If you’d like to get back into the workforce after spending some time as a stay-at-home parent, your first step is to craft a resume that illustrates your skills and qualifications. These could be various attributes you developed before you took time off work, as well as any new skills or experiences you’ve picked up at home. For example, if you managed a parent group, volunteered, or took on freelance jobs, include those. You can also list child care and household-related duties if relevant to the positions you’re seeking, such as working with children.
Review the tips and examples below to get your resume ready for your job search.
If you’re a stay-at-home parent, craft your resume the same as you would for any other profession. The main difference is you can also include any skills you’ve built or experiences you’ve had during your time outside of the workforce. Your stay-at-home parent resume should include these sections:
Include your pertinent contact information, including your name, phone number, and email address. You can also include your city and state, as well as links to any relevant online portfolio, website, or LinkedIn profile.
Your Name
(123) 456-7890
[email protected]
City, State Abbreviation Zip Code
LinkedIn | Portfolio
Start your resume with a few sentences that summarize your workforce experience as well as how your time as a stay-at-home parent has prepared you for new challenges and opportunities. Grab the attention of the recruiter by sharing your top qualifications and specializations.
A versatile stay-at-home parent and seasoned professional offering extensive experience spanning child care, education, household management, and business leadership. A proven track record of strategic decision-making, problem-solving, and communication skills in previous roles as senior project manager and marketing associate in top-tier organizations. Diverse educational background in child development and family and consumer sciences.
Your resume should include the specific skills that make you a viable candidate for the position you’re seeking. Some hard skills might include early childhood education, budgeting, and project management, while soft skills can include communication and problem-solving. Be strategic when selecting which skills you want to include and match them to what each company is looking for.
Hard Skills | Soft Skills |
---|---|
Child care | Adaptability |
Crisis management | Communications |
Financial management | Organization |
Negotiation | Problem-solving |
Project management | Time management |
The words you use on your stay-at-home parent resume can be even more important than someone doing traditional work. Impactful verbs can illustrate your strengths and showcase your accomplishments in a vivid way. If you can find a way to start each bullet point of your professional experience section with an action verb rather than simply listing daily tasks, it can keep the reader engaged. Consider incorporating some of these powerful verbs into your resume:
Action Verbs | |
---|---|
Communicated | Coordinated |
Counseled | Created |
Guided | Implemented |
Improved | Organized |
Oversaw | Resolved |
This section should list the skills you’ve developed as a stay-at-home parent and in your former working positions, along with the dates of employment. Highlight quantifiable achievements and accomplishments wherever possible.
Stay-At-Home Parent
April 2022 – present
Senior Project Manager, XYZ Corporation, Denver, CO
January 2017 – April 2022
Marketing Associate, ABC Inc., San Diego, CA
April 2012 – December 2016
Whenever you can use data and numbers to quantify the value you’ve brought to previous roles, it can help hiring managers understand what you have to offer. For example, if you help increase donations by a certain percentage as a volunteer PTA parent, that would be an achievement worth mentioning.
Customizing your resume for the specific jobs you’re applying for can position you as a better match. You can start by looking over the job posting carefully and including some of the same key phrases throughout your resume. Or, you might highlight a particular skill set more for one company and another one for a different employer. This approach can give you better results than simply sending a generic resume out to everyone.
If you’ve been a stay-at-home parent for a while and are feeling like previous experience is irrelevant or outdated, do not worry. It’s likely that you have more skills and experience to offer than you might realize.
Include some of the parental and household duties you’ve been managing, along with any volunteer work. As for past positions you’ve held, some skills stay with you and are highly transferable, like being a strong communicator or good at analyzing data. Also, focus on your ability to learn new skills, adaptability, and potential rather than what you might be lacking.
If you are a stay-at-home parent who has been out of the workforce for a bit, sharing your educational credentials can help show your qualifications. Include any degrees or certificates you have earned along with the corresponding institution’s name and year of completion.
Bachelor in Family and Consumer Sciences, 2017
University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Bachelor of Science in Child Development, 2010
University of California, Davis, CA
Your Name
(123) 456-7890
[email protected]
City, State Abbreviation zip code
LinkedIn | Portfolio
A versatile stay-at-home parent and seasoned professional offering extensive experience spanning household management and business leadership. A proven track record of strategic decision-making, problem-solving, and communication skills in previous roles as senior project manager and marketing associate in top-tier organizations. Diverse educational background in child development and family and consumer sciences.
Stay-At-Home Parent
April 2022 – present
Senior Project Manager, XYZ Corporation, Denver, CO
January 2017 – April 2022
Marketing Associate, ABC Inc., San Diego, CA
April 2012 – December 2016
Bachelor in Family and Consumer Sciences, 2017
University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Bachelor of Science in Child Development, 2010
University of California, Davis, CA
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