AIBU to think SAHMs shouldn't put this nonsense on a CV/job application

[windygallows]

In the last year I've recruited for numerous part-time jobs, receiving applications from many women who took time out to be with family and are now returning to work.

Many of the applicants have been straightforward and simply noted on their CV that they have been SAHM - simple.

But increasingly applicants, perhaps based on some guidance from career counsellors or MN, are finding more creative ways to describe their absence from the workforce.

One, we'll call her Mrs Jones, wrote that for 10 years she was employed by the 'Jones family' and that her work involved 'organizing international travel for her family.' Because organizing a holiday is similar to the tasks led by senior executives.

Another wrote a list of every task she did at home from getting groceries to cleaning the house which, while impressive as an exhaustive list, doesn't really mean much when applying to an office-based role. Especially as it's basically a list of everything most employees have to fit in outside of work.

More galling are the claims that women make about the critical role they played - with my favourite being the one who 'Spent 7 years looking after my two children who needed and deserved my attention.'

There is huge value in the work that SAHMs do but please, please don't put this kind of waffle on your CV. You never know if your interview panel will consist of a FT working, single mom like me who finds it pretty insulting that working means her children apparently lost out on 'the attention they needed and deserved.' Urgh.

Ugh. Probably advanced by mommy bloggers in the US. I would immediately discard any such resume on the assumption that its owner was a complete moron.

I take back my last comment I read your comment wrong. Apologies

I generally put the from and to dates followed by Maternity Break to explain the gap in my working life.

I think it's cringey and it full time workers still have to do the chores etc outside of work. I don't see anything wrong with just putting career break for childcare reasons. I would love to be a sahm so not at all against it but I think these examples on CVs are complete nonsense.

FrLukeDuke Caring for an elderly relative/children is the same on a CV to you as someone sitting home watching tv? Oh right.

Are you suggesting I would ever get a CV that said "Career break - sat at home watching TV?" If I did it would go in the bin because it shows extremely poor judgement! Call it a sabbatical or gap year obviously

Being a SAHM is not a job and therefore does not belong on a CV. Otherwise like I said every parent would be listing their domestic responsibilities because all parents have them whether they work or not.

You've misread what I was saying Ecadia. I was questioning someone saying that it makes no difference what a career break is for. I was making the point that caring for relatives/children is not the same as someone sitting home watching tv and shouldn't be viewed as such.

Aw, please go easy on them, it's not easy returning to work after being a SAHM.

I cut anyone returning to work quite a bit of slack. The roles they are looking to go into are normally lower rank ones and not well paid. With a SAHM looking to return to work they also run into a huge problem of not being able to easily demonstrate commitment, because after all they have demonstrated that their family comes first.

If I like the sound of a candidate I call them and speak to them, asking them to make a couple of small changes to help them increase their chances of getting a job. It includes taking some parts out.

Unnessecary filler. Could be briefly mentioned in a covering letter, or in the history part of a CV as "stay at home parent", I think majority of people recruiting will know what that entails, and doesn't need to be dressed up with multiple different bulletpoints of every aspect of day to day running of a household.

I did see and apologise for that Luke. Sorry again

Advice given to SAHPs returning to work seems to be universally awful.

I was sent on an A4E course for lone parents by the job centre a few years ago.

We were told to list skills we'd acquired as parents on our CVs. I was put in the metaphorical naughty corner when I said I'd just spent the last four years playing with dinosaurs.

We were told to say in interviews that our children were our weaknesses.

When the tutor discovered my hobby was taking part in poetry slams he said I should recite my poems in interviews. So I would stand out from the other interviewees.

I didn't follow any of that advice. If I had I think I would still be unemployed.

Well, I do agree with you but perhaps if society valued motherhood and staying at home to raise children more, then women would not feel the need to justify the gap in their cv?

I think that society does value motherthood. However the skills appertaining to it are largely irrelevant for the finance roles that I advertise in the workplace. I'm an accountant. I feel pretty much valued by society but wouldn't expect to get far by listing my extensive financial management experience if I were applying to be, say, a doctor. I think that it's all just a matter of relevance.

