Returning to Work after Having Children

Few job seekers face higher hurdles than at-home parents trying to return to work do. Much has changed in the past 5-10 years – job boards and keyword scanning software are probably completely new concepts, and much has stayed the same – networking is still the way most people find opportunities. With tenacity, a willingness to learn, and solid marketing tools, parents can be back in the swing again soon.

Do what you love. Some parents left thriving careers to raise their children, while others had kids earlier in life. In either case, this is the perfect opportunity to find a career that makes your heart beat a little faster. Returning to school for a degree or certificate will assure your future employer that you have the training to do the job while demonstrating your interest in that field of work. If you loved what you were doing before, it may be more appealing to pick up where you left off.

Don’t apologize for the gap in employment. Just because your decision to raise your children created a difficult return to the workforce, it doesn't mean it wasn’t the right decision. Your experience with kids might even make you more qualified for certain roles than someone without them. If you were in marketing before having children, for example, consider a marketing role where the focus is on appealing to parents. Some employers, particularly those in the sales industry, will see your break as a good thing. They may want to train you on their way of doing things and will value your fresh perspective.

Employ a pro. Consider hiring a professional resume writer to keyword optimize your resume while giving voice to your accomplishments. For most people, figuring out all of the components of a truly great resume is not a good return on your investment of time. It is much better to spend your time networking and learning, no one can do that for you.

Give yourself credit for having life experience and maturity. In many companies, hiring managers would rather choose someone known to be sane and stable than take a chance on a “fresh” grad. Your task is to figure out how that maturity would benefit the employer and then help them see it.

Consider networking with parents who have already done what you want to do. Ask them how they did it, talk about what they like about their jobs and what surprises they encountered after resuming their careers. Also, check out networking groups that are industry related; the professional associations section of www.iloveseattle.org is a good place to look or do an Internet search. Be an interested and helpful networker; seek out ways to be a resource to those in your network.

Not ready to return to work yet? Consider volunteering to keep your skills sharp. Plan an event for the pet shelter, fix the local non-profit’s network, or put the church bake sale on Facebook. Companies value community service and you will have relevant experience to put on your resume.

Parents who are smarter about preparing to return to work have a much easier time of it. By networking, sharpening your skills and updating your presentation (resume, interview skills and appearance), you will have an advantage over your competition.

Should I use an objective statement on my resume?

Q. I've been talking with a career mentor who told me to get rid of my objective statement at the top of my resume. She seems to think the statement is useless, and just takes up space that I could be using to help give a thorough snapshot of myself with my resume, and that the place for such statements is in the cover letter, and not the resume. Why do you think the objective statement on a resume is so important, and what should be included in that statement? I'm having a hard time wording an objective statement that is broad enough, yet brief. I have an idea of what my "perfect" job would be like, but since I probably won't find that with my brief experiences having just graduated from college in this economy, I don't want to close any doors where I might have a chance of finding full-time employment.

A. Great question! I'll answer with a story from my recruiting days. When I was recruiting for a publicly traded party goods company, there was one point where I had four positions open in marketing - marketing coordinator, marketing project manager, marketing director and vice president of marketing. When I'd exhausted my network for suitable candidates (they were niche roles - the candidates had to have experience marketing kids products) and started placing ads, I got blasted with applicants. I saw hundreds of resumes, many with "seeking a position in marketing" as an objective, or no objective whatsoever.

As a recruiter, I wasn't a marketing specialist, and while I probably knew more about marketing than many other recruiters, I didn't know enough to read people's minds and discern from their work histories (which I had all of 10 seconds or so to scan) what level of position they'd be best suited for, be happiest in, etc. Most of the time, I was left feeling that if this person couldn't market themselves properly, how were they ever going to effectively market the company's party goods? Someone with a clear, non self-serving objective that told me exactly what they wanted got farther in the process than someone who had a self-serving or absent objective.

Here's an objective statement I wrote recently for someone seeking a marketing job, "Results-driven sales and marketing professional with extensive experience in retail and corporate environments seeks to contribute marketing project coordination skills and an eye for design in a position with .

