failing to fit in with your new company.

Consider Ivan Wu's experience. After college, Wu, now 28, signed up as an auditor at Coopers & Lybrand. After working in Coopers's Vancouver, British Columbia office for nearly four years, he wanted out. "I thought there was a stigma that came with staying too long at a big accounting firm," he says. "Trying to make partner wasn't seen as the cool thing to do." So, at the urging of a recruiter, Wu left Coopers in 1998 and set out for the world of investment banking.

But from day one, Wu had second thoughts about his new company. Despite his doubts, Wu told himself that he might be succumbing to a case of new-job jitters and that his first instinct shouldn't be to run back to his old company.

By the end of his first week, Wu knew that the headhunter had oversold the position: Wu thought he'd be applying his number-crunching skills to investment banking; instead, his job involved little more than glorified data entry. Wu then began to consider admitting his mistake and returning to Coopers. He steeled himself for a tough sell.

Why should your old company want you back?

Even when you've been an all-star performer, don't believe for a moment that your former company will always have a place for you. You may have parted on good terms, but remember: You dumped them. Why should they believe that, this time, you'll stay? Before you formally approach your old company, get a reality check from a trusted insider.

"Call the person whose opinion you respect -- someone who has the best insight into your old company's current climate," advises Barbara Moses, a career consultant in Toronto. "It might be a mentor or someone who worked for you, just as long as you can count on that person to be honest."

Wu chose to call a senior manager at Coopers who had been supportive of Wu during his first stint there. Wu, he said, would not weather this transition successfully unless he could prove that his mistake had forced him to develop unambiguous, long-term career goals. Wu listened, and, anticipating a wary response from his old employer, began fortifying himself to call Coopers's hiring partner.