Reviewing Your Résumé if You’re a Stay-at-Home Parent

If you have ever tried running a household, then you know that it is sometimes as challenging as running a business. In case it’s been several years you’ve set a foot into an office, we are sure you have got a lot to offer to the up-to-date labor market. 

If you feel like you’re ready to return to the workforce, you’ll need to update your resume. If you think you’re going to need help with this, then you could use a company like ARC Resumes (find them at https://www.arcresumes.com/). But if you are confident doing this yourself, then we’ve got you covered with several effective tips to help you to write a compelling stay-at-home parent resume.

Below, there are three must-read essential recommendations for updating your before-parenting resume. If you doubt some points in your resume you can always ask your currently working friend to review my resume. It won’t take a lot of time, but will sufficiently increase your chances of landing an interview. Anyways, let’s get straight to the point.

1. Revise your skills section: identify the skill you gained raising your child/children

It’s been such a long time since you last took a regular job, and you simply lost with what to include in a resume skills section? But what about the unique skills you gained throughout the parenting experience? But raising kids has also given you some unique skills. After all, you have probably acquired some new qualities for a resume such as active listening, conflict solving, budgeting, multitasking, team-management, and organization skills, and negotiation expertise (the last two are the ultimate superpower of every stay-at-home parent). All of them are marketable and in-demand right now! It’s just a matter of how you present your expertise to the potential employer.

Just for a note: Be sure to distinguish the difference between skills and qualities. If you mix it all up, your resume won’t look very professional. 

Here’s how to determine skills that should be included in your resume: 

• Analyze your prior work history and list down the technical skills you’ve already got. Leave the ones that are still relevant.
• Mention your volunteering experience (if you have it). All of the activities you helped in community initiatives like sports or church events should be listed in your new resume as well.
• Running a house has also taught you some valuable things, right? Maybe, you are now a pro in budget management or trips organization. Again, these skills can be employed in your next work.
• Did some freelance work or started a mom’s fashion blog? Certainly mention these on your resume!

2. Address employment gap on your stay-at-home parent resume

Reasonably, you can expect an employer to ask why did you have a several-year employment gap. Instead of preparing the answer, address the question in advance. You can do it as follows:

• List your stay-at-home mom/dad experience as a job entry. Make it a position and give it a title, for example, Hometown Chief Officer. Provide dates of work and write down your main responsibilities and skills you gained during this period.
• As an alternative (and a more formal option), you can write about your situation in a cover letter. Inform your employer that you did not work while raising your kid. But don’t deep down into the details. Instead, briefly mention your new skills and social practices (again, if you took part in some of them).

3. Decide on your resume format: Functional Vs Chronological 

There are two main resume formats. Before writing your stay-at-home mom or dad resume, you need to decide which style is the best to showcase your professional history, work achievements, and career breaks.

The chronological resume format is applied for listing your work experience in the reverse chronology – starting from the last position you occupied and up to the first ones. According to PaperLeaf Canada, this resume style remains to be the most popular among job seekers at the same time being a standard application type among recruiters. 

Unlike the chronological ones, functional resumes are centered around your skills and abilities rather than about a job history. If you choose it, keep in mind that this is a more creative resume format than the previous so it should not be used for every single position application.

Of course, you are free to combine two types, as mentioned above. But it may be harder to organize the information you want to include. This resume format organizes the information according to skill points (functional type), but these points are backed by detailed timing frames of your work history. 

Recommendation: Chronological and combined resume formats work best for stay-at-home parents. 

Hopefully, our tips will help you successfully enter the workforce with the new status of a parent!