What to put on a CV after 8 years as a SAHM

[folieadeux29]

I got married and had children young so my CV is going to look very sparse. I had a few Saturday jobs before I got married and after I had my 2 children I had a couple of temporary jobs until I had my 3rd then just stayed at home none of them were in the same field. My youngest is now 8 so I am now looking for permanent employment.
I have been volunteering since last February so have that to include, but what qualities and experiences as a SAHM would be suitable to put on my CV?

Thanks :)

I was a SAHM for 4yrs. But I did some voluntary work with the local youth football team. Secretary. Lots of responsibility, child protection courses, 1st aid, welfare, organised a tournament. Looked good on a cv.

did you do any voluntary work?

TaliZorahVasNormandy

Right now I would quite like to have a touch more of the fexless in my dutiful, drab CV. Maybe that stage of my career will come next!

I've done a fair bit of recruitment over the last few years. Honestly? I would just put the dates and something like 'career break to look after my children'. I wouldn't try to list interpersonal skills that this has given you (even though we all know that having children DOES give you exceptional time management skills).

I would though list your voluntary work as a separate paragraph and here really pull out anything that is relevant to the position you are going for.

In my experience the majority employers (wrongly) won't value your SAHM responsibilities. But your voluntary work and any earlier work experience will get you your next job. Good luck!

That would be "accept",didn't completely lose my brain after dc.

Mrscog - I will happily volunteer for you to review my cv before I launch it next week. Completely different circumstances to OP, but I'd be thrilled if you could help me by giving me your first impressions. Thanks. Sorry to hijack, OP.

Marking place

Whilst caring full time for small children in my home I developed skills using the virtual environment, I am fully conversant with all common IT packages and with online debate. (aka mumsnet)

I have also unskilled in IT monitoring (check your kids phones and internet use), health and safety procedures (stopped the kids killing each other and rescued the cat from the washer) and other general management tasks.

I have expertise in forward planning (party v hobby for dc1 and ballet v football for dc2) and taking the initiative when confronted with challenging circumstances (dc1 eating dc2's poo).

etc etc

oops upskilled not unskilled

jackydanny you used the phrase "Full time mother".

If the father of your children works does he know you consider him to be a "part time father"?

Don't send your CV by post. Always go in and hand it over, if possible to the person in charge. It's a chance to make a good impression, otherwise you are just an anonymous person on a piece of paper.

Sashh those skills will only be valid if you can list actual examples of when/how they've been out into practice. We always discount cvs that just list skills. The experiences you've listed - albeit humorously- would get a "so what?" as none of them are particularly striking or unique.

The things employers want are skills, experience, qualifications. They also expect most women to have gaps in employment to look after children so don't feel you need to explain your self during this time.

I had 8 years at home with my DC and approached returning to work in stages.

I volunteered at DC's school, helping on school trips and Christmas fairs etc

I enrolled on some of the free beginners IT (or basic maths and english courses if you need them) This built up my confidence and evidenced my interest in self development.

I aimed myself at entry level work, eg receptionist and this built up my experience and skills. I accessed any training offered.

I started to move up the ladder eg administrator, and am now looking for something more challenging/better pay/more hours now the DC's are older.

Put the truth. A long blank makes me think a candidate had been sitting on their ass watching Jeremy Kyle for years while an explanation of illness or child rearing shows someone has been busy doing something and now wants to return to work.

But for the love of god, don't summarise what you've been up to on a daily basis. I'm thinking of a CV where a candidate mentioned their meal planning skills and how they'd book golf lessons on the telephone for their child.

I would say never hand in your cv in person unless it is a really small business eg the local cafe. In our business we need to be able to email cvs around to relevant people at different cvs, a paper cv will be left sitting on the desk.
Career break to bring up children is fine. "Full time mother" is not fine, it assumes working women are part time mothers and nots not the attitude I want in a recruit. Doing some voluntary work or courses would be what I would be looking for it shows an intention to get back to work, unless you have a lot of relevant experience and up to date knowledge.
Good luck.

Agree re handing in CVs in person: it's massively inconvenient and makes more work for all but the smallest business.