My client will personalize it each time, to make it clear she wants to work for THAT company (not just anybody) and wants to work in THAT role (knowing full well that a job title on her resume's objective statement will not keep her out of consideration for other positions for which she might be equally or better suited). Plus, it adds another incidence of the target job title on the resume - highly likely to be used as a keyword if the company is using a keyword scanner. I followed with a few supportive statements that emphasized her marketing accomplishments in an opening paragraph. Note that the word "objective" is never a keyword (talk about wasted space!), so I replace that phrase with a headline - often including the job title.

These reasons, coupled with the fact that, according to my research, (conducted personally over many years and gathered from other sources,) 80% of hiring managers never read the cover letter (yet notice when it's missing and take points off), are enough for me to include objective statements on every resume I write. Of course, elaboration in the letter which demonstrates goodness of fit and the reason one is interested in the position, is always a good thing - for the 20% of hiring managers who will actually read it.

I'm a career changer, shouldn't I use a functional resume?

It's functional resume questions week! (Yes, these things go in waves.)

"My experience isn't related to what I want to do; shouldn't I use a functional resume?"

And the crowd says, "No, No, NO!"

Using functional resumes is risky. It has been my experience, and that of many of my fellow recruiters who are actively recruiting, that hiring managers and recruiters alike hate them. They wonder what you are hiding and often suspect the worst. This may not be such an issue if you already have love at a company and are sure they aren't going to "judge" you (read - toss your resume) for appearing to cover up some significant flaw by using a functional resume. Even then, why would you want to?

My vision for the resumes I write for career changers is to show a successful (if ostensibly unrelated) work history headed by a profile describing interest and goodness of fit for the opportunity at hand, using examples of your directly related experience whenever possible. Hiring managers want to see WHY someone is making a big shift. They want it to be because you love what they do and want to be a part of it. Then, they want to know if you are any good at your current occupation and they will likely extrapolate that you'll bring similar success to their organization. Functional resumes don't show this, hence the pervasive suspicion of them among hiring managers.

I recently worked with a Bollywood DJ who had nearly no PM experience, but wanted to work as a Project Manager at Microsoft. I did just as I described above and emphasized his successes and his abilities to pull concerts together, etc., and voila, he was hired. I had faith in him; soon, he had faith in himself too. Had I glossed over his seemingly non-related experience by writing a functional resume, I’m convinced he never would have gotten a second glance.

I’ve done this myself. As a mental health counselor, I had no recruiting experience when I was hired. None. How did I get the job? By emphasizing transferrable skills.

“So, Ms. Walser, have you ever sold anything?”
“Well, I sold a schizophrenic man on the idea that he shouldn’t discuss his belief that he was Jesus while at work.”

“Hmmm, have you ever dealt with clients who are upset that their new employee didn’t show up for work? How would you retain that client?”
“Well, I convinced a man who was sure he could fly not to jump off the third-level deck at the Kingdome during a Mariners game…”

Hired!

If I can do it, so can you. Don’t sell yourself short. What you did before MATTERS!

On the radio, whoa, oh, oh...

...it sounded really loud
they said it really loud
on the radio whoa oh oh
on the radio whoa oh oh
on the radio whoa oh oh
on the radio whoa oh oh
on the radio whoa oh oh
on the radio, radio, radio

I had the fun experience of being on The Good Life radio program Monday. If I do it right, you'll be able to hear it via the video link. Try it!

Maurice and Vanessa interviewed me about my business, including resume writing, interviewing and a bit about job search strategy. It was a blast.

The highlight of the day was meeting the original Clay Huntington, KLAY's (get it?) station owner. Clay claims to be 86, but I'm not so sure I believe him. He was adorable. Before getting into radio in the early 60s, he was a sportscaster. Very cool!

Enjoy the broadcast!

Get the pink slip?

