SAHP - what to put on cv

[Sunisshining12]

Been a SAHM for nearly 5 years. DD born with a genetic condition, and is disabled. I’ve been caring for her round the clock as well as general Mum duties for both DC. DD will be starting school in Sept.

How do I fill this gap on my CV? I don’t want to disclose about DC condition as worry it will put potential employers off if they think i have a lot on my plate being a Carer and a parent to young children. Plus I haven’t ‘worked’ for nearly 5 years.

Didn’t do any volunteering or anything interesting during this time either.

Any advice please?

Just put "career break".

I had a 10 year break after having kids and over the past six years have worked my way up through the company I work for. I know recruit new staff as well and the key for getting a foot in the door is having some sort of volunteering experience. That’s what I did for two years and I now recommend to the people that I meet. There is so much competition for jobs that we would need to see evidence of some sort of work experience in order to offer an interview for an entry level job. Good luck!!

I put ‘career break whilst caring for young children’ or something similar. I’d had seven years out in the end, and only done a tiny bit of volunteering; nothing impressive!

I got six interviews out of ten job applications so obviously didn’t put people off.

Good luck with your job hunt and hope it goes well with your Dd starting school.

Just be honest. Please don’t commit the cardinal sin of listing ‘full time parent’ as a job title and then list all of the duties underneath... Budgeting, food preparation, activity coordinator etc! Good luck

I put the volunteer roles I had done between leaving work and applying for jobs.

Otherwise I would just put an end date for when you finished work. The last few forms I filled in asked for a reason for leaving so I put in career break, but didn't need to put it as a separate 'employment' on the form.

I made a point of actively taking on some volunteer roles, because it would look better on my CV. It was surprisingly rewarding too.

Ok. So literally just put Career Break? Or should I state Career Break - to care for young Children?

I’m definitely willing to volunteer and do unpaid work to get back into the swing of things. I wonder if that’s going to be problematic at the moment with Covid?

Another thing that is massively going to put Employers off is that I can’t commit to full time. But not exactly sure how, where or when to state this either m?

Re volunteering - the organisation I volunteer for is still training volunteers but a lot of the actual volunteering (befriending kind of thing) that was previously done face to face is now done remotely, so making phone calls and video calls instead of home visits or meet ups. Worth asking whoever you are interested in and just seeing what’s available. You may also find charitable organisations looking for volunteers with IT or admin skills to help them out with some of that and of course where that might previously have involved a trip to an office, now they’ll all be set up for remote work.

I only applied for jobs that stated they were part time but lots of people told me to apply full time and then ask if it could be done PT; not sure how well this works in practice! I think you’d probably have more luck with public sector jobs as they seem to often include a line about being happy to consider to job share/PT hours.

Where you would normally put the job title on a CV, I would write Career Break, and underneath it where you'd put accomplishments write "Career Break for caring responsibilities". Job done. They don't particularly need to know who you were caring for, just that you took time out from work in order to do so.

Depending on the job you are applying for, it might be good to do any relevant online training that you can especially if the job will involve working on a computer. E.g. if you are applying for jobs in an office environment, look for free online training in Office 365 and Microsoft Teams so you can demonstrate that you've refreshed your skills and prepared yourself for re-entering work. Work tech has changed a fair bit in the last 5 years.

Thank you

Seriously are we now having to call caring for our children a "career break" why is putting what you actually did a cardinal sin @Fred578

@theresagiantonthebeach because most people know what being an adult/parent entails. Listing it in a professional CV is beyond cringe.

Career break to have children. Often cv’s just have to make sense timewise and sound believable

The part time thing worries me massively. I don’t want to waste their time (and mine) doing assessments/interviewing/whatever else for jobs where they won’t consider part time if an offer were to be made.

But at the same time, I want to be assessed and interviewed so that I can ‘prove’ myself better in person.

Do you mean applying for full time jobs and then asking of you can go part time?
I think unless there's a job share box, you just don't apply for full time jobs

@theresagiantonthebeach

Seriously are we now having to call caring for our children a "career break" why is putting what you actually did a cardinal sin *@Fred578*

Because Chief finance officer for a team of 5 Manager of toxic waste Primary purchaser of goods Chef Cleaner etc are part of life, not skills to work into your CV unless it was ACTUAL EMPLOYMENT.

Would you put down your job as a doctor but also lost chef, sex therapist, poo handler alongside it?

@SleepingStandingUp

Do you mean applying for full time jobs and then asking of you can go part time? I think unless there's a job share box, you just don't apply for full time jobs

If you want to work 2 days then I obviously wouldn't waste everybody's time applying to FT posted roles unless they mention openness to PT/jobshare, but many companies are open to 4 days/compressed hours for skilled roles, especially larger companies.

@Respectabitch - I’m still navigating the education system & lack of funding for support. I didnt realise that the LA will only provide funding for during school hours. So she wouldn’t be able to go into a school club for example as she’d have no assistant. Not sure where that’s going to leave me in school holidays too. DH can take holiday & may be able to pick up once a week, but he works long hours with a commute & is the breadwinner.

School hours plus WFH in evenings? Or 3 long days in the workplace, and some WFH on the other days during school hours? Or am I totally deluded to think anyone is going to employ me given that I’ve not worked for 5 years & I’m not exactly flexible?

When you apply for NHS and council roles you are allowed I think to ask for flexible working after being offered the job and they sometimes check in the interview what you are expecting. However make sure that the flexibility suits the role and works both ways. In general I would look only at things advertised part-time.

@SleepingStandingUp... ‘manager of toxic waste’

Just be honest. Please don’t commit the cardinal sin of listing ‘full time parent’ as a job title and then list all of the duties underneath... Budgeting, food preparation, activity coordinator etc! Good luck

This

Or even, worse, using corporate jargon to describe parenting duties.

@theresagiantonthebeach A break in your career to care for your children is a ‘career break’. Listing things on a professional CV that nearly every adult has to do on a daily basis as part of every day life is not the way to sell yourself as someone to take seriously in my humble opinion. Apologies if I’ve hit a nerve but no recruiter wants to see ‘mediator’ on someone’s CV when what they actually mean is ‘broke up fights between the kids’

If you are going to do some volunteering, try and make it related to the kind of job you hope to get.

So if you want a job in a supermarket, for example, volunteering in a charity shop might be ideal.

If you want a job in education, volunteering to help in a school, or with a youth group might help.
If you want a job in admin, then loads of charities would bite your arm off for help with admin.

Agree do NOT list the 'parental duties'!!! Shock horror working parents also do these.

I would just put 'career break'.

@Fred578 @SleepingStandingUp. but I don't see what's wrong with just saying you were a SAHP. .....not to list it as job skills but to state why there is a gap in employment