What do you write on your CV for your SAHM gap?

[juicylucytoo]

Stopped working in 2008 to raise DS1. DS2 came along in 2009 and so now I'm updating my CV.

What do I write? "Raising 2 children"?

Thanks for your ideas

Oh, and I have another gap. I spent a year travelling South America. Do I put something or leave it blank.

I had considered "travelling and learning Spanish". What do you think?

[Thanks]

Make that

I used to write lady of leisure, stay at home parent, unemployed, n/a or whatever suited my mood.
Now I write carer because it shuts people up. And that's actually what I am really.

Ooh.
For some reason I managed to completely sweep part the cv bit so my answer is what I write generally when form filling.

Sorry. Completely useless reply

Probably not my first, nor my last

Not a bad idea though.

May 2007 - Present
Carer for 2 little ingrates

if you have done some voluntary work in the SAHM time I would put it in - when are the travelling if it was a while ago I don't think I would be too concerned

I was always told the worst thing you could do was leave gaps. For the South America thing I would just put 'Gap year in South America - during my gap year I spent time travelling around South America. I gained valuable experience of living and working in a different culture and improved my Spanish language skills'. Or something.

I had 2 years as a SAHM - in that time I did one piece of freelance work. On my cv I put 2009-2011 Freelance XXX . In the description I then put something along the lines of 'I have kept up my skills with occassional freelance work. Recent projects include...' and then described the one piece of work I did. Worked for me, I got a job!

I think it also helps to write a good covering letter explaining a bit more about what you have been doing and any volunteer/extra stuff you have done, no matter how tenuous, such as preschool committees, toddler groups etc.

That's what I thought - that I shouldn't leave gaps. Will think of some appropriate bs for the South America gap.

I haven't done anything since stopping work for the kids - will have to volunteer for something sharpish. Think there's a course at DS1's school.

I use the phrase "extended career break to raise family".

Mind you, I'm still unemployed, so perhaps I'm not the best person to ask

Sounds better than I've come up with so far Rubberduck, so will use that until I've got something better to write!

insert anything where appropriate

You can always put in some stuff about how taking time out of the workplace to raise children has given you an opportunity to develop your skills in patience, negotiation and multi-tasking

I put career break to raise our family and included voluntary stuff I have done

PS: Most employers want to make sure that the gaps don't mean that you have been in jail or sacked!

I would second 'Career Break' for the appropriate period with a breakdown of responsibilities and achievements, couch it in professional terms so that it fits in with any professional experience.

Thanks guys, will start looking for opportunities to volunteer!

Have you volunteered at pre-school or school or been part of playgroup committee or PTA? If so, you can include those as voluntary roles during your extended career break.

How about:

For the period of x to Y, worked at (insert surname) Inc. Duties including:

• multitasking
• cleaning
• cooking
• entertainer
• taxi driver
• teacher
• psychologist
• sales person (selling broccoli to a toddler - you bet that takes some doing)
• innovator (using sick bags as puppets on long haul flights)
• first aid
• artist
• ability to network (coffee mornings)
• incredible patience
• ability to explain complicated things in simple terms

joshandjamie - I agree but I wouldn't but that down on a CV - I don't think it comes across that great

@ jandj

@ LL I'm afraid I haven't done anything yet. My DH works offshore and so I'm on my own with the kids for 2 weeks at a time, which has made it difficult to commit to anything regularly and most of the playgroups around here are surestart (while the money lasts), so they're run by employed helpers. DS1 only started school this Sept so I haven't launched myself into the school world yet, but I will start now.

I just put full-time mother.