How to Build a Resume for a Stay-at-Home Mother
When a stay-at-home mom is ready to return to the workforce, she is often challenged with creating a resume that explains her lapse in employment. This is especially true if she’s been away from the workforce for more than five years. When a stay-at-home mother builds her resume, she should focus on giving potential employers a peek at her personality and how it applies to the position the company is hiring for, as well as how the skills she has acquired during her time away can contribute to the organization.
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Instructions
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Start your resume by outlining your career objective. This will give your potential employer an idea of what your goals are as you reenter the workforce after being a stay-at-home mom. Your career objective should reflect your experience and how you hope to use it in the new job you are applying for.
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List the colleges or trade schools you attended, as well as any certifications you earned. It is especially important to list any education or certifications you obtained during your time as a stay-at-home mother. Focus on education that is related to the job you are applying for.
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List any paid work or projects you completed on a freelance basis. Whether you developed a couple of websites for local businesses, sold your handmade jewelry online or worked as an independent consultant for a company such as Avon or Mary Kay, you should list this as experience. Tell potential employers how many clients you worked with, the nature of the tasks you completed and the results of any projects or businesses you were a part of.
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Outline your volunteer experiences on your resume, focusing on the tasks and projects you completed. Include all the various places where you did volunteer work, even your child's nursery school or play group. Describe the time frame of your involvement and the responsibilities you shouldered, plus any measurable results you produced as a result of your participation.
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List any professional, civic or social organizations of which you are a member and active participant. For example, you can state that you were the treasurer for the Parent Teacher Association at your child's school, served as the public relations committee chairperson for a women's volunteer group or are a member of a business networking group for working mothers. By listing these memberships, you can help potential employers get a picture of your interests, skills and professional connections.
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Ask people to write testimonials for you if you have worked with them on volunteer or paid projects during your years as a stay-at-home mom. Include on your resume at least two testimonials that focus on your skills, abilities and attitude.
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Create an online presence on social media to support your resume. This may include setting up Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles where you disclose your knowledge and skills and post updates that are relevant to the industry you want to enter. You can start a blog on which you share ideas related to the industry in which you want to land a job. Also, you can set up a website that gives a background on your knowledge and skills, together with testimonials and samples of your work.
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