Stay-at-Home Mom
Resume Example

When it comes to writing resumes, there’s not one perfect method to follow. The format that you eventually settle on depends upon the employment experience you had prior to your time spent raising your child or children, as well as what you were doing while at home.

Here are a few examples of resumes for stay-at-home moms or dads with different levels of previous professional experience, to give you a better idea of how to craft your own. Choose the experience level that best matches your own to jump to the corresponding sample and writing tips.

Table of Contents:

• Example #1: Resume for Mom or Dad with a Lot of Experience
• Example #2: Resume for Mom or Dad with a Little Experience
• Example #3: Resume for Mom or Dad with No Experience

Example #1: Resume for Mom or Dad with a Lot of Experience

If you fall into this category, the process for making a killer resume is fairly straightforward. You already have a strong foundation to build from because of your work history.

The major hurdle you face is how to address the time gap. Choosing the proper resume format can take care of this, which in this case is the combination resume.

Combination resumes focus on your qualifications and relevant skills to the job you are applying to first. Those are then supported with your previous professional experience.

Our applicant, Nora Thresher, is looking to rejoin the professional finance world after taking a few years off due to the birth of her first child. She opens her resume with a strong yet concise Qualifications Summary that shows why she would be a great employee before she discusses her work history.

Her work history opens with the fact that she was self-employed. Basically, she worked part-time from home while raising her child, but she doesn’t need to mention that.

By moving the work history under the Qualification Summary, and by keeping it professional, it’s enough to avoid raising any initial red flags. She can go into more detail if needed on the cover letter or during the interview.

Example #2: Resume for Mom or Dad with a Little Experience

Even if your work experience is a little lacking, the above resume style is OK for you as well, but you have another option too. The next style of resume is even better if your education is relevant to the position for which you are applying.

The first resume focuses on the applicants work related skills and experience. If yours is limited, you can instead start with your education.

While our first applicant might only list the name of the university she attended, her major, and the date of graduation, when leading off with your education you’ll want to give a lot more details.

This applicant, Valerie Perkins, doesn’t have enough professional experience to focus on her skills and work history. She decided to use a carefully crafted Career Objective to show why she would be a great candidate for the open Assistant Manager position followed by her education.

Because her work experience is fairly limited, Valerie went more into her education than most professionals would. She listed her GPA because it was over 3.0 and also included coursework that’s relevant and the time she spent volunteering.

The bottom half of her resume is where she gets into her work history. Valerie spent the last 3+ years home with her son, but she also sold baby clothes on eBay to earn some extra money. To make it sound much more professional, she phrased it just like someone who was working for a large retailer would.

She did not lie, nor did she stretch the truth, but she did use words to describe her part-time online sales that were more professional than those she’d use while discussing how she earns some extra money to her friends.

Example #3: Resume for Mom or Dad with No Experience

The most difficult of all scenarios for a stay at home parent wanting to enter the work force is when you don’t have any work experience at all. It gets even more complicated if your education is limited as well.

If you have only recently graduated from high school, that is if you’re only a year or two removed, you can always use a resume similar to what a high school student with little or no experience would use.

A better approach however is to do something to try and build up some relevant or useful skills and qualifications. Once you have something useful to put on a resume, then you can actually start worrying about fine-tuning your resume and turning into an interview grabbing machine.

Here are a few ways to do just that:

1. Volunteering: Hospitals and retirement communities are always in need of volunteers, as are many publicly funded institutions such as libraries and museums. Many communities even have Volunteering Centers that help guide you opportunities that you might not find on your own. If you’re smart about how you incorporate your volunteer work into your resume, employers will value your experience as much as any paid role.

2. Freelancing: If you have a computer and Internet access, there are tons of freelancing websites that you can take advantage of like Upwork and www.freelancer.com. Do some writing, graphic design, data entry, or anything that you have the tiniest amount of knowledge with to give you something to put on a resume.

3. Learn New Skills: Employers want to pay you for work that you do. That means you need to have something to offer them. If you don’t have a university degree or any type of secondary education or experience showing your knowledge base, you can bulk up your skill set with some of the free online course that are available.

Besides the three suggestions above, anything that you can do to help give you some type of marketable skills will go a long way into helping you find a job. Don’t be too proud to take on a job that you feel is beneath you. Even putting in 6 months at a position you don’t like can help give you that little extra something that separates your resume from other former stay at home moms or dads with zero experience.

Infographic: 5 Tips for Rejoining the Workforce

Still not sure how to get back into the workforce after a period of unemployment (or have a lack of experience in general)? These five key resume tips can help get you started: