Resumes Tips for the Momma Returning to Work

Re-enter the workforce with confidence

3-minute read

If you’ve been a stay-at-home parent for the past several years, the prospect of returning to work can feel extremely stimulating and scary at the same time. After so many years out of the workforce, how are you supposed to market your "rusty" skills anyway? By celebrating all the amazing things you have learnt and mastered as a stay-at-home parent, of course!

As a stay-at-home parent you have likely garnered a lot of life experiences that would be beneficial to an employer, but how do you do that without opening yourself up for unintentional (or worse yet, intentional) hiring manager biases? Let’s face it, while you are gaining valuable skills such as budgeting, organizing, mediating, and more, hiring managers are having their own experiences that may influence future hiring decisions, for the better or the worse.

Resume Writing Tips:

Use your real estate wisely! Recruiters take on average 7 seconds to review a resume before they have moved on to the next one making the top ½ of your first page some of the most valuable real estate. Use this space to incorporate an overview statement that celebrates that you are the right candidate for the role (1 to 3 sentences, up to 4 lines), add in your skills section, and follow that up with your formal education (if applicable).

Feature your newly developed skills. One way to showcase your newly developed skills, in combination with your previous skills, would be to incorporate them into your skills section (2-4 lines).

Problem Solving | Conflict Resolution | Time Management | Leadership | Scheduling | Budgeting

Herding cats (okay, maybe not this last one, but you get the idea!)

Minimize the opportunity for unintentional biases. When building your resume, consider ways to showcase your skills (see the example above!), while also minimizing the possibility of biases. For example, removing dates from your formal education minimizes the opportunity for age bias.

Compliment your resume with a cover letter. Set yourself apart from the competition by investing time into crafting a targeted cover letter that lets the employer know that you are genuinely interested in becoming a part of their team.