Of cause being a SAHM is a hard and valid job but to me personally you are lucky if you can be one. I find that when I've been on MAT leave, the house is tidier, nicer teas, garden smarter and of cause nicer times with the kids etc because when I'm back at work I still have all these things to do plus a job to go to! I quite like my job but would much rather be at all full time. I can see why therefore you may be at risk of alienating a potential employer if you list all the things you've done that they may also have done whilst working FT. I agree with OP no place for that level of detail on CV.

Surely if you were a carer (eg for a child with disabilities or elderly relative with dementia ) then that will be relevant for some jobs.

Yet another boring SAHM/WAH bashing thread this week on Mn - how imaginative and smart you are op. Here have a ⭐and before I lapse into a coma from the boredom

I am currently a Sahm and it makes my toes curl. We're ttc a second at the moment but I feel age is against me and so am making plans to re-enter the workforce when ds hits school in 2 years time. I'm doing a second degree part-time and am about to start volunteering in a field linked to that I used to work in. I will obviously include why I left work but trying to draw parallels between work and parenting small children makes me uncomfortable on a professional level.

I think my prejudice is that I've worked FT throughout the 11 years I've had children (with exception of mat leave) so find it a bit irritating when women make claims on their CV about how their children couldn't be without them or at interview explaining how they just couldn't put their children in daycare.

So the problem is actually that whopping great big chip you are carrying around on your shoulder.

Thirteen I did put some of the (very relevant) details about my time as a SAHM on my returning CV as they did show experience of the issues that the role I was aiming for dealt with. Navigating the SN system and managing challenging behaviour with professional support for example.

It was absolutely role appropriate and specific though.

I wouldn't list domestic responsibilities that everyone does, but I'd explain a career break with "Caring for children full time" and not "I was at home."

It's sad though that this work is not valued. It is essential for society to keep functioning- if people didn't do it, we would not be around for long. It's odd that someone could list 'answering the phone, filing, ordering stationery, greeting customers' and people automatically think that's great and relevant (even if it's not relevant to the particular job they're applying for), but if someone lists the many tasks they do as a carer for elderly/disabled/children (washing, dressing, toileting, taking out on trips), that's completely irrelevant and should just be consigned to one line. Just because it's their friend/family and they don't get paid for it.

I agree that it's not best practice to put it on your CV, but I just think it's so sad that as a society, we see it as unimportant. I equally hate SAHMs who say that all kids should have a mum at home etc and make out that anyone working is selfish and not putting their kids first. But it's strange that we want to know about how someone was responsible for ordering paper clips when they worked at some random office, but not how they raised a child or nursed a relative through serious illness.

Yet another boring SAHM/WAH bashing thread this week on Mn - how imaginative and smart you are op. Here have a ⭐and biscuit before I lapse into a coma from the boredom

Actually that's well out of order Heartburn

People are telling SAHP's to put this sort of stuff on their CVx.

The OP, as an employer, is telling them to ignore the advice and simply put 'career break' or similar.

How on earth is that bashing SAHP?

Obviously they've had terrible advice, but I do question why this is so cringy, and negative, and WHY this is bad advice.

It looks to me a lot like pretty unpleasant gender discrimination, although I'm sure you don't see it that way. Basically child care responsibilities are still most often falling to women, so women are primarily affected, they then try to get back into the workplace and do their best to show they still have skills and are hardworking. But it is counted against them.

All those skills they feel they gained when they were doing childcare are counting against them.

Would someone working in a nursery for 3 years have their child care experience discounted, laughed at and thrown straight in the bin? Probably not.

So why is it that being a SAHM for 3 years and state similar skills means they are unemployable?!

There are clearly jobs where caring responsibilities are absolutely relevant.

If you're applying for a job as an accountant for example it is much better to say

"Qualified in x; experience at x places; full time SAHP looking to return to work" but obviously with more detail.

than
"qualified in household financial management because I have experience of budgeting" without any other relevant qualifications.

have only ever been asked to put details and dates of previous employment (the state of having paid work) on an application.

At interview I have been asked about gaps, "took time out to have kids", "took time out to care for dying mother" - have never been asked to elaborate.

All the jobs I apply for are application forms / no CVs and you have to explain your gaps in employment. I have been a carer but I have done a masters and voluntary work so I normally write that rather than skills.

Although I think I might have dropped a clanger in latest personal statement - I have mentioned how I support my son as it's relevant to the job... now even more worried I've messed up