Women Returning to the Workforce
If you left a career to raise a family and are returning to the workforce, here are two thoughts for you to consider:
- You may want to address your absence by writing a composite chronological and functional resume. Simply list the child-rearing years as such within the chronology.
- If your return to the workforce will involve responsibilities other than those you carried out prior to your absence, you may have to describe the earlier functions more broadly to bridge the gap between past work experience and desired employment. Otherwise, you should be guided by the same advice given all other job seekers.
If you have special skills or academic credentials that apply to the area in which you seek employment, highlight them.
For example, one of my seminar participants wanted to get out of the drugstore business and had a master's degree in finance. His resume had to emphasize finance, not drugstores; it had to focus on the master's degree. It had to list all the courses he had taken that would help a potential employer see him in the career he sought. As a drugstore owner, his work involved finances. He had also managed his own investment portfolio. Those points, too, needed highlighting.
Education
Many may be considering a move into teaching or some other career in which academic credentials are stressed. For such a change, you will have to emphasize your educational qualifications. You can leave out majors and minors unless you believe they are relevant, and you can omit them if they are not relevant.
For example, if you have a bachelor of arts in theater and you are applying for a job in a totally unrelated area, you might simply write ''hold a bachelor of arts degree" and leave out the major. When you get into the interview, you can talk about courses you've taken that are relevant to the particular job opening. At that time, if you need to mention that the B.A. is in theater, fine. By then, you've established that you have other, relevant credentials that would be useful to the employer.
If academic achievements, as well as degrees, are important to the employer, your resume should include such items as honors list, dean's list, grade point average, membership in honor societies, and academic honors bestowed by organizations outside the school.
If you have written a thesis or dissertation that has been published, mention that as well. Are you, or have you been, a candidate for a master's degree or a doctorate? If so, that should also be listed in your resume.
If you don't have a graduate degree but have completed credits toward it, say so. If you have a master's or doctorate in progress, say that as well, even if you haven't done much toward it for a year or two.
I know of at least one case in which the requirements for the position included a doctorate or a master's with a doctorate in progress. Yet the individual who was hired had only a bachelor's and had done no work toward an advanced degree. She was hired because she was clearly the best candidate for the job.
Travel Gaps
If you took time off from your career to travel, you should show how it helped to broaden your experience and background and made you a better employee. Perhaps it gave you the time to decide what you want to do and where you want to do it. Use the opportunity to point out that you are now prepared to put your full efforts into the position you are seeking.
One woman I counseled had done some traveling between jobs and was looking for a position as a writer with a corporation. She developed a rationale for her travel that showed how valuable it would be to her employer to have a writer on staff who had some familiarity with other societies and cultures.
Out of Work
If you have been unemployed for a while and need to cover that gap, you might say, ''In a difficult market situation for my particular specialty, I have chosen to remain fully involved in my search rather than accept the wrong position." You have no obligation to say whether you have received other offers or, if so, who made them.
Working Part-time
If you have been freelancing or working part-time, say so, but the interviewer has no right to know how much you were paid or for whom you were working. Simply say that this is confidential information.
Wrong Achievements
Some achievements may not be the type that you want to call to your interviewer's attention. For example, one executive told me that his most significant achievement was that he had worked on the atomic bomb; however, he was seeking a career change because he felt there was no future in bombs. He finally decided that he would downplay the nature of his work and simply emphasize his involvement in a "major government project" in which he "had supervisory responsibility" and "was successful" in "seeing the project through to completion."
Taking Reasonable Credit In some cases, an achievement may be questioned if your role is not clearly defined or if you appear to be taking too much credit. For example, if you supervise an area in which a project was particularly successful, but the success came about as a result of a committee effort, say so. Then let the success of the project speak for itself. If you headed the committee, that is even more to your advantage.
