Stay At Home Parent Transitioning Back to Work

Stay At Home Parent Transitioning Back to WorkStay At Home Parent Transitioning Back to WorkIf youve been a stay-at-home parent, youve poured time into ensuring that everyone in your household has what they need to succeed. Now its your turn. This year make it your resolution to redirect that energy to fuel your own professional reinvention.I know, it can seem worrisome. At some point while you were room parenting, soccer coaching, field tripping and carpooling, Twitter became a second language in which everyone seems to radiate fluency. And Snapchat suddenly turned into a business tool. You are not sure how to get started in a reality that appears much different than the one you left when your kids were small. You may worry that the gaps in your resume match those in your tech savvy and both make you look incomplete in a way that the professional world wont tolerate.Dont let your fears drive this important initiative. Be proud of the work you accomplished for your family. Your exper tise was well applied in an arena where it was needed. Those efforts have yielded professional value, and the workforce wants you. Simply Hired data reveals that 4.5 million jobs are open across the US. This represents a more than 9% increase in job postings from January 2015. So you picked a great time to jettison your prowess for managing, organizing, streamlining and planning into a new career. Decide what you want Examine your resume. Think about the job you had before you took a hiatus to raise your kids. Would you like to continue on that path or do you want something different? Review job postings. See what is available and what sounds like it could be a fit. You may not be ready to pick up right where you left off. You may need to work up to your former title, but thats not a badeanstalt thing really. Starting out slowly will make it easier to acclimate back into the workforce. Define your priorities. Is salary your top priority or is flexibility more important? Are you read y to take on a full-time job or would part- time work suit you better? Set yourself up for success by thinking this through and being very realistic about what you want and what you are willing to juggle. Update your resume Dont be ashamed of that gap on your resume. You made a good choice for your family, so own that. Look at your recent efforts Did you coach, teach a class, volunteer, take on a leadership role on a board or a committee? All of those efforts make you the professional you are now. All are resume-buildingand interview appropriate. Social media LinkedIn is easy to use. Your former coworkers wont expect a lengthy update or touchbase email from you. So dont feel daunted by social expectation, just start building your network.Here are a couple more user friendly and helpful social media tipsthat will help get you started.Network Even with LinkedIn and other networking technology, knowing someone who puts in a good word totenstill gets resumes noticed. Go to networking ev ents. Set up informational interviews with well-positioned contacts. Volunteers at organizations where you hope to find employment. When you have kids your reality tends to becomes more local. You befriend parents at your kids school and on their teams. You work alongside them at fundraisers and events. Your network can become a very local one and it may yield wonderful opportunities close to home. So tap into that resource. This is the time for self discovery. So embrace your candidacy 2016 is going to be your year.