I work in recruitment and sometimes advise returners to work.

Keep your cv simple and to the point. Put a paragraph at the top explaining that you are looking to return to work after being at home with your children. Put a bit about what you are looking for and what skills you have to offer.

Then work back with your work history, put your volunteering work covering the dates you have done that. Then put the dates you have been at home, then your previous employment.

What you put in your cv often depends on the job or type of job you are looking for. If you are looking for retail work you would say that you are presentable, friendly with good people skills....

Put your hobbies, do you bake, keep fit, paint etc. All those show you are an active person with interests.

I am put off by cv's that list the skills you have used at home as a SAHM, working mothers manage the family budget, manage the diary of activities for kids etc too, they just don't put that on their cv.

All the cv is for it for the employer to decide if they want to meet you for an interview.

Lots of good ideas here. I agree that putting full time mother will put up the backs of working father and mothers who will be recruiting you who regard them selves as very much always the parent even if their child is out of their sight some of the time. Also depends on the role to what extent you think it will help to show you have planned children's meals - working mothers and fathers do all those things too and family admin but won't be putting on CVs.

So just concentrate on the voluntary work and pre children work and your academic qualifications. For many jobs tailoring the CV to each job you apply for which takes ages is actually needed unfortunately. I am not a fan of pointless personal statements with silly comments like I am good with people, I take responsibility etc etc.

Take your point re handing in a CV compared with emailing, but it's what got me my job! Had emailed and sent a hard copy and both weren't picked up on.

I've been responsible for recruitment in the past and looked at a lot of CVs. I would just put the dates and say that you were a stay at home mother for this period. Something along the lines of:

Month 2008 - Present: Not in employment as taking a career break to bring up children. During this period I kept skills up to date through volunteering and kept my industry knowledge up to date reading journals, online blogs, online courses etc etc

I wouldn't say that being a stay at home parent gives you organisational skills and you were managing finances etc. It would annoy me a bit reading that. I know what it takes to be a parent, I am one. And actually I know some very disorganised stay at home mothers!

I think some of the advice on this thread is highly specific to the type of role and organisation you're applying to.

If you tried to hand in a CV in person to security at my current employer, they probably wouldn't even let you past the front security gates; they may offer to take it in, scan it into the log, and then manually pass onto the mail room if they were feeling friendly.

For other organisations handing in, in person, would be fine.

So please don't take some of the advice here at face value, OP.

Other stuff like raving about "financial management" and "health and safety responsibilities" or "teaching" during time as a SAHP would be perceived as fairly desperate / scraping the barrel by any of the hiring managers I know (not HR contacts, I'm talking about the managers you'd be reporting to). And it's a bit cringe-worthy TBH; because that's stuff that all parents, including those that work fulltime or part time, do. May be more relevant if you're e.g. applying for a childminder role where these generalist skills might really be relevant.

I'd expect some brief explanation of what you'd been up to over the years, but the key thing is brief. Just a one-liner saying "Housewife" or "Full time caring responsibilities" or something, and with dates.

If I were you, I'd go with the functional CV (skills based CV) that have already been mentioned, and play up the significant voluntary experience you have - it's something to rave about and would count for a lot in many applications, I'd think.

But back to my original points, going in-person or fluffing up your "professional household skills" too much wouldn't be perceived well anywhere that I've worked during my career. So judge for yourself whether that would apply to roles you're targeting.

Good thread!

I've been a SAHM for six years now and I'm planning on returning to work within the next year or two, probably before my youngest (four DC) starts school. In my case my former career was software engineering. It's going to be impossible to find "voluntary" work in this area, or at least not at a level which would be relevant to the type of work I used to do and would like to return to eventually.

Should I still try and do probably irrelevant voluntary work anyway, just to be seen to be doing something out the home - even though I'd have to pay out for childcare? Or would an employer (who most likely has little experience of SAHMs due to the highly gender-biased nature of software engineering) be more impressed with the more relevant programming projects I've been doing at home for my own personal use?

CrispyFB you might be surprised at the variety of voluntary work available.

Reach www.reachskills.org.uk/ do skilled volunteering and trustee work. There are charities that would be very pleased to have someone with your skills available.

