“A fine
resume is like a flattering snapshot: it captures you at your
best, revealing your unguarded beauty” - -
Yana
Parker, author of The Damn Good Resume Guides
Of all the steps in the job search process, putting
together a resume seems to be the toughest obstacle for most
return-to-work-moms. Few
people love writing resumes, but for stay-at-home-moms there are
three nagging questions that make this task particularly
difficult:
-
How
do I structure my resume so that my absence from the
workplace is not the first thing employers will notice?
- How
do I integrate volunteer experience into the resume so that
the resume accurately reflects the skills I have gained
while being a stay-at- home mom?
- How
do I account for the time spent away from the workplace?
Sound like familiar concerns?
If so, read on…
1.
How do I structure my resume so that my absence from the
workplace is not the first thing employers will notice?
The vast majority of employers, and almost all
recruiters, will tell you that they prefer to see resumes that
are formatted in the traditional reverse chronological style
(starting with your most recent position first).
Unfortunately, this preference creates a real dilemma for
women who have been out of the workplace for an extended period
of time and don’t want “Homemaker” to be the first entry a
potential employer reads.
To address this conflict, if you have been out of
work for at least a year, consider changing the format of your
resume from a chronological style to a “hybrid” or
“combination” format that blends the best of a chronological
resume with the benefits of a functional resume. Basically, a
combination resume starts off with a skills summary, followed by
a section that highlights skill clusters, and concludes with a
chronological section at the bottom of the resume that includes
specifics about education, places of employment, job titles and
dates of employment (see example on last page).
Because combination resumes are accomplishment
oriented, they are a great way to showcase your capabilities
without drawing attention to the gaps in your work history.
The skill clusters provide you with a structure that
highlights your most relevant skills and accomplishments to the
employer, while drawing emphasis away from dates and gaps in
your work history.
2. How do I integrate volunteer experience into
the resume so that the resume accurately reflects the skills I
have gained while being a stay-at-home mom?
Volunteering may have provided you with credentials
and accomplishments that are highly relevant to your career
goals. Fortunately,
by utilizing a combination resume, you can seamlessly weave your
most relevant volunteer experience into the skill clusters area.
For example, if one
of your skill cluster areas is “Sales”, you could include
information about how you collected $10,000 from local merchants
as part of a fund drive to benefit local literacy programs. If
you want a position in corporate training, and one of your skill
clusters is “Public Speaking”, you should include specifics
about your experience as President of your local Toastmasters
group. And of
course, if you held a leadership position within a volunteer
organization, include that information if you have a relevant
skills section (i.e., “Management Skills” or
“Leadership”) on your resume.
Remember, skills
learned while volunteering are equally valuable as skills gained
for paid employment – consequently there is no
need to distinguish between paid and unpaid work related skills
on a resume.
3.
How do I account on the resume for the time spent away from the
workplace?
Following your skills section, you should a brief
chronological work history -- this is the area where you will
include a line about what you have been doing while you’ve
been home. For
example:
1994-present
Full time homemaker, PTA President, community volunteer
Or
1998-present
Home management, part-time student, extensive travel
While this particular entry is not going to win you
any jobs, it will provide an easy-to-understand
explanation of the gap on your resume.
Hopefully, by the time the employer reads down
to this line, she/he will be so impressed with your
skills and accomplishments, that the employment gap
will be interpreted as just a minor distraction.
To
learn more about this and many other subjects related to
the Comeback Job Search, click
here.