Should You Include a Soft Skills Resume Section

Should You Include a Soft Skills Resume Section Should You Include a Soft Skills Resume Section Before focusing my business solely on soft skills solutions for companies and organizations, I offered resume writing services and worked with hundreds of individual job seekers. I created a soft skills resume section for my clients who received excellent feedback from employers and began landing interviews and job offers.Of course, I recommend revising your entire resume- not just this section- but I strongly believe a tailored soft skills resume section will set you apart in your job search and improve your odds of landing interviews.What are soft skills?Soft skills- interpersonal skills- are a combination of talent and ability. In todays world, many employees havent been taught essential soft skills and arrive at work lacking basics like time management, communication skills, problem-solving, conflict resolution, and more.Why employers scan for soft skills on resumesEmployers cannot aff ord to hire candidates with weak soft skills. When they do, they invest significantly in new hires (throughout the hiring, onboarding, and training process) who will not be retained long-term. Poor hiring decisions affect productivity, collaboration amongst team members, morale, and company culture, too.Did you know that 67% of HR managers said theyd hire a candidate with strong soft skills even if technical skills were lacking, while only 9% would hire someone with strong technical skills but weak soft skills? And that 93% of employers claim that soft skills are an essential or very important factor in making hiring decisions?The bottom line is soft skills in the workplace is a big deal, and thats not going to change.If youre revising your resume, understand that if you dont highlight your soft skills and indicate specific ways youve showcased those soft skills in the past, employers may have to pass. Hiring a candidate who demonstrates poor soft skills- or who is silent about thes e skills altogether- is risky.How to determine which soft skills to feature on your resumeWhich 3-5 skills would you consider your best assets? It may be difficult to identify your strongest soft skills on your own. Get some help. Work with a career coach, your career services staff (if youre in college), or check out a great list of soft skills online to get your brain churning. Talk to people whove worked with you in the past or former classmates. Ask them to help you identify which soft skills youve demonstrated repeatedly while working on projects.Identify a job youre interested in applying for. Did you know that most job postings can be broken down into three main components company/organization description, job functions, and job requirements? Check out the job posting. Look for mention of soft skills throughout the job posting. In most cases, you will find these skills mentioned in either job requirements or job functions. Employers are desperately seeking candidates who alre ady possess essential soft skills. It makes more sense to hire someone who does not require six months of training in communication skills than to hire someone who does.Now you get to play match-up. Compare your top 3-5 soft skills with the skills preferences or requirements in the job posting. Hopefully the employer is looking for the same skills you feel are your greatest assets.Jobscan can help automate this process by identifying soft skills in the job description and comparing it to whats already on your resume.Try it yourself here?What if none of them match? Ask yourself a few questions.A) Am I really qualified to apply for this standort?B) Do I possess the soft skills the employer is looking for, even though I dont feel theyre my top 3-5?If you can answer yes to these two questions, carry on.Creating a soft skills section for your resumeNow that you know which soft skills to highlight on your resume, create a specific skills section. Call it something simple and straightforwa rd. Soft skills highlights works fine. You want to create no more than three bullet points featuring three soft skills in this section. Keep it simple and short. Each bullet point should summarize an example of a time when you demonstrated the soft skill youre highlighting. Think of these bullet points as soft skill accomplishment statements. Remember to quantify and qualify your examples whenever possible.Here are two examples to get you startedManages, multiple tasks, completing projects on time Trained 450+ students in computer skills, maintained elementary school library, ordered library materials, managed 12 staff members.Strategic problem-solver Moved organization from fully-insured contract to self-insurance saved $400,000 by negotiating with vendors.Lastly, keep in mind you cant create this section once and never look at it again if you want to create a hard-hitting resume. You should tailor this section each time you apply for a job. Why? Because each industry, company, and job role requires a unique set of soft skills. Each job posting will make it clear which soft skills you need to fit well within the organization and to succeed in the job role.This section is not just an opportunity to showcase all your assets. Its an opportunity to match your assets to the companys preferences. Bottom line Its not just about you. Its a two-way street, as with everything else in the hiring process.One final thought keep in mind that in order to highlight your soft skills on your resume, you must possess them. If you find yourself lacking great soft skills, do something about it. Seek some training or coaching. Dont wait until your lack of soft skills causes you to miss a great promotion or to lose a terrific business opportunity.Bethany Wallace helps facilitate communications transformation in the workplace through implementing soft skills solutions. Owner of a communications and consulting business, she helps mission-minded organizations, employers, and education al institutions to fulfill their missions by implementing soft skills solutions. She offers tailored training packages, executive coaching, professional development, and keynote presentations.Bethany has worked for 12 years in higher education as an English faculty member, career services director, and advisor. She previously served as Content Manager for College Recruiter, a technical writer for HP, and has garnered management experience in the non-profit sector as well. In addition to managing her business, Bethany conducts research with business partners, volunteers in the community, and mentors other women. Connect with Bethany onLinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

A Lesson for Hiring Managers Everywhere

A Lesson for Hiring Managers Everywhere A Lesson for Hiring Managers Everywhere Watch this video youll thank me, I promise you.Last week, I worked with a graphic designer client who expressed concern about her job prospects because I dont fit todays standards of beauty. That video made me think of her, and of all the snap decisions that are being made in interviews all over the country right now because the candidate doesnt look as if he or she fits the part. Any interviewer whos honest will admit to having done this at some time or another. Maybe the candidate is of a certain age and your is a young company. Maybe hes fat and that makes you uncomfortable. Or maybe she looks way too young to be able to do the job advertised, even though her resume shows that he has done it before.Susan Boyles wertmiger zuwachs on that TV show is a reminder to all of us. Maybe this week we can judge everyone we meet by what they do and not what they look like.