Today’s post is all about moms, working moms that is! Happy Mother’s Day to all of you readers out there who manage to do it all! Today’s post is written by Kat Krull is the Marketing Manager of Resunate, the world’s only automatic optimized resume tool. You can find Kat at Resunate on Facebook and Twitter.
Deciding whether or not to quit your job once you’ve given birth can be a tricky situation. If you do opt to spend time at home with your child, then, when it comes time to re-enter the workforce, many mothers end up feeling penalized because they took time off to spend time with their new baby.
How can you overcome the challenges of gaps in employment from motherhood duties?
- Highlight new skills you’ve acquired. As a mother, you’ve probably found yourself negotiating about sharing or bedtime and practicing a lot of patience, all while multi-tasking to ensure your bills are paid and the house is clean. These are skills that can be translated to the workplace and should be leveraged on your new resume or during the interview. In fact, they may be more valuable than you think. In a study by Salary.com, it was determined that the typical stay-at-home mother’s duties – roles including cook, daycare center teacher and psychologist — would equal out to about $140,000 a year for her 92-hour work weeks.
- Transition slowly. Look for a job that you can do from home or part-time in order to beef up the experience section in your resume before looking for a full-time gig. This can also help ease the guilt you might feel by going back to work by taking small steps.
- Optimize your resume. Gaps in employment can be difficult to explain on a one- or two-page resume. To take attention away from those gaps, highlight your relevant experience and skills. You can also include other experience, such as volunteering, freelancing, temping or consulting to fill in the gaps.
- Prepare for questions. Know exactly how you’ll address tough questions about your time off during a phone screen or interview. Don’t feel like you need to explain your reasoning for taking time off to raise your child? Then do explain enough so they aren’t left wondering if your time off was for negative reasons, such as forced unemployment from a previous job.
It can be tough to get back into the workforce, particularly in a job market that’s competitive. But remember that you bring something to the table that other younger professionals might not — maturity. This is something employers are looking for in job candidates and can certainly work to your advantage on the job hunt.
If you’ve taken time off to raise your child, how did you transition back into the workplace? Do you have any other tips to share?
(photo above of my mom and I…Happy mother’s day mom!)