Should You Include Details About Your Maternity Leave
Of course, the first question you should address is whether you need to include that information at all. The answer is relatively simple. If you left your job to give birth and remained out of the workforce long enough to create a work history gap, then you need to explain that gap. And that means that you will need to address the maternity leave head-on.
You may be tempted to use clever euphemisms to pretend that your months or years as a caretaker were an actual job. We certainly understand that impulse since child-rearing is one of the most challenging jobs out there. Still, you need to be honest about your reasons for being out of the workforce. If you explain the gap properly during the job search, your potential employer will understand. On the other hand, if you lie about your time away, that could lead to other problems down the road.
Dont Stress About A Gap
The most important thing is to always remember not to try and hide time-outs in your resume, but try to explain them convincingly.
A career break on your resume is not about explaining or justifying every personal decision down to the last detail. Rather, it is about demonstrating to the human resource manager that the decisions for a break have been made deliberately for a concrete and comprehensible reason. That way, timeouts on your resume will not get in the way of your career.
Career Break To Travel
You can take time off from your career for personal reasons as well as practical obligations. If you traveled during your career break, you can emphasize your increased worldly experience on your resume. Here is one sample resume for someone who took a career break to travel:
SummaryI am an experienced education professional seeking to apply my expertise to a new career in community engagement planning. After I achieved a high level of success as an educator, I took time off to travel the world and gain inspiration for my next set of professional goals. Through my experience enjoying cultural activities across four continents, I realized my passion and talent for coordinating culturally relevant and enriching events for others.
EducationMaster of Curriculum and InstructionUniversity of Iowa ’08Bachelor of Arts in Art HistoryCarnegie Mellon University ’01
Travel sabbatical2019 – 2021
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Toured cities across North America, South America, Asia and Australiato broaden my personal and professional perspectives
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Lectured at colleges, high schools and museums about multimodal education in the arts
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Attended cultural ceremonies, community events, celebrations and festivals
Human geography teacher, lead teacherLowell Magnet High School for the Arts2008 – 2019
Social studies teacher
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Best Tips On How To Approach Maternity Leave
Generally, an unemployment gap on the resume is a disadvantage. If you were competing for a job position with another candidate who has a seamless work history, the gap could be the difference maker.
However, that does not have to be the case. You just have to be upfront and honest with the recruiter on the unemployment gap.
The person who reads your resume will be your first point-of-contact. You will not be able to explain the gap in person. Thus, you should let your resume do the talking for you.
Here are 5 tips on how to approach your Maternity Leave so you can put it on your resume:
Did You Know Facts About How To Make Your Resume Search Friendly:
1. Use keywords strategically
2. Use language from the job description
3. Keep it clean
4. Highlight your skills and achievements
5. Format your resume logically
6. Customize every resume
Let us know if youd like to hear back on more details. Our career expert can take in your queries and respond accordingly.
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Time To Write A New Cv
Writing a new CV doesnt have to be as difficult and scary as it seems for mums. All you have to do is be honest, treat motherhood as a job and draw your employers attention to new skills you acquired and other work you did during your absence in the workplace. Thats it!
Choose the option that works best for you and be self-confident! Youve had a hard time but did a great job raising your children. Having that experience, finding a new job should be a piece of cake.
About the author: Emily Johnson is a blogger and a content strategist at OmniPapers. She is also a contributor to many websites about personality psychology, career advice, productivity, remote work, as well as blogging and writing. You can always find more works of hers on .
Use The Power Of Networking
You dont have to stop networking during your parental leave.
Stay in touch with others working in your professional field. Think of anyone that could help you find a job and provide a better starting point in your job search.
Call up your former colleagues, send out emails asking for references and recommendations and .
Hiring managers will appreciate recommendations from trusted authorities be it your former employers or seasoned field professionals:
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Volunteer Activities And The Likes
Nows the time to focus on your non-professional activities and let them speak of your determination and a spirit of goodwill.
Make sure to mention any relevant community service or voluntary work that you engaged in during your time away. Any freelancing projects or short-term gigs work as great resume enhancers.
Also, try to draw a conclusion on what you gained in terms of professional insights and technical skills from the volunteer activities. Employers will like seeing youre an active person using their skills and free time in a useful way:
Check If You Need To Send A Doctor’s Note
Before you write your letter, check your company’s policies about the need for written permission from your physician to return to your job. If you have any medical restrictions due to a complicated pregnancy, state these concerns clearly and attach the note from your doctor. It’s much easier to make adjustments right when you return from maternity leave than to do try to do so later.
