As mother’s day approaches, I thought I’d take a moment and talk about some of my favorite clientele–the “Return-to-Work” moms. So often, women come to me when they are beginning to explore the possibility of re-entering the workforce and say “I don’t even know how to start putting together a resume because I haven’t done ANYTHING in the last 15 years!”

My first order of business is to invalidate this idea. The focus of a Return-to-Work resume is on skills, and achievements. If paid work experience is several years ago, then it is beneficial to downplay the chronology in the beginning of the resume and concentrate on creating a compelling summary that shows the value that you have to offer a potential employer.  Proper keywords are crucial as well.

Still, I find this population often doubts that they possess obvious skills. My recommendation is to go to a job site such as indeed.com and look for jobs that might interest you.  Read the required skills and see how they fit with what you have been doing while you have stayed at home.  For example, an event planner position requires:

• Pro-active, organized, innovative, forward thinking, and output-driven.
• Ability to multi-task programs and projects in a fast-paced environment with short timeframes.

Can you showcase volunteer work and household management achievements to prove that you qualify? You can. Don’t sell yourself short.  Re-entering the workforce may seem overwhelming but it is not impossible. With some guidance, you can easily identify all of your transferable skills and market yourself for a fabulous new career. After all, isn’t MOM also a “Mentor Of Mostly everything?”

Michelle A. Riklan is a certified professional résumé writer, career coach, speaker, author, and employment interview consultant.

Michelle A. Riklan, ACRW, CPRW, CEIC

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