March 28, 2024

Resume Tips for Stay-At-Home Moms Looking to Return to the Workforce



Published May 26, 2023, 10:20 a.m. by Courtney


As a stay-at-home mom, you may be looking to return to the workforce. Here are some resume tips to help you get started:

1. Start by highlighting your skills and experience.

2. Include any relevant volunteer work or community involvement.

3. Be sure to list your education and any relevant coursework.

4. Tailor your resume to each job you apply for.

5. Use keywords from the job posting to help your resume stand out.

6. Use action verbs to describe your skills and experience.

7. proofread your resume carefully before submitting it.

By following these tips, you can create a strong resume that will help you get back into the workforce.

You may also like to read about:



don't let society make you feel as

though just because you're a mom or just

because you've been a stay-at-home mom

for three years that you are not

pressure out here in these job search

streets

hey y'all hey

welcome back to the official thompson

resume writing company youtube channel

where i share weekly tips and hints on

how to update refresh and or prepare

your resume and linkedin profile for

your job search along with some career

advice some job search tips and some

personal stories of my own i am tamika

thompson i am the owner and resume

writer at thomson resume writing company

and i specialize in transforming bland

lackluster resumes and linkedin profiles

into powerful selling tools that help

corporate mid-level management and

executive professionals land interviews

two times faster yes i do that i do all

of that and then some if you are new to

my channel welcome and i'm so happy that

you're here i hope that you enjoy this

video and you find the content valuable

enough to go ahead and hit the subscribe

button below if you are a returning

subscriber or a returning viewer thank

you so much for always continuing to

show my content some love thank you for

dropping you know comments in the

comment section thank you for sharing

the videos on like social media

and thank you for telling your friends

and family about the channel so that

they subscribe too i love love love it

so so much um for today's video since it

is the month of may and may is all about

celebrating moms and awarding moms and

recognizing how awesome and amazing moms

are today's video is going to share some

resume tips specifically for

stay-at-home moms who are looking to

transition back into the workforce and

back into the job market after taking

some time off let's get right into it

and really quick i have to give a

special shout out to my mom she watches

every single one of my videos you guys

without fail no matter how terrible it

is thank you mom for always sacrificing

for me and being the literally the best

mom that i could ever ask for i don't

even know what i would have asked for in

a mom but you have more than exceeded

all of that and then some i would not be

the businesswoman i am the career woman

i am just the woman i am in general

today without all of your love all of

your support and all of your

encouragement you inspire me every

single day and i love you so much and i

hope that this does not make you cry i

don't want you to cry i want you to

smile but happy mother's day and azan's

mom i love you if you didn't know there

are roughly 23 million working moms in

the united states and they make up

roughly 72 percent of the entire

workforce and when i say these women are

killing it these moms are killing it i

mean just that they are working

full-time jobs part-time jobs doing gig

jobs taking on contract roles taking on

individual projects and sometimes even

running their own small businesses all

while raising their kids and i stand i

love me a bad mama jama okay

and then you do have some moms who

choose to take a step back from their

careers and take a break from the nine

to five the 8 30 to 5 30 the 9 to 6 or

whatever the full time hustle and bustle

is to focus on raising their children

and manage their households and there is

nothing wrong with that and regardless

of the reason why they choose to do this

they should not be shamed for it they

should not be judged and they should not

be viewed any differently they still

have value and they're still pretty busy

like stay-at-home moms i don't know how

you guys do it literally trying to

manage my own home and work and it's

just me is a lot i do not know how you

guys do it with like one kid two kids

sometimes three kids it's a lot like how

are y'all surviving

but once stay-at-home moms decide that

they are ready to get back into the job

market for whatever reason so maybe baby

is now headed off to daycare or baby is

now headed into kindergarten in first

grade and now you're ready to get back

into the workforce or maybe you just

feel like it's just that time for you to

just get back into it it can be a little

challenging so a little challenging so

first things first is like how do you

put stay-at-home mom on your resume

right what do you include what tasks and

responsibilities should you have on

there should you give yourself the title

instead of stay-at-home mom and then

number two is that it can be a little

intimidating and sometimes stay-at-home

moms are apprehensive to explain the

true reason why they may have taken some

time off to raise their children so

maybe they may not feel comfortable

outwardly just straight up saying yeah i

took some time off to be a statement a

