expat and SAHM repatriating CV

[pawre]

Hello,

Anyone been in my shoes? We've been abroad for many years and since I was following my hubby and job, I became a SAHM. Well we'll be returning to UK soon. Kids are grown, will be at school full days etc so I'm ready to find a job!

Need some tips for my CV. What to put down for my huge gap. And I have no professional references! :( Who can I put down?? And no, I did not do any volunteer work! :)

Cheers,

Just put down that you were raising a family. Tell the truth, you won't be the only person out there looking like that.

for refererences- are you in touch with anyone at all where you worked in the UK - I know it was a long time ago - or ring the HR department and see if they would be prepared to give a reference anyway - and then for the other one a personal reference would probably be ok
its a tough job market at the moment so I would look around for some relevant voluntary work when you get back to the uk - depends on your sector of course

Personal references are useful (from someone fairly impressive sounding if you can) and those old work ones. But yes, get out into voluntary work asap. Do-it.org should list all the opportunities in your local area. Do you have any idea what you want to do? If you do, a course or two at your AE college might be useful.

It's going to take a while - the UK job market is really, really tough at the moment but I'm assuming (having grown up an expat) that you want to work rather than have to so take your time and consider your options. You may want to do an OU course or a part time degree/PG at your local university. Apologies if I've got the wrong end of the stick.

I would try and put something down about managing the international moves. Call it career break but try describing what you did (eg arranging the moves themselves, dealing with local tradespeople etc) as a job. Describe some of the things you achieved in professional terms. That way you arent describing a gap but just something a bit different.

Do the employer offer any sort of repat courses for spouses? My employer did which was great for DH.

Yes. Exactly the same position.
Went back to work recently - after re-training though and gaining some professional qualifications.
had a huge gap - explained with raising a family.
had to ask the employers to accept personal refferences - which they did. had a bit of a lucky break - after lots of disappointments.
Good luck. It can be done!

references

You might find you need to do some volunteering her for a bit to help you find a job, but it should be OK. Hope the move goes well.