Five years ago, Jennifer McKenna was at a crossroads. After spending 10 years as a stay-at-home mother raising her two children, with a son about to head to school full time for kindergarten, she was ready to get back to her career. Her job search led her to JPMorgan Chase. And that’s when she discovered the firm’s ReEntry Program, a 15-week paid fellowship that offers the prospect of full-time employment at the end.
For McKenna, it was a natural fit. Before leaving the workforce to stay at home to raise her children, she spent 12 years in banking, three of which were in Marketing within J.P. Morgan’s Treasury Services. The ReEntry Program was an ideal way for her to pick up where she left off.
“The program offers a ‘reorientation period,’” she said. “It allows you to get your groove back after taking time away from the workforce. After ten years away, I found all of my business skills were still intact, but some things — like technology — had changed dramatically. iPhones didn’t exist before. People weren’t using Outlook in the same way.”
Each applicant receives one week of training dedicated to learning, development and workplace transition, and 14 weeks in a job placement located in the sub-program to which a candidate applies. They’re also paired with a mentor — typically a manager who champions the program. It is available within every line of business.
“The ReEntry Program isn’t designed for people who want to dabble in work. The goal is to prepare fellows for a long-term career at JPMorgan Chase,” McKenna said.
Applicants must be at an Associate or VP level and are required to have spent at least two years away from the workforce of their own volition. And there’s no guarantee of a job at the end of the fellowship.
“I went through 11 interviews,” McKenna said. “It’s a highly competitive program. You really have to want it.”
Part of an initial cohort of 38 participants, McKenna was placed into what is now the Business Transformation Office within Asset and Wealth Management, tackling large-scale digitization projects for the line of business, before moving on to her current role as Client Content-Advisor Experience Lead within J.P. Morgan Wealth Management’s Content and Communications team.
She credits her time in the ReEntry Program with her current success.
“The program gave me a support network,” she said. “The encouragement I received from my teammates — all of whom were aware that I’d been out of the workforce for a long time — was unbelievable. My peer group was fantastic. My manager couldn’t have been more supportive. All of these elements of the program contributed to my reentry success.”
About the ReEntry Program
JPMorgan Chase invites experienced professionals, who are currently on an extended career break and have been for at least two years, to apply to the firm’s ReEntry Program. Ideal candidates are at the Associate and Vice President levels (or equivalent) at the time of departure from the workforce, with relevant experience for the role in which they are being considered.
Applications are now being accepted for the 2022 program, which runs from March 21 until June 30. The deadline to apply is Jan. 14, 2022.
Roles are location dependent. Locations include:
New York, Columbus, Chicago, Tampa, Newark, Wilmington, Dallas, Plano, Boston, Denver, Elgin, Houston, Minneapolis, Palo Alto, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Buenos Aires, London, Bournemouth, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dublin, Frankfurt, Paris, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Singapore, Hong Kong and Sydney.
Click here to learn more and apply.
