Maybe staying at home with the kids isn’t the dream for you. Be encouraged! There are clear steps and tips for you to follow that will help you in your journey to get back to work.
Update Your Resume
You’ve had the conversation with your family, and all are on board. What next? Step number one: update your resume. Yours may be outdated in more ways than one, and you need not gloss over the fact that you’ve chosen for the past several years to be a stay-at-home mom. Update your resume to reflect your relevant work experience before kids, but also include the fact that your priority for those baby and toddler years was to be home. Companies appreciate honesty and integrity, and the decision to stay at home with kids confidently for a period of time – and to be very open about it in your job search – will reflect well on you.
Look into Child Care Costs
Unfortunately, since you’re going back to work, your child care costs (if applicable) will go up 100%. Nobody paid you anything to watch your children, but you will be paying someone (or some place) to do it. Look into where you want your children to be, and investigate the cost involved. This will give you a bottom dollar requirement for your income responsibility.
Network, Network, Network
Don’t be discouraged! You, instead, must use your life experience and established network in the area (say, other parents at school) to network. Young people won’t have quite the same working adult network that you have, so utilize that to the best of your ability. These days, it can be all about who you know, not what you know. Particularly network marketing or direct sales are the great options for the women nowadays. It spaces a variety of scope and good chances to be highly earned. On the flip side, they don’t need to invest much time or money for that
Start Part Time, if Need Be
Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Sometimes when stay-at-home moms are chomping at the bit to get back into the working world, they don’t think about how big of a transition it’ll be. Nobody is questioning your desire to go full time, but it may be easier on yourself to at least consider starting part time as you transition, if that’s an option.
Do Only What You Love
You’re not getting back into the working world to be miserable at your job. Chances are, if you’re really raring to go, you already know exactly what you love. Those of you who don’t, on the other hand, may struggle with jumping at the first opportunity that comes your way. We encourage you to examine each and every opportunity – will you love doing it one year from now? How about 5 years from now? If not, is there a possibility of growth into another position? If not, look elsewhere.
Don’t Consider Yourself Over-Qualified if There’s Room for Growth
Your resume may have been the best of the best 15 years ago when you got out of college, but unfortunately, it’s likely outdated and outperformed by fresh-out-of-college applicants. Because of that, if you come across a job that may have been “below you” 15 years ago, don’t turn your nose up at it. You may have to have some working experience before you’re “management material” again. At the very least, getting your foot in the door at a place where you can grow is always a great thing.
Set Boundaries
Now that you’re going back to work, setting boundaries is more important than ever before. Protect your work time from personal invasion as best as possible, and protect family time from work. To let the two bleed into each other would be a terrible mistake that causes distraction, loss of time and ultimately confusion on your part. Try not to bring work home with you, and at work, keep the personal calls and errands to a minimum.
It’s going to be a little harder than before, but if you execute a plan in getting back to the workplace and take these tips into account, it’ll be as invigorating and satisfying as it was before.
Are you a stay-at-home mom looking to go back to work?
