Putting a positive spin on my past jobs

[chatcat]

Can anyone help me please? I'm currently out of work, and job hunting madly. Problem is my job history. I had really good jobs until 10 years ago, getting to director level, and then jumped off the career ladder to spend time bringing up the kids. I've been working all along, but doing pretty basic admin jobs which don't challenge me but have been convenient,

Now it seems that if I apply for admin jobs, or anything less senior, then I end up getting turned down as they decide that I'm too high powered and going to get bored. However if I apply for high powered jobs then they don't even get that far on my CV to see my experience ten years ago for me to get an interview. I'm starting to feel like I'm completely unemployable, I can't even get a temp job at the moment and we need the money coming in!

Any ideas on how to put a positive spin on this? What I'd like is a halfway house, something more interesting but not director level. I had always thought it was a good idea to keep working, but I'm wondering now if I'd have been better off being SAHM and at least my CV would show some consistency. By the way, I have tried to cover this in my personal statement and covering letters, but I'm not sure they are being read either...

Can you just include the last 10 years on your CV? Could spin it that you are looking for a step up from the admin positions you have been doing. Not ideal I know but current strategy isn't working anyway.

Jobs seem to jump up from very basic admin to where you need loads of experience. I see Marketing Assistant jobs that ask for a Marketing Degree and 5+ years experience paying £17k. What's that all about?!

Jobs seem to jump up from very basic admin to where you need loads of experience. I see Marketing Assistant jobs that ask for a Marketing Degree and 5+ years experience paying £17k. What's that all about?! confused

I have noticed this also, during my job hunt. Even the most basic of administration jobs require lots of experience and a whole host of different skills and pay less than 20K ! [CONFUSED]

I was in exactly the same position as you are now. I decided to do a training course and ended up with a Professional Diploma in Marketing. Because I was unemployed, I only paid a fraction of the cost and did it online with one visit to college a month. I didn't end up in a marketing job right away but it proved to prospective employers that I was prepared to up-skill and it did open doors for me. Also, being around professionals in a college environment, it did give me some of the confidence I was lacking after taking so much of a career break. I'm now in the job of my dreams - a senior role, but not too senior so I can still see my kids at night. Good luck.

How is your job hunt going Chatcat? Finding myself in a very similar position after being self employed for 8 years and now needing to return to a 'proper job' related to my previous professional career.