stay-at-home mom because they're afraid

of mom bias which is very real and sadly

there is a lot of stigma that

stay-at-home moms face when they are

trying to get back into the job market

when they're searching for jobs when

they're going on interviews and even

once they start the job the moment that

someone may get wind of the fact that

they are a mom or that they're a mother

or that they took some time off of work

to raise their kids instantly sometimes

they get judged and they get viewed

through a different lens

sometimes they face questions from

recruiters or interviewers about if

they're really ready to get back into

the market so are you really ready to

like part ways with spending time with

your kids all day which why should that

even be a question i mean obviously if

the person is applying to the job

clearly they're interested i don't even

know why we have to dig that deep into

it and then moms do face questions about

their dedication and if they're truly

committed to you know the role 100 even

though they're a mom which i don't even

know again why that is a thing because

moms are some of the best project

managers task managers time management

people that i have ever met okay

especially my mom she will manage like a

gazillion things all at once like most

moms do

and then lastly moms are questioned

sometimes on where work falls on their

list of priorities which i don't even

know why

you would expect me to choose my job

over my kid because obviously

and none of these questions are cool

like i don't like bias i don't like

stigmas i look i don't like

discrimination period that is not

something that i've ever stood for so

last month on my channel i talked about

ageism and how people

can face age discrimination during their

job search mom bias is no

is no exception like bias stigma is out

it's trash it's garbage it's whack all

of those things but we have to

acknowledge that it does exist

so if you are a mom who has decided to

take a step back from your career for

whatever reason it's okay it's fine

there's nothing wrong with it i am here

to tell you that it's fine even if other

people say something completely

different here are some resume tips

exclusively for you so number one is to

list stay-at-home mom on your resume as

you would any other job so just on your

resume how you have your former

positions listed you have your titles so

if you are accounting manager a brand

manager a marketing manager a

hospitality manager you can give

yourself the title of stay at home mom

or you can give yourself maybe like um

the lat your last name plus household

plus manager so me my last name is

thompson i'll use myself as an example

if i was a stay-at-home mom i could say

you know thompson household manager

and you can also use your last name plus

the household as the company name so

again using myself as an example if i

were a stay-at-home mom returning to the

workforce my job title would be

stay-at-home mom or thompson household

manager company name would be thompson

household or thompson home or maybe even

thompson family home there's a couple of

different variations you can use but

those are the three that tend to be the

most effective you'll also want to

include the month in the year that you

took your hiatus do put a dash and then

do current so if you took your hiatus in

march of 2020 it would read something

like you know thompson household manager

thompson family household you know march

2020 through current so do provide a

time frame of when you started your

stay-at-home mom hiatus and when you

took your career hiatus don't not put

anything there because if your last

position is the only thing that's on

there and maybe that was two years ago

obviously they are going to have some

questions and you're going to have a

huge gap on there that needs some

explaining

number two is to outline some of the

responsibilities that you do as a mom

for your job description so for whatever

reason again i don't know why people

think that stay-at-home moms are

chilling all day like they're just

laying on the couch sipping wine sipping

mimosas watching i don't know real

housewives of beverly hills but

stay-at-home moms probably work just as

hard if not more than the average or a

regular schmeguler employee and these

are facts

as a stay-at-home mom there is probably

a lot like a lot lot of things that you

are doing all day especially if you have

multiple kids like maybe you have three

or four kids or maybe more than that

plus a dog plus a cat you know plus your

husband or maybe you have you know a

family member or a loved one who is also

staying with you there is a lot that you

have going on and there is a way to

convey that on your resume here are some

tips and maybe some examples for you so

if you are caring for a newborn or maybe

you have twins or something like that

talk about the number of bottles that

you prepare you know every day because

at the end of the day that is a

responsibility you're you're responsible

for feeding this child keeping it

healthy

keeping it alive and making sure that

that baby is taken care of from the

moment like all i was going to say from

like 9-5 but no motherhood is like a

24-hour thing oh my goodness you can

tell that i don't have kids but um you

are responsible for that child all day

every day and so you are doing a lot to

make sure every

single need of that child is met and

taken care of you can also talk about

the activities that you take your kids

to so if you have kids who are in soccer

