Re-entering the workforce after years of being home with your kids can be intimidating. You may feel as though your skills are out-of-date or that prospective employers will be put off by the gap in your work history. Do not fret, employers understand taking time away from the workforce to be home with your growing family as a perfectly valid reason.
Here are 6 tips to help re-enter the workforce:
1. Staffing Agency
A staffing agency will help match you with the perfect job, serving as a well-connected middleman. In many cases, staffing agencies are aware of job openings that aren’t advertised online. Staffing agencies listen to your job requirements and preferences, take a good look at your experience and skills, and then match you with a job that’s a suitable fit.
2. Hire a Professional
A skilled resume writer will be able to present your previous work experience, education, soft skills, volunteer work, and other qualifications in a way that is credible, clear, and gets the attention of hiring managers. Professionally written resumes are polished and convincing, expertly incorporate keywords to get past pesky keyword scanning software, and simply help you stand out, no matter how long you’ve been away from the workforce.
3. Soft Skills
Surveys and studies show that soft skills are very important to hiring managers, and can often be the determining factor between two candidates with similar qualifications. Emphasizing skills like organization, clear and persuasive communication, leadership, and time management (all of which you use every day as a mom) on your resume will demonstrate that you have the type of personality and work style companies are looking for.
4. Career Coaching
Many moms re-entering the workforce realize they aren’t sure what types of jobs they’re qualified for or interested in. Just because you worked in a specific industry ten years ago before you had kids doesn’t mean you are obligated to go back to that exact role and field.
Career coaching can help you explore new possibilities and then narrow your focus to jobs you are interested in. Interview coaching will help you gain confidence in order to become more dynamic and polished in an interview setting, which is especially important when it’s been years since your last job interview.
5. Strengthen Your Skills
Brushing up on skills, especially in the area of technology, will show employers that the gap in your work history is nothing to be concerned about. Taking classes or becoming certified in skills like coding, business writing, SEO, and social media management will demonstrate that your skill set is up-to-date and modern, and may even open doors to new career paths you hadn’t previously considered.
6. Network, Network, Network5. Strengthen Your Skills
Networking often leads to job leads you wouldn’t know about and can give you an edge over applicants who are applying online without knowing anyone at the company. Put together a professional LinkedIn profile, begin attending local networking events, and mention your job search to people you interact with on a daily basis, including other moms.
Focus on presenting your job search in a positive and enthusiastic manner during your networking efforts, instead of downplaying your skills or talking about how unprepared you feel.
Contact us and we can help you land a job in no time! For more tips on re-entering the workforce, check out this blog post.