Resumes For Stay At Home Moms Returning To Work

Resumes For Stay At Home Moms Returning To Work – Being a stay-at-home mom can present unique challenges when you’re ready to return to the workforce. Employers will notice a gap in your employment record, and your skills or certifications may be out of date.

Fortunately, it’s entirely possible to create a resume that puts your best foot forward, especially if you take some time to build on your current skills. Read on to find out what to include and what to leave out—and for some helpful tips to keep in mind as you get ready to look for a new service. In addition, we have also included a free CV template in Word or Google Docs format that you can use as a starting point.

Resumes For Stay At Home Moms Returning To Work

Before we dive into our recruiter perspectives, here’s a sample resume for a stay-at-home mom or parent. Feel free to use it as inspiration when writing your own CV (download links below).

Stay At Home Mom Cover Letter Examples & Expert Tips [free]

A free stay at home mom resume template for parents returning to the workforce in Google Docs, Word, or PDF format

Do CV gaps matter? Sure – to some extent. Recruiters will want to know what’s going on with an employment gap, but it won’t be prohibitive in itself. The key is to explain it, which is easy to do when you’re a stay-at-home mom (keep scrolling for detailed tips on how to do this).

In addition to the gap in your work with an employer, the most important thing is to show the hiring manager that your skills are current. If you’ve done volunteer work recently, you should definitely include it. Freelance work that is related to the position you are aiming for is also good to include.

If your skills are not up to date, read on to find out how to build your skills and add to your CV appropriately.

Stay At Home Mom Resume Guaranteed To Get Call Backs

If you want to include your work as a stay-at-home mom in your work experience, consider doing so in a format similar to this example:

Instead of “Growthsi” and the title below, you could enter “Stay at Home Parent” (as in the following example), the dates of your time at home, and bulleted achievements like “Maintained a parenting tips blog with 50+ articles averaging X pageviews” or “Created a 100+ member Facebook group supporting stay-at-home parents” or how you’ve set up and run an Etsy shop Everything you include should be relevant to the job or position you’re applying for (with similar skills) .

Avoid including your stay-at-home mom experience as a “work experience” or “professional experience” — instead, as above, use the heading “Other experience.”

Just because you haven’t been with an employer for a while, you can still hone your skills, take courses and possibly work on freelance projects during your job search. Each approach helps build your skill level in the eyes of hiring managers by showing that you’re in touch with your skills.

How To Put Stay At Home Mom Or Dad On Your Resume (with Examples)

One avenue to consider is to look for volunteer opportunities around your community. Non-profit organizations and parent/child oriented groups are always looking for help with outreach, fundraising and events. For example, if you’re interested in marketing, helping to promote the parent-teacher organization’s upcoming dance by creating and distributing flyers is definitely something you can include on your resume.

Depending on the field you are interested in, it may help to look for relevant courses (either online or at nearby colleges). Some community colleges offer adult education courses to learn basic computer applications such as Microsoft Word, which help with all types of office work. If you’re more advanced, you can look for courses in a variety of fields, from computer programming to graphics. If you have more time to invest, consider signing up for a two-year degree if your area of ​​interest would benefit from it.

Finally, you’ll take on relevant freelance projects (such as writing copy for online businesses, performing lawn or landscaping services, or programming simple applications) to give you experience and accomplishments that will highlight how you’ve kept your skills up to date.

For an easy and time-saving boost to formatting your resume, start with the template above or browse our ATS-ready resume templates. Choose one that appeals to your background and the position you’re seeking, and fill in the details as you go.

Stay At Home Mother Resume Example

Your resume header should include your full name, phone number, email address, location (state and country, not street address) and possibly your LinkedIn profile. An example is below:

Having a summary at the top of your resume is a good way to introduce yourself as someone who “worked in [X field] for [x] years before taking four years off to raise two kids,” as an example. Your summary can also include any recent activities or projects you’ve started, for example by stating “

All your work experience should follow the same format. Regardless of when you last worked, you’ll want to list your previous employers in reverse chronological order (with the most recent employers at the top).

Each of your listed employers should be followed by a series of punctual achievements. Begin the paragraphs with strong action verbs that are related to skills you will use in the position you are entering, preferably. Whenever possible, include a numerical value (such as “improved sales by 10 percent over X years”) to help employers understand exactly how much of a difference you made.

Stay At Home Mom Resume Examples In 2023

For each of your work experiences, note the company or organization, your job title, and the dates you worked there. Usually this means listing the month and year, although sometimes you can leave out the month and just show the year – what’s more important is that you’re consistent with how you format your dates on your resume.

If you graduated recently (8+ years ago): Your education part should be short and below your work experience. In this case, you only enter your degree name and your school name. You can leave your graduation year to avoid any unjustified age discrimination – something that unfortunately happens in today’s employment landscape.

If you returned to school or recently graduated: You should list your education at the top of your resume if you recently completed a degree (while being a stay-at-home mom). Include the name of the school, the degree you graduated with, and the program you graduated from. Depending on the type of degree you received and the position you plan to apply for, you may also want to add the most relevant courses you took (such as “Data Analysis” or “Software Engineering”) if they contain keywords that relate to the job you apply to.

If you have enough technical skills, you should include a skills section on your resume. This can be placed on the right side of the page or at the bottom. The skills you list should be appropriate for the position you are applying for. For example, if you’re applying to be an office manager, you might list “QuickBooks,” “Microsoft Office,” or “Google Calendar” as your skills. If you’re going into graphic design, list the programs you’ve worked with in the past.

How To Write A Perfect Stay At Home Mom Resume

For all your skills (in the executive summary, the body of your CV and skills bank) you should aim to include ones that suit your background and the job you are applying for. See this list of resumes and keywords to get an idea of ​​what hiring managers and automated screeners are looking for.

Chances are, your mom gave you a lot of transferable skills (like time management, communication skills, and follow-through). You should definitely include these on your resume if you can, but remember not to list them directly on your resume – eg. do not mention “time management” skills, but show how you have delivered a project that required strong time management.

While it may be tempting, especially if you manage a complex household or go above and beyond your daily duties, you should refrain from listing “Head of Household” or “Head of Household” in the body of your resume. No matter how thorough your work in this role, claiming it as work experience means you run the risk of signaling to the hiring manager that you consider your household to be equivalent in scope of duties and level of responsibility as you would a business.

Generally speaking, business managers have a much greater responsibility (from the company’s perspective) than household managers, and there is significantly greater financial risk.

Stay At Home Mom Cover Letter Sample

That said, if you’ve created a spreadsheet to manage your family’s finances, you can definitely include Microsoft Excel in your tech skills. You may also be able to work it into your cover letter to show your commitment to the organization.

Once you’re done building the bones of your resume, you can use a few different tools to optimize it and make adjustments that will enable it to get past automatic screeners.

As a stay-at-home mom, you can write an effective resume by highlighting any volunteer work, online courses, freelance work you did while you were a stay-at-home parent.