Business & Finance Careers & Employment

Workforce Ready Resumes After Staying-At-Home

According to calculations tabulated by salary.
com, a full-time stay-at-home mom should earn a whopping $134,121 if she were actually lucky enough to get a paycheck.
These figures were derived from survey results from 400 women who reported the various tasks taken on during the day and night, from daycare worker and cook to chauffer and even CEO! While this might give most stay-at-home mothers a warm fuzzy, the cold hard truth is that often times, for a myriad of reasons, a homemaker has to re-enter the workforce after years spent away.
If you find yourself facing Corporate America after a 5, 10, 15 or even lengthier hiatus, there is no need to panic.
In fact, there is no reason to even highlight the gap on your resume, not when a well-written resume can be easily crafted that brings to the forefront the unique skills and qualifications you've acquired over the years spent at home.
Instead of creating a sparse listing places that you've worked in the distant past, put together a skill-oriented resume that highlights your achievements by strengths.
The first step in writing a resume after a stay-at-home stint is to decide what you want to do professionally and write a succinct mission statement that outlines your major career objective.
No more than two sentences or about 30 words, this section can be featured at the top of your resume, right under your name and contact information.
If you are applying for jobs in several industries, you can use this section to tweak your information to better suit a specific company.
Next, jot down all the important things you do running a family, from taking care of the household finances and filing the taxes to taking bids for and managing your big backyard landscape project.
Also, don't forget to write down any volunteer work and leadership positions held within your children's school, your place of worship or within the community at large.
After completing your lists of family and volunteer "work", use colored highlighters to group together tasks and duties that seem to naturally fit together.
The similar color-coded tasks and duties can then be written as content under overarching subheadings that represent your strengths such as Public Relations, Office Management, Coaching and Fund-Raising.
Instead of drawing attention to dates (and big gaps in dates!), these types of functional skill resumes place the focus on what you have done and what you can offer the company.
Of course, under this skills section, it is appropriate (especially if you are re-entering into the same field as before) to make a brief list of dates, job titles and employers.


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