#CareerAdvice #StayAtHomeMom #CareerGaps #JobSearch
Hey there, fellow career changer! ๐ If you’re a stay-at-home mom ready to reenter the workforce after a long break, you’re not alone. Many moms face the challenge of rebuilding their careers after taking time off to care for their families. But fear not, there are actionable steps you can take to boost your chances of landing a job you deserve!
### How Do Hiring Managers View Stay-at-Home Mom Applicants?
It’s natural to wonder how hiring managers perceive applicants with career gaps related to caregiving. The truth is, some hiring managers may have biases, but many are open to considering the unique skills and experiences stay-at-home moms bring to the table.
### Leveraging Your Experience
Your background as a financial professional and your experience spearheading fundraising and event planning initiatives during your time at home are valuable assets. These skills demonstrate your leadership, organization, and project management abilities, which are highly sought after in many industries.
### Recommendations for Success
#### 1. Update Your Resume and LinkedIn Profile
Make sure to highlight your accomplishments and skills in a way that showcases your strengths. Tailor your resume and LinkedIn profile to reflect your current goals and experiences.
#### 2. Network, Network, Network
Reach out to former colleagues, attend industry events, and connect with professionals in your desired field. Networking can open doors to new opportunities and help you gain insights into the job market.
#### 3. Consider Flexible Work Options
Many companies offer flexible work arrangements that can accommodate your caregiving responsibilities. Explore remote work, part-time roles, or freelance opportunities to ease your transition back into the workforce.
### Closing Thoughts
Remember, your career break does not define your worth or capabilities. Stay positive, confident, and proactive in your job search. With determination and a strategic approach, you can overcome any challenges and secure a fulfilling role that aligns with your skills and goals.
You got this! ๐ช๐ฉโ๐ผ Good luck on your job search journey!
Try nonprofits. They would like your experience. Although you may have to start off in a coordinator type role
Depends on the hiring manager
I was hiring last year and a highly educated SAHM with a previous strong work history applied & I really liked her and would have hired her. My peer managers would not consider her resume. Iโm female and also took a 3 year break early in my career with kids. My peers were Males.
In the end she was up against other more qualified candidates with heavier industry experience (she had similar but none). So I didnโt hire her but she was #2 that hire and came close.
Always tryโฆ
You could find a job, but itโs going to be difficult to find one as high profile as what you were doing before.
As someone that hires, I donโt care. I look for a ton of other things than gaps. Are you a hard worker? Are you willing to learn? Will you be a good teammate? Are you someone that just watches the clock?
Do not apply for entry level jobs because you are overqualified and they will not consider you as they will think (rightly so) that you will leave as soon as you get a better job. Apply for jobs at your level – it will take longer than normal to get interviews and offers, but they will come.
As a hiring manager, I have hired people with gaps in their background plenty. Not all were stay at home mums, but had gaps for many reasons. That said, the job market is rough. Iโve always received a lot of applicants for my positions, but now I am receiving 500 resumes sometimes. This may be industry dependent somewhat, but if you look through posts, youโll see a lot of people struggling to land roles they say theyโre way overqualified for after layoffs, etc. Youโre likely just up against significantly more competition than youโve ever been against before. Itโs a numbers game. Keep applying. Itโs unfortunate, but yes, I am sure many hiring managers automatically disqualify someone with a gap. They have the leisure of being choosy right now. Itโs not an employee market.
It depends on the candidate. Write a good cover letter that tells a hiring manager why you are the best person for the job despite gaps in your career.
This isn’t a sure thing, but it will give you a better chance with some hiring managers.
I currently work with a woman who was a stay-at-home mom for six years. She was willing to take a position a little lower than what she was when she left the professional arena and, within the past year, has proven that her skills are still sharp. She just got promoted up to a role that’s similar to what she did before she left the workplace.
As kindly but also as directly as I can say it: youโre going to have a rough time. The job market is really tough right now even for people who are already in the workforce, and youโve been out of it for 15 years. You are going to be up against people that have more applicable experience and a longer work history.
I wouldnโt say youโre unhirable abut youโll definitely need to adjust your expectations. Being out of the market for 15 years you will be starting from scratch. Your focus should be on finding workโany workโto get yourself back into the workforce. You can work yourself up from there.
As a hiring manager I donโt care about resume gaps at all. The fact is that there are very good odds that any gaps were from something that is absolutely none of my business. And few if any of the reasons for a gap would have an effect on someoneโs ability to work in a position. I do know some people would question it, so as long as the answer is something better than โdidnโt feel like doing anything so stayed in bed from 2021-2023โ I think itโs fine. Being a SAHM, caring for a sick loved one, taking time to do volunteer work, traveling the world. Whatever. As long as itโs something hiring managers shouldnโt care.
Absolutely! But with the caveat there are morons in every walk of life.
I had a 10 year gap and was able to use voluntary work I had done and the transferrable skills I had to get a great job. However it took a LOT of interviews and I was turned down a lot.ย
Keep going.
Poorly. Sorry itโs true.
15 years is a big gap so yes I would be concerned if youโre really updated on any of the current software / platforms being utilised and how much your experience would transfer.
A lot has changed in 15 years in regards to software/platforms in use and the impact on how people do their job.
Seems like resume gaps are becoming less of a dealbreaker. As long as you have a reasonable explanation for your choices, in the end it’s your life.
I hire a lot and the only thing that will make me doubtful on a big gap is if the candidate will be current on new software (since in my industry it changes a lot) – so it depends slightly on the role.
