Many mothers choose to leave the workforce, to stay home and care for their children full-time. If you’re one of them and want to return to work but aren’t sure how to explain your work history because you’ve been at home for a long time, read on. Being a mother is a rewarding job and leads to some very real transferable skills. As a stay-at-home mom, you were developing:
- Time management skills
- Planning skills
- Quick problem-solving skills
- Communication skills
- Financial management skills
- Change management skills
Read on to learn more about bringing all these things together with your past work history to create the perfect resume. And this is the main section on how to find a job after being a stay-at-home mom.
Stay-at-Home Mom Resume Format
If you are determined to return to work after spending time with your children at home, you must start with crafting your resume to show you are a motivated job-seeker. In the eyes of the employer, an engaging resume will make you stand out. Most stay-at-home mom resumes are ignored because they use the wrong resume format. Resume formats change to accommodate new online forms and resume intake systems. You want to make sure your resume is legible by the time it ends up in front of the hiring manager,
There are two main types of resume formats:
- Functional Resume: This type of resume focuses mainly on skills and strengths, accommodating a non-linear career very well. It does not present as much information about work history but highlights what you can contribute as a person. That being said, don’t use this resume format unless you have been out of work a short time or have extensive prior professional experience.
- Combination Resume: This is a resume format that combines both “Functional” and “Reverse-Chronological.” It will include the skills you gained as a mother and in your prior experience but also include work history.
For the perfect stay-at-home mother resume format, follow these rules:
- A Combination Resume should be used instead of a Functional Resume
- Write your resume in reverse-chronological order, highlighting your most recent work first. Be sure to include any unpaid, non-profit or community work.
- Choose a professional font (Arial or Lato) with a font size of 10-12pt, and well defined headings for easy scanning.
- Set margins to 1 inch on all sides, allowing for some nice white space. should include: Header, Objective, Work Experience, Education, and Skills.
- Keep your descriptions concise and direct. The entire resume should fit on one page.
- Save your resume as a PDF so it looks perfect on any screen to test how it will be seen once it is entered into computer systems.
- Avoid heavy design elements as these stop resume intact systems from parsing it correctly.
Stay-at-Home Mom Resume Skills
Now that you know your basic format, let’s talk about what you should say. Most importantly, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that staying-at-home keeps you from growing valuable skills for the workplace.
Time management skills
As a stay-at-home mom, you don’t just have to take care of the kids, you also have to manage a household and your children’s school systems.
In order to do all that, you need to apply time management skills, from feeding your baby, preparing clothes, picking him/her up from school on time, preparing dinner, organizing home finances, and communicating.
This time management ability will also be applied to many other tasks. You can handle yourself well under tight deadlines, quickly identifying and adjusting to what is most important. That takes dealing with pressure that many can not handle.
Planning skills
Mothers have an uncanny ability to plan. Especially if you have multiple children, you can often feel as though you race everywhere on two wheels.
Planning skills help you to organize everything from packing the right things for excursions, practices, doctor’s appointments, and play dates to deliveries. Mothers are better able to quickly choose, organize and schedule key events when they have to plan for child care on a regular basis.
Quick problem-solving skills
Many people think it is really simple to stay at home and look after the kids until they do it themselves. Playful children often bring unexpected challenges. Stay-at-home moms need problem-solving skills to help them with struggles, quickly become a nurse if needed and develop the ability to solve problems quickly. They are seasoned in handling urgent matters in a calm and effective manner.
Communication skills
Strong communication skills help mothers find themselves being their children’s advocates with doctors, teachers, and coaches, as well as speaking with the children themselves. Because kids aren’t old enough to understand much, a mother’s communication skills are essential in helping them understand.
This constant context jumping during conversation builds a unique skill set helping a mother in the workplace effectively speak with a variety of employees.
Financial management skills
One of the most common abilities of a mother is financial management. A stay-at-home mom’s budget may be tight which means that she has to have financial management skills to make sure all financial responsibilities are taken care of.
With limited budget resources, they know how to spend wisely and bring the best results. It takes significant research to plan trips on a budget and to ensure the family has clearly defined their needs versus wants all year long.
Main Sections in Stay at Home Mom Resume
An ideal stay-at-home mom resume must include the essential components of a standard resume. Personal information, professional objectives, work experience, abilities, and qualifications are all included. Each entry shall be as brief as possible while containing important information.
If you are still unsure of what to write in each section of your resume, read that instructions below:
Personal Information
A resume’s personal information is quite significant. Even if your resume is flawless and the employer adores it, you will not be contacted for an interview if your email or phone number is incorrect. Accurate personal and accurate contact information is the key to connecting with employers.
In your resume, you need to fill in personal information such as:
- Full Name
- Title – The exact job title you’re applying for
- Phone Number – The phone number you are using
- Email Address – Keep your email professional
- Location – Be sure to mention your current location to avoid getting disqualified for office roles in your area. If you are open to relocation, mention it. If you are open to a remote roll, mention that as well.
Career Objective
Many people disregard this section, but it will show the company you are purposefully seeking a specific role to succeed in.. Because of the high level of competition in the job market, you must demonstrate to the employer that you are a person with goals who is prepared to work hard to attain them.
Your career aim should be written in a way that draws attention to 2 to 4 sentences highlighting your professional accomplishments and future aspirations. What would you do if you were in this situation, and how would you do it effectively? Show to recruiters!
It is very important that you update your career objectives for every role. A generic Objective section will disqualify you for the role. Feel free to openly address in this section your departure from the workforce and motivation for returning.
Work Experience
The most significant aspect of a stay-at-home mom’s résumé is her work experience. This part will require considerable care in terms of both arrangement and presentation. But, if your resume is too long, recruiters will not spend much time reading it. Make an effort to be brief but thorough. Use key metrics of your passed success (example: Top 5% of employees, sold $X in new deals). You want employers to know about your experience, but do not write in too much detail. Hit the high points with strong language that describes ownership. .
The exact structure for each job in your work experience section:
- Position name
- Company Name
- Dates
- Responsibilities & Achievements
Remember to only write down what is necessary!
Relevant Skills
Relevant talents give you a leg up on the competition in the eyes of the recruiter. The greater your skill set, the more likely you are to find work. However, you should think about whether your abilities are a good match for the position you’re applying for. Don’t waste time trying to get points for talents you don’t need. In this section take skills that are mentioned in the job description and include them. This will make you stand out in the algorithms of online job boards.
Certifications
In this education section, list the schools or degrees you obtained. It is not difficult to complete this part. You can follow the structure below:
- Qualification Type
- Institution Name
- Years Studied
- GPA, Courses, Degrees, and anything else you might want to add
Stay At Home Mom Resume Writing Tips
To have a perfect stay-at-home mom resume, let’s review key tips:
- Pay special attention to the resume section containing your personal information; double-check that everything is accurate.
- Start with a strong and clear statement.
- Concentrate on your real-life experiences and accomplishments.
- Use an easy-to-read layout that allows for the hiring manager to quickly scan.
- Do not go too design heavy on your resume layout.
- To ensure correct distribution, utilize one typeface for your entire resume, font size, and body.
- Use no more than two pages for your resume; one page is the preference.
- Leave white space and don’t use a lot of flashy colors
- Present everything clearly, eye-catching and clean
Conclusion
Although returning to work can feel like it will be difficult , mothers can be certain that once you find the words to express the value you bring thanks to your role as a mother, you’ll stand out from the pack. If you pay attention to the vital components of your stay-at-home mom resume, you can finish it perfectly. We are here rooting for you and wish you the best of luck!