There and Back Again: Can You Ever Return to an Employer?

As a boomerang lawyer myself, I was immediately interested in a recent national survey on boomerang employees, commissioned by The Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated and WorkplaceTrends.com. 

A boomerang employee is someone who leaves a law firm or other company, and then rejoins it later.

In my case, I was recruited to rejoin a law firm. In other cases, the employee asks to return. It’s easy to see why an employer would try recruit back an employee who left. But how do companies view it when it’s the employee who initiates?

The study of more than 1,800 HR professionals showed:

Part of the reason HR is more willing to hire back employees who have left is that those boomerang employees are already familiar with the corporate culture and need less training. Often, they can add value from Day One.

So if you've left a law firm or corporate legal department, don't rule out the possibility of going back -- although you'll need to have a ready explanation for why you left and why you want to return.