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Explaining A Gap On Your Resume
Of course, any gap in your resume is likely to raise questions from future employers, so it’s important to figure out how you’re going to present that. When it comes down to it, Chavez and Augustine agree: Honesty is the best policy.
“If an employer should ask about a travel resume gap, be honest,” said Chavez. “Explain what you were hoping to achieve while traveling just don’t go into too much detail if one of those reasons was feeling burned out .”
However, there are a few ways you can present it on your resume.
1. It’s reasonable to remove the months from your employment dates on your resume and just include the years to make any gaps less obvious, according to both Chavez and Augustine.
2. Ditch the traditional reverse-chronological format and opt for a “skills-based” resume which highlights projects you’ve worked on and career experiences, said Chavez.
3. Additionally, if you use the sabbatical to do any voluntary or freelance work, make sure you list that to show how you kept busy.
“Be prepared to list a few of the things you learned and how your travels helped shape and reinvigorate your career goals,” said Chavez.
“That way, potential employers may even view the break in a positive light because it shows you spent time recharging and are now approaching your career with renewed enthusiasm and fresh perspective.”
Focus On Updated Skills
One of the best ways to deal with the maternity leave issue is to concentrate on making your presentation about your skills. Make a list of skills that you learned or updated during your time out of the workforce and describe the most relevant ones under your resume skills section. When you do that, you can also mention your time away, and how it provided you with an opportunity to add new skills to your skill set.
That option for explaining your maternity leave resume gap enables you to show that you used your time away to enhance your potential value as an employee. Of course, you will want to ensure that the skills you list are ones that you actually possess. But their addition to your resume will help the employer to focus on the contribution you can make. It will also demonstrate that you are still committed to your career.
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Make Time To Network And Volunteer
Ideally, a stay-at-home mom who hopes to return to work in the future should be making time to volunteer within her field and to continue networking during her time away. Volunteer work is a great way to keep your skills fresh and to remain connected with others working in your profession, according to certified career coach Cheryl E. Palmer.
Your volunteer work can also be used to show your strengths on your resume, as well as any growth you have experienced during your time away. The best way to include these experiences on your resume is by focusing on what was learned from each volunteer position, Swartz notes.
Rather than creating a list of volunteer positions held during a career break, it is far more relevant to list the skills learned or new technical skills gained from the experience on your resume or on LinkedIn. You should address on the resume what was gained in terms of professional insights from the volunteer experiences, she says.
Of course, it isnt always possible to network and volunteer during time taken off to parent, but its never too late to start revitalizing your professional network.
Before you jump into your job search, seek out former colleagues on LinkedIn and get back in touch with people that you had good working relationships with, Palmer says. These people can really help you with your job search, but its best to invest in them first before asking for anything.
Career Break To Be A Caregiver
Many people take a career break to focus on their family by being a caregiver. This can be to raise children, help a sick family member or other forms of full-time caregiving. Here is one way you could present a caregiving career break on a resume:
ObjectiveDedicated, passionate graphic designer with 5 years of experience looking to develop comprehensive designs to support client branding. Re-entering the workforce after taking some time off to provide care to a disabled family member while staying engaged with the graphic design industry through occasional freelance work.
EducationAssociate’s degree in graphic designDenton County Community College ’13
Work experienceFamily leave2018 – Present
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Provided 24/7 in-home care for my mother during treatment for a medical condition until she made a full recovery
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Offered pro-bono graphic design support to local non-profits for occasional poster, flyer and website designs
Graphic designerHartman & Fleming2013 – 2018
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Developed visual branding for small to mid-size businesses including determining color schemes, design themes and website layout
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Met with potential clients and presented pitches describing possible branding angles, upselling design services and cultivating ongoing relationships with long-term clients
Skills
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Copywriting
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Add Your Transferrable Skills
Parents know that if you can negotiate with a 3-year-old, you’ll be golden in the boardroom. But how do you express that on a stay-at-home dad résumé so that it moves you on to the interview phase of the job search?
Kakati Shah was kind enough to share some actual stay-at-home parent résumé examples written by women who utilized the resources offered by Uma. Note their job titles and the talents gained in their descriptions.
Job Title: Project Manager, Private Family Office
Description: Successfully managed the risk portfolio of a household and oversaw design and implementation of an extensive 12-month gut renovation, all while raising two children under the age of 2.
Job Title: Parenting Expert
Description: With 10+ years’ experience as a marketing manager, I can now proudly add parenting a highly energized 3-year-old girl to my repertoire. Skills gained include working under intense pressure as well as superior efficiency of managing tasks within constantly changing and unforgiving timelines.
