Hi Linda, Thanks for writing to us. I’m sorry to hear about your re-diagnosis, but understand your desire to want to continue pursuing your professional goals. You are thinking about and asking important questions as you delve into the job search process. The first thing I would mention is that the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and state fair employment laws prohibit most employers from asking a job applicant about a disability before offering the job and also gives qualified individuals the right to reasonable accommodations. Reasonable accommodations are adjustments in the workplace that help employees stay-on-the-job, these may include things like a modified work schedule such as telecommuting or flex time (working the same number of hours but distributed differently over the course of a week) or changes to your workspace or access to technology. Reasonable accommodations are not one size fits all and will depend on a number of factors. As a cancer patient, the side effects of treatment (nausea, fatigue, etc.) can oftentimes qualify as a disability. I highly recommend you discuss likely side effects with your healthcare team in context of the kind of jobs you might be applying for so you can start thinking about what, if any, accommodations you might need. This will help you feel more prepared to speak about this with an employer should that become necessary. A great resource for getting ideas about accommodations is www.AskJAN.org, you can look up cancer and look up different kinds of jobs and see potential accommodations. Please note that the ADA applies to eligible job applicants and employees of a private employer with fifteen or more employees, or a state or local government of any size, so you might want to think about the size of the company as you are job searching. There are also state fair employment laws that might be helpful to consider. Some states’ laws protect individuals working for employers with fewer than 15 employees. Our partner, Triage Cancer, has a Quick Guide to Cancer-Related Laws by State available at http://triagecancer.org/resources/quickguides. You mentioned bringing up your chemotherapy treatments during the interview, but please keep in mind that in general, you are under no legal obligation to disclose your medical condition to your prospective or current employer (however if you want to access a reasonable accommodation you may have to disclose some information to show you are entitled to it). You may choose not to disclose during the interview process and instead wait until you receive an offer to request any reasonable accommodation or even wait until you have started the job. Typically, you won’t really know what you need until you have started the job and have a sense of how side-effects and your treatment schedule will affect the job and vice versa (this is why is it also good to start this conversation with your healthcare team sooner than later). Although this is a personal decision, I would recommend watching our webinar to get a better understanding on issues around disclosure: http://www.cancerandcareers.org/en/community/videos/bwc/2016-webinar-online Some other resources that I recommend checking out are: • Interviewing information: http://www.cancerandcareers.org/en/looking-for-work/interviewing • Blog on gathering information before disclosure: http://www.cancerandcareers.org/blog/gathering-information-before-d • Job Search Toolkit (2nd Edition): http://www.cancerandcareers.org/publication_orders/new (features a advice on improving resumes, cover letters; interview and networking tips and other useful tools to help you during a job search) • Upcoming Job Search Webinar (March 8th): http://www.cancerandcareers.org/en/community/events/webinar-jobsearch2017 Lastly, often we find people forget to ask their healthcare team if there is any way to adjust their treatment schedule to better suit their work needs. Absolutely your health has to come first, but you may find that your chemo could be administered before or after work hours or on the weekend with no impact on its efficacy. But you won’t know unless you ask. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us at cancerandcareers@cew.org or 646-929-8032. Best of luck, Nicole Franklin, MPH Manager of Programs Cancer and Careers