The team at Resumeble has to deal with a lot of resume writing tasks that come from full-time parents who are returning the work, and perhaps the most common attitude is that the parents have to re-gain their lost ground. It is almost like they feel they jumped off the train a while ago, and now have to run to catch up to one of the open train cars. This feeling of having to re-build something that is lost is quite common and is quite unrealistic. You are not starting from scratch, nor are you appealing to employers with cap in hand. You are a strong, productive and powerful member of the team. In reality, you are the champion sports player who the teams are vying to recruit before you fully explode onto the scene. Here are some resume tips to help you make a dynamic entrance back into the work force.
There is No Elephant in the Room
You may think you have to explain away your absence from the workforce, but simply writing “Full-time Parent” in the gap in your employment is quite enough. The HR team probably won’t even realize the gap at first if you actually fill it with the full-time parent comment. These people also have kids and are planning to have kids, so they understand that you being out of work for an extended period is not a bad (or negative) thing.
State Your Career Goals
If you are taking a job because you want a job, and not because you are hunting for a career, then you can leave your career goals off the resume. However, if you are looking to pursue a career, then state your career goals. Let the world know that this is not just another job between kids. You can add three bullet points near the beginning of your resume, or you can state your career goals in the introduction to your resume.
Introducing Your Resume
Keep it short, and don’t keep it too generic. Change your resume to suit the job you are applying for. The generic openers are so obvious that you are almost begging the reader to skim through your resume without giving it a second thought. Do mention your career goals and/or why you want the job, but do not mention that you are or were a stay-at-home parent. Remember that your biggest selling point is you, and not what you have been doing for the last few years.
Keep Absolutely Everything Positive
Do not try to explain things away, do not try to excuse a poor grade in your qualification, and don’t try to buffer the negative comments that your last employer may make. Keep everything positive and upbeat. If something was hard to do, then say you enjoyed the challenge. If something was a miserable slog, say it was an enriching and worthwhile journey. With this in mind, you should look over your social media and your public profile because the HR teams will look at your social media, and if they see a bunch of negative stuff that conflicts with your resume, then they will probably not hire you.
Keep The Details ATS Friendly
In other words, you need to keep things brief and concise, but you also need to make your resume as readable as possible for automatic tracking software. This means that if a certain job taught you lots of skills, then mention every single one of those skills. If you had mostly awful jobs and then a really good one, then have a longer section on that job in your resume and be sure to mention the names of the relevant hardware and software you used. That way, if the ATS is looking for keywords like Microsoft Office or spreadsheets, then it will find them on your resume.
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