Having voluntary or trustee work on your cv really does help and looks good.

CrispyFB I've recruited for technical / programming roles and I'd be a lot more interested in the relevant stuff you've been doing at home over irrelevant volunteering (seeing as you are in a specific career type role).

Can you do a few freelance projects to help ease back into it or write some programming articles for relevant online publications. Would a local uni be interested in you doing a guest talk to students? Things like that would help. You need to let employers know you've kept your knowledge base up.

Thanks, both!

CalicoBlue - That's an interesting site - I will definitely keep an eye on it! I did do a brief search just now but couldn't see anything that looked like it might be relevant/I was capable of doing as a lot of the IT stuff was more to do with purely databases or web work which is not what I did. However that's not to say something might pop up at a later date of course.

SaltySeaBird - Very reassuring to hear. It's why I started down that road - whilst the programs I'm writing aren't immediately related to the specific industry I was in, it's always good to show diversity and an ability to move with the technology. After all I have nothing more to prove in the area I had the ten years experience in before but I do need to prove I know about more recent developments which is what I'm currently learning about (and thankfully having no problems picking up - my brain is not yet finished!!)

I don't think I'd be brave enough to write programming articles just yet, but give it enough time and I probably would be. For the last few years of my career I was a technical writer anyway. I'd probably be a bit scared to get up on stage (or equivalent!) and address a room full of students as I've got so socially introverted from so many years of SAHM and social isolation, but it's not out the question. I've done similar in local schools before I quit work for my former employer.

I guess ideally I could find a charitable project I could work on at home thus fulfilling both criteria!

Can someone give me some advice please? If i just put out what i have done, qualifications etc can anyone PLEASE give me an idea how to make a CV out of it. This might out me if anyone knows me but if so, please don't tell me.

I have effectively been a sahm for the past 9 years. I have had some work in the meantime. I had a short stint as a cover supervisor and teaching in college, neither worked out well (looking back now i realise the college was totally not my fault - lack of support etc, thats a whole other thread).

My DP is a builder and i do his books, write up his invoices and generally help him out, I cant even really say the admin work i do for him comes to part time. I have been putting this on my CV as a job and i wonder if its a mistake. So one week i might do nothing for him, another (like this one, god help me - im doing his tax return, finishing off the brick wall and helping him fit some doors he is making). The last week i pointed in a brick wall, ive done painting and decorating for him, tiling, general labouring and demolition (i like the demolition ).

I used to be a vet nurse/receptionist (unqualified) both part time and full time, between univesity. I am currently working there as a cleaner 1.5 hours a night.

My qualifications are PhD in biochemistry (genetics), degree in biochemistry but no real work experience in the field - some voluntary work doing cell biology and molecular biology. I got my PhD in 2007 when DD2 was 2.

My mental health has not been great, which is the real reason why ive not had a proper job, but im recovering now and need to get back to work.

I will not be able to return to academia (have tried) and there are very few (if any) jobs in my field other than that (stupidly specialised)

I am thinking that i would quite like to work in university admin, although this has been scuppered by not having what is called a European computor driving licence (or something!!!) which ironically was introduced as part of the phd program the year after i left. It pretty much is a peice of paper that says i can use word, excel outlook etc. Is there any way i can obtain this other than through a job?

My computor skills are reasonable, i can use excel but really only for spreadsheets for DP, word is good etc, i find it all quite intuitive and can find my way around new programs etc.

Im good with figures and find number crunching relaxing (weirdo).

Can anyone give me an idea what skills to list etc? and how to present it, i am totally clueless.

I am currently the secretary of the school PFA and am pretty much co-chairing as our chair is not computor literate. I;ve implemented some good fund raising initiatives and have a reputation for being able to raise £££'s so also, how do i present these skills, do employers take PFA work seriously?

I did university as a mature student.

I really need a job now - ANY job, i don't want a high power, high stress job - would actually be happy doing more cleaning but the problem i have is that the jobs i am qualified for are ruled out due to lack of experience/confidence and general admin/cleaning and practical job are ruled out because im over qualified.

Hellllllllppppppppp