Are you a stay-at-home mom looking for a job? Then you’ll need to know how to write a stand-out resume. Katye Grady from Teal puts it this way:
“In today’s dynamic and competitive job market, learning how to make your resume stand out is the key to landing your dream job. The good news is with a bit of effort and strategic thinking, you can create a memorable, eye-catching, strong resume that grabs attention immediately.”
Today, I’m here to show you how to write a resume for stay at home moms. I’ll give you the best resume template with a sample. I’ll also include some advice when you reenter the workforce. So let’s get started!
How to Write a Stay-At-Home Mom Resume
It’s crucial to note that a recruiter or hiring manager only takes six to seven seconds to scan a resume. In that time, you want to be able to grab their attention. To do that, I’ll show you how to write a resume for stay at home mom:
- Format your resume
- Contact information
- Professional summary
- Skills
- Experience
- Education
- Additional information
1. Format your resume
One of the first things that recruiters and hiring managers notice is the resume format. Lotus Buckner, an HR and Recruiting Executive, says:
“Recruiters and hiring managers notice unprofessional resumes and associate them with a lack of attention to detail. Ineffective resumes may include features that distract from the content, or the content itself may be overly wordy, vague, or confusing.”
💡It’s very important to use the right format. But what is the right format? For a stay-at-home parent, the best format to use is a functional resume. This type of resume format focuses on your skills rather than previous work experience.
Melissa, a mother of 2, said this in Quora:
“The first page of my resume covers my key skills, and then my major achievements. After all, that’s what employers really want to know about – what I can do, and what I’ve actually achieved.”
Besides that, you can also follow these formatting tips:
- Use the font Arial or Times New Roman to give your resume a professional look.
- Use a 10 or 12 font size to make it big enough to read.
- Put a 1-inch margin on all sides to give it a clean look.
- Add a lot of white space to make it easy to read.
- Highlight the important information, such as your name and headers, by bolding it.
- Try as much as possible to make your resume fit 1 page, unless you have a lot of skills and experience to boast.
Read More: Should You Use a Resume Template? The Pros and Cons
2. Contact details
You need to make it easy for the recruiter to contact you. This is why the first thing you need to include is your contact details. Put in your name, phone number, email address, and residency (city and state). If necessary, you can also add a link to your portfolio.
This is what it should look like:
[First Name] [Last Name]
[Phone number] | [Email address] | [City], [State]
[Relevant links]
3. Professional summary
A lot of people don’t usually include a resume summary. However, if you want to stand out among the rest, it’s a good idea to give a quick take about YOU.
This section is where you briefly define your relevant skills, previous work experience, education, and career goals. Don’t make it too long. 2 to 3 sentences is good enough. Remember, this is just an introduction to what you’re going to expand on later.
If you want, you can hint that you’re a stay-at-home mom or dad. But don’t put too much focus on that. You’ll get to explain soon enough. Instead, focus on what you did, what you can offer, and what you’re looking for.
Here’s a sample of a good professional summary for a mom looking to be a writer:
Enthusiastic and detail-oriented [writer or stay-at-home mom] with a proven track record in crafting compelling content. Armed with [your skill, work experience, degree] in [your field], I bring a blend of creativity and precision to every project. Eager to contribute my skills and passion for storytelling in a dynamic writing role that fosters both personal and professional growth.
Read More: How to Write a Stay at Home Mom Cover Letter (With Samples)
4. Skills
If you’re writing a functional resume, you first list down the relevant skills from the job description. So make sure you read the job posting carefully and find any skill that matches it.
Now, when talking about your skills, you can include technical skills from your previous work, soft skills that you’ve gained over the years, and transferable skills from your stay-at-home duties. Some common transferable skills include communication, leadership, schedule management, accounting, and adaptability, to name a few.
To make an even greater impact, you can add a bullet point section that explains the impressive achievements you garnered with a specific skill.
Here are some stay-at-home mom skills on resume examples:
[Skill] Schedule Management
- Successfully managed a hectic schedule for 3 children. They were never late and were able to attend all school appointments and activities.
[Skill] Accounting
- Created weekly grocery budgets. I was able to reduce the overall spending by 10% over 2 years.
Read More: Stay at Home Mom to Working Mom Transition: Everything You Need to Know
5. Experience
In this section of your resume, write your work experience in chronological order. Of course, you’ll need to explain your employment gap. Don’t worry, you can use any job title that relates to a stay-at-home parent. You can simply add ‘full-time mom’, ‘caregiver’, ‘family manager’, or even ‘director of operations’.
Under the job title you choose, you can explain the responsibilities you had while parenting your children. You may also want to include any freelance or volunteer work you did during your time as a stay-at-home parent. Again, read the job description and match any experience/responsibility that will make you a perfect fit for the position.