Job Title: Career Break
Description: Took a career hiatus to raise my twins who are now in school full time, allowing me to refocus on my career. Maintained my link with the industry by completing a refresher course in digital marketing, as well as an executive MBA module with a specific focus on marketing strategy.”
Job Title: Head of Budgeting
Add A Career Break Placeholder On Your Resume
It might be helpful to add a new entry in your professional experience section: Career Break. By addressing the gap directly on your resume, youre helping both the applicant tracking systems and people reading your resume understand why you have a gap.
To do this, youd add your career break just like any other job, with the job title as Career Break, Planned Career Break, or Professionally Active Career Break, and the dates it occurred.
Weve created a number of templates and samples for your job search so you can see what this might look like in practice.
Furthermore, one study compared job applicants who disclosed a reason for their work gap to those who did not. It found that candidates who provided reasoning for their work gap on their resume and cover letter received 60% more interviews than those who did not give a reason at all.
Career Gap Resume Example
If you have a gap in your resume, below is an example of how this can be formatted.
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Skill Up And Share Certifications
A theory of skill deterioration suggests that time out of work leads to skills becoming rusty and obsolete employers prefer to hire applicants with continuous employment records to avoid high training costs.
The longer your career gap, skills do grow rusty. Continuing education is not just a way to keep abreast with changes happening in your industry, but it also signals a learners/growth mindset to employers. Plus, taking a short online course to grow your skills, can be a welcome and intellectually stimulating break from round-the-clock parenthood.
If the courses integrate with Linkedin and allow you to add a certification to your profile, then thats even better.
How To Mention Maternity Break In Resume
A senior manager with considerable experience in the field of human resources management. Has recently had a career break to take maternity leave and now looking to resume work, with suitable childcare in place for 2 year old daughter. Has broad experience in HR management, taking on progressively responsible roles during career to date. Proven ability to collaborate with senior managers to integrate HR within the business. Experienced in working in fast-paced environments and can handle business restructuring. Dedicated to developing positive employee relations and always strives to exceed expectations. Proven track record of implementing policies and procedures to maximise business profitability.
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Maternity Leave Off My Cv 30
piccolamamma · 07/12/2006 00:18
there always has to be one who spoils it for everyone else.. in this case a recruiter who told me to take Maternity Leave off my CV all together. . I was v.polite but will not take ML off my CV as that would be SOO ridiculous. Anyone else had similar experiences with future bosses or recruiters after becoming mothers? Or are things slowly improving – is this really a one off? lol
Quootiepie · 07/12/2006 00:20
genuine Q by the way! Not having a go, if people think you shouldnt, or something like that.
feelingfedup · 07/12/2006 21:57
I don’t put it on my CV. Don’t see the point, it won’t help me get a job.
Gingerbear · 07/12/2006 22:01
presumably to explain a gap in employment? During Mat leave are you not still employed? In which case, why not put that time down as being with the employer?
MistletoeGolightly · 07/12/2006 22:14
I agree with Gingerbear – while you are on mat leave you are still with your employer so just count it as one continuous period of employment – doesn’t matter that you were on maternity leave, none of the interviewer’s business. But I agree it’s sad that recruiters think it will spoil your chances of getting a job. Would like to think we’re beyond that.
hatwoman · 07/12/2006 22:30
hatwoman · 07/12/2006 22:32
and I don’t think it s ridiculous or reactionary to leave it off. your cv is there to provide employers with relevant information. mat leave is irrelevant. which is as it should be
Judy1234 · 08/12/2006 09:52
Tip : Prepare For Your Interviews
A lot can change in an industry in just a few months, let alone years. You dont want to come across as behind the times during your interviews, so do your homework to make sure youre up to speed on your industry. Look for sample interview questions like this list of 50 questions for SEO analysts and managers. Doing so might give you insight into areas of your field that have changed so youll know where to brush up on your knowledge ahead of time. This will also help you to be more confident going to an interview if youve done your homework, and that confidence will come across to the interviewer as well.
We will now look at the next tip for women returning to work after a career gap.
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Don’t Give Out Unnecessary Details
When it’s time for you to explain your career break in the cover letter, keep the explanation brief and concise.
Remember, you don’t have to go in-depth as to why you left your previous job.
For example, let’s say that you decided to leave work to care for your elderly parents. The recruiter doesnt need to know the details about how you came to make the decision, as it is very personal to you.
Instead, you could briefly state something such as: In , I took some time away from work to care for my parents. It’s simple, to the point, and tells the recruiter all they need to know about the situation.