Parenting and Careers: Starting a New Career Search - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. If you have worked in the same job for a long time, and you are a mom, you may find that it is hard to make a transition into a new job, or a new career. So the best thing to do is to go through all of your email contacts, your PDA contacts, maybe any contacts you have in your hardcopy or calendar, pull them out and think about, "Okay, who are the people that are doing really interesting things that I can really get jazzed about? And who are the people who know people who are doing realy interesting things that I can get jazzed about?" And make a list of maybe your top ten or top twenty folks that you want to contact and reach out to. And the beauty of this is the next part is all about them, and people love to talk about what they do. So, you can say, "Hey!", you know, "Hey Sally, I love what I hear you talking about when it comes to your job and I want to learn more about it. Could I take you to coffee for twenty minutes?" Or if that is not accessible have a phone call, you know. And then you really keep to that twenty minute commitment. And just ask her questions about how she got into it, what a typical day is like, what some challenges are, and the most important question you ask is the last question, and that is: Who else do you know in this field or in this position that I could talk with, who would want to talk with me? And then before you know it you have grown your network exponentially. And, you know, you are not applying for a job, so it takes some of that pressure off for you. And a key point to remember is that 80% of jobs are never advertised, so it really is all about who you know. And by growing this network exponentially, before you know it you have all these folks that are aware that you may be considering a career transition, and they will think of you the next time something comes across their desk that might be a good fit.