Here’s a stay at home mom job description for resume:
[Job Title] Full-Time Mom [Month/Year – Present]
- Orchestrated daily schedules for family members, balancing school, extracurricular activities, and personal commitments.
- Streamlined household routines to optimize productivity and create a harmonious living environment.
- Facilitated open and effective communication between family members to ensure smooth coordination of activities and responsibilities.
When that’s done, you can list your professional experiences, if you have any. Don’t forget to include the dates, your job title, the employer or company name, and the location. It’s also wise to list your achievements for each job experience section instead of just the tasks that you did.
Evan Donaldson from Talentry LLC explains why achievement-based resumes are better than task-based ones.
“A task-oriented resume simply lists what you did in your previous roles, without showing how well you did it or how it benefited your employer. An accomplishment-oriented resume, on the other hand, showcases your achievements and outcomes, using numbers, percentages, or other metrics to quantify your results.”
6. Education
If you have no experience, listing down your relevant education is an important part of your stay at home mom resume. Of course, it’s also good for a resume for a stay at home mom returning to work.
For this, always include the degree or diploma you hold, the institution you studied in, and your graduation date (unless it was more than 5 years ago). You may also include any workshops or professional development courses you took over the years.
Here is what it should look like:
Education
[Diploma or degree], [Name of institution], [Date, if applicable]
7. Additional information
As someone who wants to return to the workforce, you will make the job search easier if you reinforce your qualifications. And a good way to do that is to include any additional information that will grab attention. Plus, including all relevant information will show the hiring manager how passionate and committed you are to the role you’re applying for.
Some additional information you can include are client testimonials, certifications, publications, awards, languages, etc. This does NOT include your hobbies or personal pursuits.
Stay-at-Home Parent Resume Sample
Let’s put everything that we learned in one sample. For this example, I’ll be showing you what the resume of a stay-at-home mom looking to apply for a writer job could look like.
Contact details:
[First Name] [Last Name]
[Phone number] | [Email address] | [City], [State]
[Relevant links]
Professional summary:
Passionate and meticulous [writer or stay-at-home parent], showcasing a history of producing engaging content. Armed with [your skill, work experience, degree] within [your field], I blend creativity with precision in every endeavor. Excited to apply my narrative skills in a vibrant writing position that nurtures personal and professional development.
Skill:
Schedule Management
- Effectively coordinated the busy schedules of three children, ensuring punctuality for all school-related commitments and extracurricular activities.
Communication
- Promoted transparent and efficient communication among family members, ensuring seamless coordination of tasks and responsibilities.
Employment gap/work experience:
Full-Time Mom [Month/Year – Present]
- Orchestrated daily schedules for family members, balancing school, extracurricular activities, and personal commitments.
- Streamlined household routines to optimize productivity and create a harmonious living environment.
- Facilitated open and effective communication between family members to ensure smooth coordination of activities and responsibilities.
Content Writer | [Employment dates] | ABC Content Solutions | [City, State]
- Implemented dynamic SEO strategies, enhancing website visibility and increasing organic traffic by 30%.
- Successfully crafted compelling storytelling content, contributing to a 20% rise in user engagement on social media platforms.
Education:
Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, XYZ University, City, State, [Date, if applicable]
Additional information:
- Was awarded best writer in my local charity competition.
- Can fluently speak and write in 5 languages.
Tips to Re-Enter the Workforce for a Stay-at-Home Mom or Dad
If you’ve spent some time away from the workforce, here are some tips to help you get back to it in full swing:
- Know your wants and needs. Remember, you’re still a parent. You may still have to care for your children, even if they are somewhat grown already. So it’s important to find a job that matches your wants and needs. You can look for a full-time job that offers a good work-life balance. You can go for a part-time job. Or you can even look for freelance jobs so you can work from home. You don’t want to land a job that will stress your career and family life.
- Get active in the professional world. This can mean creating or updating your LinkedIn profile. Posting stuff about your passion or industry. This way, when a recruiter checks you out, they will see that you’re active, despite spending your time at home.
- Improve or gain skills. Chances are, your skills are a bit rusty. Before you go back to work, consider strengthening those skills, or gaining new ones. You can apply for short professional certificate programs. You can work on other technical skills or soft skills.
- Reach out to your network. At least 30-40% of new hires come from referrals. This is why it’s so important to build a network. You can turn to them to refer you if the need comes.
Final Words
Now that you know how to write a resume for stay at home mom, you can stand out and land that dream job. You should also follow the tips I gave to better prepare yourself to re-enter the workforce. Good luck!
Read More: Will I Regret Quitting My Job to Be a Stay-At-Home Mom? The Pros and Cons
No Comments