or in badminton or who are in baseball

or football or track you can talk about

the activities that you take your kids

to and all of the things that you have

to manage as a you know a sports mom or

a soccer mom or a dance mom because i do

know that that has its own set of

responsibilities within itself so you

have you know meets that you have to go

to you have uniforms that you probably

have to order you know you probably uh

network or team up with the other

parents on certain initiatives maybe

you're doing fundraisers for the team

you can include some of that in there as

well talk about how you manage the

family budget right so nine times out of

ten not always

but moms are typically in control of

household spending so you're managing

all the money that's coming into the

household and you're allocating where it

goes so you can talk about how you set

you know the household budget for food

and for target runs and for clothes and

stuff for the kids and maybe managing

repairs you know for the house or for

your home

you can talk about the number of bills

that you pay and how you keep all of the

accounts in good standing and you make

sure all of the bills are paid on time

maybe you're managing different doctor's

appointments right especially if you may

have a child or children who have

special needs that comes with a whole

new set of priorities and

responsibilities that you as a mom have

to manage and maybe you're managing

multiple appointments throughout the

week that is something to include on

your resume and again going back to you

know maybe if you have a newborn maybe

you're managing you know the different

schedules of the checkup appointments or

the that or the vaccination or the

different shots that baby has to get and

just managing your kids schedule overall

so maybe you drop them off at school at

like 7 30 a.m or 8 o'clock am you're up

super early you know cooking the kids

breakfast making sure that they're out

to the school bus on time and then you

pick them up at three o'clock so with

the next six hour gap you know what else

are you doing you can talk about you

know how you do laundry that's all

multitasking and time management

and for additional context you can also

include the age of your kids so

sometimes moms feel

not 100 comfortable

sharing the age of their kids or even

saying that they have kids in general

again because they do face that judgment

but to provide some context of maybe the

amount of work that you are doing each

day everyone knows or everyone should

know the amount of work and care and

time and commitment that a newborn takes

so if you can say you know i'm a

stay-at-home mom and the primary

caretaker for a five-month-old someone

may know oh my goodness you know she's

probably doing so much every single day

or you know what i'm the proud

stay-at-home mom of a four-year-old

and a six-year-old

if you want to take a step further you

can always include their names as well

again do not be ashamed to boast about

being a good mom a damn good mom at that

especially if you're managing all of

these tasks while keeping your kids

healthy keeping them safe keeping them

alive making sure that they're taken

care of and then doing all these things

around the house so again doing the

laundry paying the bills making sure the

house is clean making sure there's food

in the fridge like paying your property

taxes managing you know the lawn care

like there's a lot that goes into you

being a stay-at-home mom you're just not

sitting around twiddling your thumbs

you're doing stuff and so on your resume

you want to convey and clearly

communicate the types of things that you

are doing and don't think that those

things don't have any value right so

there's this notion that you know

stay-at-home moms are just stay-at-home

moms and they don't have a lot of value

and they don't have any skills that

could not be further from the truth

there are some stay-at-home moms that i

know that are some of the best

negotiators and again time managers that

i have ever met and there is 100 value

in the things that you do even though

you're not in a traditional you know

corporate nine-to-five type of

environment you don't need to have a

full-time job to feel like you have

value as a stay-at-mom as a stay-at-home

mom you do please remember that

number three is to give a brief one to

two sentence overview of the reason why

you decided to become a stay-at-home mom

so of course when a recruiter or a

hiring manager is going to read your

mess your resume and see that you've

decided to become a stay-at-home mom

they may come to conclu they may come to

some conclusions and or they may just

want to know the reason why and you can

just give a very brief statement you

don't have to go into super detail if

you don't want to you don't have to over

share but just give a general reason why

so maybe you are a first-time mom and

this is your first child and maybe you

just really wanted to be there for a

baby in the first you know two years of

their life to be a hands-on parent to

give yourself time to adapt and maybe

that you know maternity leave just

wasn't enough time for your body to heal

and you just realized like hey i really

just want to focus 100 on motherhood

or maybe you have been a working mom for

several years and you have just decided

you know what it's time for me to take a

break you know maybe my daughter or my

son is headed off to i don't know high

school or maybe junior high or maybe

they're going into elementary school and

