Job hunting
How to market your parenting skills to re-enter the workforce
Did you take time “off” from work to stay home with your kids? Are you ready to re-enter the workforce after a period of time away from it?
If you’re like a lot of parents, you find trying to return to work after having kids challenging. One of the biggest challenges? Moving past biases—your own and job posters—that being a parent is a hindrance to being a great employee. It’s not.
It’s possible to leverage your parenting experience to land your next job—by marketing your parenting skills to future employers with confidence.
Key takeaways
- Being a parent teaches you a lot of skills that are transferrable to the working world
- Parents are at the cutting edge of management methods—they practice service leadership
- Your mindset influences your level of success in your job search
- Be confident about all the skills you’ve gained as a parent
Parents returning to work face a crisis of confidence
If there’s one thing parents agree on, parenting is tiring! From infant feeding cycles to tantrums, school schedules, and homework battles, the care and feeding of one’s children is exhausting. It’s joyful and wonderful and amazing and you’d step in front of a truck for your kid, but your confidence can take a hit.
After being a stay-at-home parent (a.k.a., on call 24-7), it can be hard to peel yourself away from the all-encompassing role of parent. Many parents wonder:
- Have I been away from the workforce for too long?
- Are my skills rusty?
- Has my industry moved on without me?
- Do I still have something of value to bring to the table?
- Will anyone take me seriously after being out of the workforce for so long?
You’re not the only parent who feels this way.
Take stock of the things you’ve learned as a parent. Look at those experiences through the lens of an employer, but first look at your attitude about your own value.
It’s possible to leverage your parenting experience to land your next job—by marketing your parenting skills to future employers with confidence.
Mind your mindset before you job hunt
Your mindset is your core set of beliefs about yourself and the world. It’s what you expect will happen in a given situation. You don’t think much about it, but your mindset affects your reality.
It sounds a little out there, but consider this. If you believe you have something valuable to offer, are you more or less likely to apply to a challenging job? If you believe you’ve been out of the workforce for too long, are you more or less likely to reach out to recruiters?
As a parent looking to re-enter the job market, your mindset can make or break your success in it. It helps to talk with others. Friends, family, or even a therapist can help you reframe a negative mindset and see the value you offer.
To get you there, let’s highlight the ways being a parent makes you a desirable employee. Keep these in mind when you approach all aspects of your job search.
Friends, family, or even a therapist can help you reframe elements of a negative mindset and see the value you offer.
Parents are able to multitask—and then some
Look at any given set of job postings and you’ll frequently see “ability to multi-task” listed as a requirement. Parents are the ultimate multi-taskers.
Some examples of parental multi-tasking:
- Managing multiple people’s schedules
- Cooking dinner, while helping with homework, while making sure kids clean up after themselves, while scheduling appointments, while sorting the mail. (Seriously, who wouldn’t want to hire you for project management?)
- Responding appropriately to constant interruptions— “I need help!”—and being able to return to the work at hand
Parents know how to be cool under pressure
Things go wrong in life. Employees who can handle tricky situations and not get flustered are an asset in any work environment. Guess who’s had plenty of practice keeping their cool when things go wrong? Parents!
What parent hasn’t had to remain calm in the face of a child melting down in public? What parent hasn’t had to keep speaking in a calm voice to a child who’s escalating with every “no” they hear?
Feel confident that if you got through nighttime feedings and no sleep, bad dreams about monsters and no sleep, and stomach bugs and no sleep, you can handle the pressures of 9-to-5.
When you walk into an interview, keep that confidence in the forefront and let them see you’re ready for what’s next.
Parents practice service leadership, putting others first
If you do your job well as a parent—and raise kids who are ready to face the world—you’ll work yourself out of a job. (Of course, you’re always a parent. You just won’t be cleaning up after your kids!) This is the epitome of service leadership.
Service leadership is touted in leadership circles as being key to producing positive work cultures. Far from the top-down hierarchy of old-school forms of management, service leadership is about fueling the success of others.
Servant leaders create positive work environments where employees can thrive. They build trust with their employees and encourage autonomy and innovation. That’s exactly what parents do—they create a safe environment so kids can grow and become independent.
Final thoughts
Not convinced you’re ready to face the working world once again? Think about whether you’ve grown in these abilities since having kids:
- Problem-solving
- Conflict-resolution
- Patience
- Resilience
- Organization
- Anger management
- Materials management
- Budgeting
- Empathy
Bet you said yes to most of these. You’ve got this!
