7 Resume Tips for Stay-at-Home Parents

This story originally appeared on FlexJobs.

Stay-at-home parents may feel a bit insecure when they decide to re-enter the workforce. It’s completely natural.

Rather than feel stressed about it, find your inner confidence and let it shine.

Once you have your butt-kicking pants on, start plotting your next big move.

The following resume tips for stay-at-home parents are sure to help!

1. Don’t hide it

The first (and probably obvious) question stay-at-home moms and dads often wonder is, “Should I mention my stay-at-home status to employers?”

FlexJobs career coach Toni Frana advises stay-at-home parents returning to the workforce not to hide the fact that their main job has been parenting.

“Mention it as a planned career break. Include a bullet on your resume like this: ‘An intentional pause to focus on full-time caregiving. Excited and energized to return to work,'” Frana says. “This addresses the choice to stay home and also indicates you’re ready and looking forward to reentering the workforce.”

Don’t gloss over your stay-at-home status on the cover letter, either. Rather than trying to hide the fact that you are a stay-at-home parent, briefly touch on it and then move on.

Use the remainder of the cover letter to wow them with all the things that you can do, the skills you have, and how you can contribute to the job and the company.

2. Pick the right resume

If the last time you wrote a resume was a while ago, you’ll need to update and revamp yours.

Though you should always customize your resume and tailor your cover letter to the specific job you’re applying for, it helps to have a resume template ready to go. This will make customizing it a snap.

There are three kinds of resume formats:

• Chronological resume: List your work experience in date order from most recent to earliest.
• Functional resume: Your skills are grouped by type (communication, time management), then briefly mention your work history at the bottom using only employment dates and titles.
• Hybrid resume: This resume takes the best of a chronological resume and a functional resume and combines it in one.

Each resume type has pros and cons, so take all of them into consideration before committing to one.

However, no matter what kind of resume format you choose, don’t skip the skills section (or qualifications summary). It’s something you definitely want to include, especially if you’re re-entering the workforce after some time away.

Frana advises that resumes for stay-at-home moms and dads place the skills section at the top of the resume: “This allows you to highlight the relevant skills you have for the job, and it helps a hiring manager start to visualize you in the role when they start scanning your document.”

3. Filling in gaps

One of the obstacles stay-at-home parents face when returning to work is the gap in their employment history. But by thinking creatively about every experience you had while you were at home, you may find that you have far more professional skills than you realized.

Did you work part-time or run a home-based business? What about volunteer activities? Perhaps you were a freelancer once or twice? It all counts and can be listed on your resume.

However, don’t exaggerate your experiences. For example, if you were a member of the PTA, it would be unwise to say “Ran large local educational charity entity,” even if you were the president for a few years.

However, if you chaired a major fundraiser and have demonstrable or quantifiable results that are related to the position you’re applying for, you can mention that.

4. Get an update

One of the things employers worry about when hiring someone who’s been out of the workforce for a while is that their skills are out of date.

To help reduce that fear, take some classes and get some certifications under your belt.

For example, Slack and Google have online tutorials you can take advantage of so you know what a Slack Channel is versus a Google Meet.

LinkedIn offers tons of learning classes — and many are free if you belong to your public library.

5. Consider going digital

While you’re at it, consider creating a personal portfolio website that complements your resume.

You can put together a free website that highlights your relevant and recent work samples and helps employers get a better idea of what you’re capable of.

6 Use LinkedIn

If a personal website isn’t the right fit, turn to LinkedIn. It’s a great place to create a digital presence for yourself that you can easily share with potential employers.

LinkedIn has the added advantage of being a professional social networking site, so you can start your networking efforts online.

“Build your LinkedIn profile and start engaging with others to grow your connections and become more visible to hiring managers,” Frana says. “This might also open opportunities with people who could help guide someone returning to the workforce and recommend specific skills to be a more competitive applicant.”

7. Highlight lessons from the pandemic

While many of our above employment gap conquering tips hold true, job seekers may fear that the longer they are out of a job, the rustier their tech skills become.

Fortunately, Frana offers this tip: “Use this time at home to build any skills for the jobs you’re seeking. If you’re home with school-age kids, there is already skill-building happening in terms of technology tools.”

You’ve probably had to become a Zoom expert, internet connection troubleshooter and cloud workspace aficionado. These are all skills you can add to your resume!