Thrive. Career Development helps mothers return to work with confidence, clarity, and practical tools, reframing career breaks as assets.
Motherhood is a transformative experience, one that shifts priorities and refines goals in ways that traditional career advice often overlooks. For many women, taking a career break to focus on caregiving leads to a gap in their resume, yet that gap doesn’t reflect a loss of capability or ambition. For Barbara Joyce ter Horst, Founder of Thrive. Career Development, motherhood was a pivotal experience that revealed the deep disconnect between the traditional career world and the lived reality of mothers.
Before she became a mother, Barbara Joyce spent years working as a Career Strategist at high-end resume and LinkedIn writing companies. In her role, she reviewed thousands of resumes and LinkedIn profiles, constantly witnessing the same frustrating pattern: women, especially mothers, were being overlooked and undervalued, not because of their lack of talent, but because their resumes weren’t properly translating the real-world skills they had built.
Then Barbara Joyce herself became a mother. That moment of personal transformation opened her eyes to just how disconnected career advice was from the reality of life as a mother. It also illuminated the systematic bias that fails to recognize the full range of skills and experiences that come from caregiving. With a new perspective, Barbara Joyce founded Thrive. Career Development, a coaching service that supports mothers as they re-enter the workforce with confidence, clarity, and practical tools for success.
From Gap to Asset: Reframing Career Breaks
At the heart of Thrive. Career Development is the idea that career breaks, especially those taken for caregiving, shouldn’t be viewed as “gaps” but as periods of growth, leadership, and real-world skill-building. According to Barbara Joyce, traditional hiring systems often misinterpret career breaks as a sign of stagnation, when in fact, they represent a crucial phase where women develop highly transferable skills such as decision-making, leadership, and adaptability.
“Motherhood doesn’t shrink ambition; it refines it,” Barbara Joyce explains. This insight became a cornerstone of Thrive.’s mission: to help mothers reclaim their confidence, articulate their value, and navigate a successful return to the workforce without the shame or overwhelm often associated with career breaks.
As a Career Strategist, Barbara Joyce understood the ins and outs of hiring systems, but it was her personal experience that revealed the full scale of the problem. The issue, she believes, isn’t that mothers lose their edge; it’s that hiring managers fail to see the value of the skills they’ve gained during their time away from the traditional workforce.
A Human-Centered Approach
What makes Thrive. Career Development stand out from other career coaching services is its human-centered approach. Rather than focusing on optimizing resumes or pushing clients to “bounce back” with unrealistic expectations, Barbara Joyce’s coaching focuses on rebuilding confidence and offering realistic, actionable strategies.
Through Thrive., Barbara Joyce provides tailored support for women transitioning back into the workforce, recognizing the competing priorities they face as mothers. Her approach integrates deep emotional intelligence with concrete career strategy, ensuring that each woman’s experience is respected and validated.
Thrive.’s clients often come with a mix of excitement and fear, excited about the prospect of returning to work but fearful of being “behind” or misunderstood. This fear is not due to a lack of capability, but a result of a hiring system that doesn’t reflect the value that career breaks bring. “The problem isn’t that moms lost their edge. It’s that hiring systems stopped recognizing it,” Barbara Joyce says.
Thrive.’s mission, therefore, is to help women reframe their career breaks as assets and provide them with the tools to confidently articulate their skills, whether in a resume, LinkedIn profile, or interview.
Transforming the Narrative
The core of Barbara Joyce’s work revolves around a simple yet powerful idea: careers don’t happen in isolation from life. And life, especially for mothers, doesn’t follow a linear path. Thrive. Career Development embraces this reality, offering a compassionate, realistic approach to career transition.
What Barbara Joyce has found through her extensive experience is that many mothers, after stepping away from their careers, experience an erosion of confidence. This isn’t because they lost the ability to do their job, but because the system failed to reflect their capabilities back to them. Thrive.’s coaching focuses on rebuilding that confidence through clarity, strategic communication, and emotional support.
This work is grounded in Barbara Joyce’s own experience as a mother. The challenges, the uncertainties, and the profound shifts in identity that come with motherhood are real, and Thrive. is designed to address those head-on. As a LinkedIn Top-Recommended Career Strategist with over 70 five-star recommendations, Barbara Joyce combines professional authority with personal understanding, offering a rare blend of expertise and empathy.
The Future of Work: More Inclusive and Real
Thrive. Career Development’s philosophy is rooted in the belief that women’s value is not diminished by their career breaks, but that society, and especially hiring systems, needs to catch up. By reframing career breaks, Thrive is helping to create a more inclusive, human-centered approach to hiring, one that sees mothers not as people who “took time off,” but as individuals who are equipped with an even broader skill set, thanks to the leadership, decision-making, and emotional intelligence they’ve honed during their time away from the workforce.
The future of work must recognize that career paths are rarely linear, and that’s a reality Thrive. Career Development is committed to making visible for women everywhere.
If you’re a mother considering a return to the workforce, or you know someone who is, Thrive. Career Development provides the support and tools needed to approach this transition with confidence. Reframing your career break can lead to a transformation in how you view yourself and the value you bring to the workforce.
To learn more about Thrive. Career Development and how Barbara Joyce can help you reclaim your career with clarity and confidence, visit Thrive Career Development.
Connect with Barbara Joyce on LinkedIn to continue the conversation: Barbara Joyce ter Horst on LinkedIn.
