Stay-At-Home Mom Resume: Extra Tips

You’ve been working as a stay-at-home parent for the last several years. You’ve acquired excellent multi-tasking skills, project management, and problem-solving skills. The only problem you have is that the majority of your talents have been refined through your most recent job as a stay-at-home mom. Being a stay-at-home parent myself, I fully understand that this is probably the most challenging job on Earth. 

From my own experience, I know how hard it can be to return to the 9-to-5 workforce after working from home for a few years. How can you market yourself if you have that big employment gap in your work history? How can you persuade prospective recruiters that in spite of that you are ready and excited to go back to work? Previously I've written a post about the best resume writing hacks for moms and here are some of the tips that worked for me on how to create a resume for mom returning to work.

Update Your Resume Template

The first and the most important step towards landing a job is updating your application documents. There is no need to panic or be scared about creating your new resume for stay-at-home mom returning to work. Just remember how professional you are at cooking dinner, cleaning the tub and helping with the homework at the same time. The secret to writing an impressive and persuasive resume for mom returning to work sample is to use a combination type of resume instead of a functional resume. 

This type of resume is a hybrid between a chronological document and the one that emphasizes your core skills. Therefore, it’s the most common resume type not only for stay-at-home parents but also for all kinds of job hunters. You may emphasize the things you are most proud of, then showcase them in the “Executive summary” section. Adding a “Core Proficiencies” section will help you highlight the things you are experienced to do – like cost controls, client relations, or project management. Only after that, you mention your career chronology, starting from the most recent positions and moving your way backward. By the way, here is my list of resume skills for stay at home mom.

Why You Shouldn’t Use a Functional Resume

On one hand, using a functional resume is one of the most widespread tricks of so many job hunters who try to divert the recruiter’s attention from their employment gaps because this type of application document highlights your skills instead of career chronology and dates. On the other hand, the vast majority of employers will instantly realize that you are attempting to conceal something.

Another important reason not to use this type of resume is that applicant tracking system doesn’t always see these documents. As a result, your CV can easily get lost before it’s been even read by a hiring manager, especially when you apply for jobs through online job boards or company websites.

List Part-Time Jobs and Volunteering

Did you know that you can actually include not only paid and full-time work in your application document? In fact, take advantage of this opportunity and add any part-time or volunteer activities that you’ve had during the time you were a stay-at-home parent. Don’t hesitate to list all of them in your career chronology and showcase all the important and useful stuff you have performed in those assignments. It’s your chance to get noticed and attract recruiters by listing what you have done and achieved.

Remind yourself that you’ve definitely become even more experienced through these years and there is nothing that can stop you on your way to the top of the career ladder.