maybe you just want to be a more

hands-on parent because you realize that

you haven't been maybe you realize you

were missing milestones or you weren't

able to be available for extracurricular

activities so maybe you missed some

dance recitals or some plays or some

basketball games that's okay too just

give a brief one-liner two-sentence max

on why you decided to become a

stay-at-home mom

and doing this and being this

transparent on upfront just eliminates

the hiring manager jumping to

conclusions or asking you these type of

questions in the interview you can also

include that one liner or that brief

little blurb in your cover letter as

well so they can read it in your clever

letter before they get to your resume

and they already know it they're you

know they're up to date they're up to

speed and then they you know also read

it again in your resume so in the

interview that may be a question that

they have that they may be able to skip

now so you've kind of knocked out maybe

two to three or even one to three

questions regarding why you decided to

become a stay-at-home mom

and again for whatever the reason do not

feel ashamed do not feel you know like

you have to hide it there is nothing

wrong with being a stay-at-home mom

listed proudly listed confidently and

you never know if the recruiter is also

a mom that can automatically be a way to

build rapport and to get the

conversation off on a good foot and to

allow them to maybe extend a little bit

more compassion or a little bit more

empathy because they're able to relate

to you and vice versa it can work to

your advantage and i'm all about using

anything and everything to your

advantage when it comes to getting a job

number four is to list mom groups and

organizations or communities that you've

become a part of as a mom or that you're

a member of as a mom so think local

community groups think facebook groups

think you know maybe the pta or any type

of school-based organizations that

you're a part of again going back to the

dance mom um example so maybe you are on

the board or maybe you're a really

active member in helping the kids get

ready for their recitals or maybe you

drive um the little pickup van to pick

all the kids up before practice and you

drop everybody off and you take them

back home that's something that you want

to put on there

because contrary to popular belief it

does count as experience and it also

demonstrates communication collaboration

teamwork and being able to work as part

of a group virtual groups and in person

groups so i know there are a lot of like

facebook groups out there and then you

have like there are some youtube groups

and then you have all types of online

communities right it doesn't matter if

it's virtual

or if it's in person if you are a member

and you're active and you're helping

plan events or you're helping you're

you're attending all of the events and

you're just very hands-on and you're at

every single event and you're doing

every fundraiser maybe you're printing

flyers that's something that you want to

put on there lastly if you have received

any awards or any recognition or any

kudos in these groups so maybe you were

the primary reason why the bake sale you

know sold 24 more cookies this year

because you

started using instagram stories to

promote it right maybe uh with the dance

team you were able to boost audience

participation or audience attendance by

30

by you know getting family members of

the kids who are dancing more involved

or something like that i'm just riffing

off the top of my head but if you

received any recognition if you played a

crucial part in the group succeeding

something or really accomplishing

something you definitely want to put

that on your resume number five is to

include the fact that you are a

returning mom or a stay a stay-at-home

mom that's getting back into the

workforce in your professional summary

so either in the first line or the first

sentence of your professional summary or

your professional overview or the first

bullet whichever one that you're using

make it known that you are a mama who is

ready to get back into the game just go

ahead and tackle that head on you don't

have to have the recruiter or the hiring

manager read all the way through your

information get to your experience and

then see that you're a stay-at-home mom

again put it in the cover letter put it

you know in your targeting statement and

then go ahead and put it in your

professional summary so you're making it

known like hey i'm ready to get back

into the swinging things or swing of

things i've taken some time off but i'm

ready now i'm returning you don't have

to say anything along the lines of you

know stay at home mom returning to the

workforce looking for a new opportunity

to do it or not because then it sounds

like an objective statement and that's

not what we want you want to go ahead

and just have it in the first sentence

but then launch directly into your

values so maybe you know a returning a

stay-at-home mom returning to the

workforce with you know 10 years of

experience in marketing

and experience managing 24 million

budgets just have that as the beginning

but then jump right into the value and

jump right into all of that quality

information and last on this list number

six is to choose the best layout that is

going to highlight your experience and

your skills so there are several types

of resume formats and layouts the most

popular is chronological specifically

reverse chronological and that is when

you list your jobs from the most recent

down to you know the

first one or the the beginning one and

then you have a hybrid resume which is a

blend of both and then you have a

functional resume which more so focuses

on

types of experience that are grouped

together so if you have been in

accounting for seven years and then you

were in marketing for three years and

now you're looking to transition into i

don't know let's say electrical

engineering again going off the top of

my head then you may use something along

the lines of a hybrid resume maybe not a

reverse chronological resume because

having that last position first they may

be like okay well she was a brand

manager or she was an accountant why is

she looking to you know do something

like this however if you are going back

into the workforce and you're continuing

along the same career path so you were a

marketing manager before and you're

going maybe for a marketing director

role then you are going to want to use a

reverse chronological format because

obviously your experience is already in

alignment

with functional and hybrid resumes they

are typically used for people who are

transitioning careers or people who have

like a lot of different types of

experience so again maybe you were an

accountant for two years maybe you were

a brand manager for three years and then

maybe you you know did electrical

engineering for two or three years and

then maybe you bopped over to i don't

know marine biology for four years those

are some examples where you may use a

resume format that's different from the

typical reverse chronological resume but

regardless of the format and the layout

that you ultimately select you

definitely want to make sure that it

starts out with that hard-hitting

professional summary y'all know i love

me a really good value-based keyword

enriched professional summary and then

you also want to make sure that you have

your related skills and competencies and

your related education certifications

educational accomplishments licenses and

things like that and of course if you

are part of any organizations

professional memberships you want to

have that on there as well and just as a

rule of thumb so that you know your

professional summary should be no more

than three to five sentences or three to

five bullet points and you should be

displaying at least seven skills but no

more than maybe 12 to 15.

so those are some simple resume tips for

stay-at-home moms who are looking to

craft a new resume to go ahead and get

right back into the job market i hope

that you found this helpful and please

do not get discouraged right like don't

let society make you feel as though just

because you're a mom or just because

you've been a stay-at-home mom for three

years that you are not pressure out here

in these job search streets and that you

are not able to perform in the workplace

like no you have value even though you

may have taken some time off you may not

be up to date with certain systems and

software but you definitely still have

some value and you definitely still have

a lot to bring to the table if you

enjoyed watching this video or if you

found it helpful when you learn

something new go ahead and give me a

like go ahead and give me a thumbs up

and feel free to comment below if you

know something in this video or a

particular tip stood out to you um if

you need assistance with your resume and

you are a stay-at-home mom i am

accepting clients for the month of may

feel free to email me directly at hello

thompsonresumes.com

you can also visit my website at

www.thomsonresumes.com

lastly

i would like to encourage you to please

subscribe to my tamika's careerte

newsletter list i'll go ahead and drop

the link below for you to go ahead and

sign up i do send weekly emails that

provide resume linkedin and career tips

and hacks as well as notifying my email

list as soon as a youtube video drops

also if you want to go ahead and connect

with me on linkedin my profile name is

tamika thompson you can also follow me

on instagram at underscore mika thompson

and again shout out to all of the

amazing moms out there i feel like you

guys only get

true recognition during the month of may

but moms are amazing i've seen first

hand with some co-workers like just how

they sacrifice for their kids and how

their kids motivate them at work and and

motivate them to you know get through

the work day and even put up with

certain things moms truly don't get the

recognition that they deserve all the

time so again if you are a mom and

you're watching this video shout out to

you round of applause to you because i

am more than confident that you are

probably doing an amazing job and i hope

that you found this video helpful and it

provided you with some tips on how to

craft your resume for your upcoming job

search if you need additional job search

support or just need some job search

ideas i highly recommend checking out

the job search playlist that i have on

my channel i do have a lot of videos on

there talking about how to create a

tactical and intentional job search

strategy and some job search mistakes to

avoid go ahead and check them out if you

do need that type of content

thank you guys so much for watching

especially if you made it to the end of

this video and i will see you all next

week with another video that is either

going to help change or upgrade your

entire career resume linkedin

life bye you guys

you

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