Dear Joyce: I graduated with a master's degree in science four years ago but I've never worked. Instead, I raised my children. Now I am having trouble finding a beginning professional job. I need to have flexible working arrangements so I have time to balance my family priorities with my career responsibilities. Ideas? -- J.G.

Dear J.G.: Hirers look at you and they don't see a "professional" -- they see a "mom."

You're meeting rejection because you don't show as much commitment to the workplace as does your competition -- four years is a long time to be out of the mainstream of your science. So, be prepared to demonstrate in knowledge and jargon that you've kept up.

Quick Fix Ideas: Sweat through additional education and start as a new graduate. Ask a counselor at your college's internship office to arrange a postgraduate internship. Seek temporary or part-time assignments through staffing firms.

Career Planning: In a fast-changing world, many employers are interested only in relevant experience acquired in the past five years. If you plan to work throughout the next five years, keep faith with your inner agenda and, from the start, devise a plan featuring flexible work arrangements (FWA).

The Flexible Workplace: Flexible work arrangements are used by millions of workers, usually informally, to vary their hours with staggered start times, compressed workweeks, job sharing, part-time employment and telecommuting.

The liberalization of the 19th century industrial workplace began in Germany in the 1960s. At first, employers granted flexibility as a sop to workers -- in particular, a perk for working mothers.

More recently, FWA policies are being adopted as a business tool to improve productivity and quality of life for both male and female employees, thus attracting hard-to-get talent in a tight job market. But as the job market softens in the current business cycle, will companies seize this moment to see FWA as an instrument of recruiting and retention?

Overload Solution: Yes, smart companies will step up FWA usage right now as an antidote to layoffs, according to Linda Marks, a principal in Rupert & Co., strategic flexibility consultants based in Washington.

"When workforces are pared down, the remaining employees, often the best workers, may go on overload and leave," she says. "A flexible work policy that recognizes the employee's need to have a life is a significant retention tool -- the glue that binds."

Different Strokes: Elasticity in ways to work stretches across the map. The old "9/80" plan of cramming 80 hours of work into nine days has in some places morphed into "9/100." That's due to managers who push exempt employees for 50- and 60-hour weeks -- these managers don't want to be limited to 80 hours (40 hours each week for two weeks) as a measure of what has to be accomplished in nine days.

In a compressed workweek variation, a company's field technicians were quitting, and overtime costs were breaking the budget. The technicians were required to meet customer requests within a two-hour turnaround time while operating on a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week schedule. Solution? FWA. Some techs volunteered to work 12-hour shifts Friday through Sunday and a four-hour shift on Monday, in exchange for reducing their workweek to three and a half days. The rest of the techs worked five-day weeks but got their weekends off.

Build a Business Case: Workplace flexibility is most often ascribed to big corporations. But don't overlook small and emerging businesses that need top talent, but can't compete with the giants' overwhelming economic resources.

Try to find an employer that already has a formalized flexibility policy. If you can't, bone up on FWA's diverse ramifications so you'll know what's realistic and possible. Prepare a written proposal focusing on how an FWA policy benefits the employer, then launch your campaign.

Key Resources: These two people tell you what you need to know: