By Khalilah Starks
One of the greatest joys for a parent can be having the opportunity to stay at home full-time with their children. However, at some point, many parents decide to re-enter the workforce and are faced with a common issue – handling the gap in employment on their resume. So, how do you fill in the gaps on your resume that have been created while at home with the kids? You fill them up with volunteer work, part-time jobs, businesses, and additional education that you may have attained during your time at home.
Employers are actually okay with employment gaps if you can explain what you’ve been doing to gain skills that can easily transfer to the job that you’re pursuing. Great experience can be paid or unpaid. And, as long as you have acquired skills that are relevant to your career objective, it should be included on your resume.
Volunteer Experience. Your participation in the PTA is more valuable than you may think, especially if you take on a leadership role. In fact, leadership skills happen to be one of the most highly sought after skills that employers look for in job candidates. Whether it’s for your local PTA, church, or any other organization that is near and dear to your heart, volunteering can provide you with many transferable skills that will look great on your resume. Some of the many skills that you can develop through volunteering include planning, organizing, problem solving, teamwork and customer service. Perhaps you have a passion for accounting and have volunteered in the accounting department for a local organization. These types of experiences are highly valuable and should definitely be included on your resume.
Part-time Job or Business. Your part-time job or business should also be included on your resume in the Professional Experience section. Even if you only work 10 hours a week, the experience that you gain from a part-time job can offer valuable skills that employers will want to know about. If you own your own business or simply have a side business, this experience should also be included. Entrepreneurial experience not only shows your leadership skills, but also shows your ability to plan, self-motivate, take initiative and achieve results. These are skills that are highly valued by employers.
Education. In addition to helping you acquire the skills necessary to reenter the workforce, continuing your education can also help address some of the time that you’ve spent away from the workforce. For example, if you’ve been at home with your children for five years, but spent three of those years working towards your degree, you should make the Education section on your resume more prominent so that it is clear that you have been a student during some of the time that is unaccounted for in the Professional Experience section.
Resume Layout. A great strategy to fill in those gaps is to choose a resume layout that will feature your volunteer experience, part-time jobs, businesses, and recently acquired education prominently so that employers can easily see the skills that you have attained during your time as a stay-at-home parent.
A traditional resume for an experienced professional could be structured as follows:
Summary of Qualifications → Professional Experience → Technical Skills → Volunteer Activities → Education
A resume for a stay-at-home parent that recently completed a degree and has volunteer experience could be structured as follows:
Summary of Qualifications → Education → Volunteer Experience → Professional Experience → Technical Skills
There are several resume layouts and section headings to choose from. The key is choosing a layout and section headings that will accentuate the positives in your background and prominently highlight the skills that are most relevant to your career objective.
Khalilah Starks has a human resources background and currently works for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Business Career Services where she assists business students with their job searches. In addition to helping students achieve their career goals, she is the founder of High Powered Professional (www.highpoweredprofessional.com), a blog dedicated to providing students and professionals advice about the job search and career development process.