So it's over. You'll miss that large fake palm in the corner of the lobby. You know the one, the one the new guy always got in their office until they wised up and put it back in the lobby? You'll miss the new guy too, and especially the long-timers.

Before you leave your job (assuming there's a transition period), do everything you can to connect with each person with whom you have a connection. It doesn't matter how random - maybe it's the guy you always parked next to, maybe your buddy who always ate Indian food with you, or the cute receptionist - but especially your co-workers, your subordinates and your boss. Let them know you'll miss them, be sure to get their phone number and email address, add them to your LinkedIn contacts right away.

Then, stay in touch! People that like and respect you want to have lunch or coffee with you. They want to know how your kids are and whether you've broken par yet. If you decide to go a different direction with your career, let them know. They might have a sister/cousin/neighbor/former co-worker in that industry. Get a new resume? Email it to everyone who likes you and/or whom you respect. Say something cute if it suits you, like, “Here’s my shiny new resume, in case you forgot how wonderful I am.” Whatever - just get it out there so people don’t have to remember all your skills and talents when they’re chatting up their Uncle Hal. They’ll remember you’re an analyst and if Hal is interested, they can forward your resume to him.

Then, get out of the house! Go to industry meetings, attend training seminars, and go to job fairs. Let people who may know someone who needs you get to know you enough to where you become a three-dimensional human being, not just a piece of paper (resume) applying for a job. Work at really getting to know a couple people at each place you go to on a more than just professional basis. People remember people they care about, or those that inspire, amuse or teach them. In addition, attending these events cements the idea that you're really committed to the industry, even if it's a brand new one for you. You'll learn something, have a cookie and be able to put the industry membership or new skill on your resume.

Remember that in every interaction, you're demonstrating how you'll be as a co-worker, boss or subordinate. Will you be natural, insightful and fun? That's whom I'd want to work with! I went to a recruiting industry meeting a couple of weeks ago and folks from Getty were there speaking. They shared a statistic that I've known to be true from my corporate recruiting days - 60% of the folks they hired last year for open positions were referred by someone at Getty or someone who knew someone at Getty. It's who you know. Does that sound bad? It shouldn't. Consider that I trust our mutual contact not to steer you my way if you're obnoxious, careless or otherwise unsuitable. Right there you're more "valuable" than the pieces of paper on my desk. They could be complete whack jobs, but you're golden if someone refers you.

So dry your tears and get out there!

This stuff makes my day!

Date: 3/03/2008
Subject: I got the job
Hello Jill,
Today, I started my new job at Cisco, thanks in part to the resume you created for me. Your attention to details and industry insight are invaluable which result in an honest, yet high-impact resume. Thank you.

I get “I got the job!” letters like this all the time and they always warm my heart, but this one is special. This gentleman, for a variety of reasons, hadn't worked for eight years.

I've had several conversations this week with clients about what is "realistic" for them in terms of what jobs they are likely to land with their shiny new resumes, given their work histories, education, etc. What's amazing to me is the lack of correlation between their accomplishments and their perception of whether they'll be victorious in finding a great job. Wildly successful individuals can have terrible self-confidence.

While my answer isn't always comfortable for people to hear, it's always the same. YOU choose how far you can go. YOU choose whether you are going to work towards a goal, or decide (or let someone decide for you) that you can't attain it. I will do my best to position you as a good fit for whatever goal you pick (and I think I do a darn good job at it), but you are the one who truly controls your future. Even if you haven't tried for years, as my client above illustrates, at ANY point you can decide to get back in the game.

Will it be hard? Absolutely! Is it possible? Of course! Think of the people you admire - the people who set their sights high despite improbably high odds and just went for it. Those folks never cared whether someone (their mother, their spouse, their high school math teacher) thought they could do it; they just went right ahead and did it. Were most of them scared to death? Probably, but so what? Those that let fear, or other people, or something they’ve read dictate their options are not running their own lives.

As the former CEO of the corporation said as I left to run my own business, "No guts, no glory." I couldn't agree more. The gentlemen above, who authored that email, has guts. And my admiration.