Hit your network even if it’s 15 years stale. Reach out to anyone and everyone you used to work with. Many of those people are now in hiring positions (or know people who are) and know you would be a valuable and low risk hire.
It’s a buyers market right now and a gap MIGHT present a risk. But a personal reference and advocate is the best and lowest risk choice.
Are you hirable? Yes. But itโs also going to look different than if that same experience you had previously was in the last few years without a gap.
Iโm a hiring manager and I would definitely consider your resume, especially given your volunteer experience and more recent masters degree (I also have nonprofit experience, so understand the skills required there).
One thing that I havenโt seen mentioned yet in a quick skim of the comments is the enormous way that covid changed a lot of industries and workplaces. And more broadly even than that, thereโs been a huge wave of innovation over the past 10+ years – with covid as one part of that but not the whole story. So I would just say that reticence on the part of hiring managers may be more pronounced given the *specific* 15 years in question.
Agree with others to lean in hard to your network, including not just anyone who worked with you previously but also folks from your volunteer and education experience during your employment gap.
Good luck!
God this is a rough one. Because that world is so competitive to get your foot in the door. Iโm guess by the post that there are no more contacts in that world. Didnโt keep in touch with any network. Itโs one of those jobs anyone can do. Sure they want a degree in finance or whatever, but a million people have that and want to become a finance bro.
You are hireable provided you adjust your target to your real job experience. In other words, you compete with yourself 15 years ago.
When hiring, nowadays, you want people you can have lunch, avoid drama, and get shit done.
Stay at home mum is not a biggy , we all have a mama.
Have you considered a returnship? They are designed to assist people returning to the workforce after a career gap. You can also take a look at The Mom Project; you may find some good opportunities through that organization as well.
If you left on good terms, I would apply for roles as your former companies since you would already have relationships with people in power. Ir reach out to former colleagues that have moved to other companies.
15 years is huge gap that is not like a year or 2 in 15 years a lot has changed you are longer out of the market then you have worked so yes you have to start from the bottom up again the market is overflowing right now a year ago it was much easier
Hiring manager in f100. Extensive resume gaps do matter in my sector. Anything over 4 years would make me ask questions trying to understand how candidate has closed the knowledge gaps that would have been formed by being out of the workforce.
I donโt care why the gap is there – itโs not my business and wouldnโt change any potential scoring/selection. Just want to know how youโve closed or plan to close knowledge gaps formed during that time
Definitely add that volunteer work to the resume
Iโve interviewed people recently with gaps for caring for family or children, COVID-19 impacted a lot of people with family needs. What may be having more of an impact is whether words in your resume and cover letter match the requirements of the job description. I know our position applications are filtered on this basis. I also have a high number of applicants for any one position so their experience needs to be a good fit for the job role.
In my prior career, I had the hardest time, hiring SAHMs who wanted to re-enter the workforce. Many companies simply have an aversion to this. I worked for one company that wouldn’t hire you if you had a gap of over a year. It didn’t matter what your story was.
>*I knew stepping away would set me back, but I was happy to do it and assumed I could always get another degree later to jumpstart any new career.*
I found myself in this position once. I wasn’t a SAHM but I did leave the workforce to take care of my mother who had Cancer. Long story short, I went back to school at age 37, to earn my LVN and start over. My MBA from a former life was worthless.
This is tough – Iโm sorry youโre going through this. As someone who has been managing / hiring teams for over 10 years, here is my honest take:
For one, it completely depends on the role and industry youโre applying for. As others have mentioned, itโs very very challenging in tech right now – one open role may receive 500-1000 applicants in less than a week, for any role, many of the applicants overqualified. This means there is a downshift in talent right now, where very qualified people are taking roles โbeneathโ their level on a large scale bc there just arenโt enough jobs.
Also the landscape of some industries change very quickly, so experience in say marketing or product design 15 years ago is not very valuable today. Other roles that are more commoditized (administrative or event planning) – that experience will hold better.
It also depends on your salary reqs – you roughly have as much working experience as someone around 30 years old, but you have a mortgage and kids. Are your salary expectations in line?
Some roles also require or are greatly aided by a personโs network – if youโd been out for 15 years this may not be something you bring to the table any longer.
I also look for technology skills, because this really impacts work velocity. Folks who are very comfortable with tech work 2-4x more quickly than those who are pecking around the keyboard or find it difficult to work in newer core tools like Notion or Miro or data tools.
The final thing Iโll say is, someone younger is much more likely to want to work harder, move up, be flexible, want to learn and grow and get promoted, will be more able to travel or work late on occasions when itโs needed. For some industries (eg non profits, big fortune 5s) this isnโt a huge deal. But for smaller companies where every person counts for a lot, this can be a consideration for the hiring manager. Is this person going to have to bow out every day at 430 to pick up kids? Take a lot of days off with sick kids? If I need someone who can travel for trade shows or customer visits, will they be there? Or will folks without kids (or me) have to step in to cover every time? So aim for companies that are larger or in industries where there is less pressure if you think this may be an issue.
15 years out your experience is totally stale. People here are being way too nice.
The reality is your last paid work experience was shortly after the first iPhone was released. You want more pay than entry level, but with no recent relevant work you are basically entry level and all of those 22 year olds have a huge leg up on you
Leave off the masters unless it’s listed as a requirement for a job. You need to really play up the volunteer stuff and make it clear how it is transferrable to whatever you are applying to.