Resume Tips for a Returning Parent

Returning to the  workforce can be troubling. You may feel that employers won’t higher a mom who stopped her career to raise her kids. You are very wrong. There are many different skills that we have but undermine that could be of great use to an employer. When constructing your resume, the proper term for a stay at home mama is domestic engineer. Now, the part that scares most domestic engineers is the work history. Especially if your last job was eighteen years ago. Or if you don’t have work experience. But don’t fear here is when your skills come in. Rather than putting work experience first on the resume, put “most recent experience”.

Now, raising children gives you tons of skills. If you have more than one child, you know that you have to play referee when it comes to their arguments and fights. And so for your “recent experience” you can put conflict resolution.

You can also put down your skills in budgeting. We all have them- you are given this amount to work with for the month, and have to divide this for bills, food, etc.You may actually want to put how much you have saved within your budget by bargain shopping or using coupons.

An obvious skill we have, is multi tasking. Having to shop, feed the kids, get them ready for school, help out your husband, while dealing with a dog jumping around. Being able to multi task is a huge asset to employers. And it shows that you can handle pressure.

Domestic engineers are also usually the ones to call the repair companies, go to teacher meetings, arrange play dates etc. This shows your ability to work with people and manage time.

There are more things that come along with being  a stay at home mama, you’re a chauffeur, a nutritionist, chef, teacher, and house keeper. (Yes, basically Superwoman).

A study done suggested that due to the number of hours and tasks that a stay at home parent does is equivalent to $117,000! So don’t ever undermine what your skills are worth as a stay at home mom(or dad).

Make sure and list any educational background you have.

As well as any volunteer experience and duties that were involved. Just think about being a room mom, in the PTA, Neighborhood Watch, and any charities you have been involved with.

It may be tough ladies, but you can do it. If you can manage all the things you do in one day, then you can handle a ten minute interview. Just be confident, and use anecdotes if neccessary to explain each of the skills you’ve listed while in the interview. For instance, with conflict resolution, you can describe a time that you helped your children or even with a family situation meet a win win situation.