Collaborative post
How To Make Returning To Work After Children Much Easier
Many women, and an increasing number of men, take time off work to raise their children, and this can be beneficial for everyone involved if it is what the parents want and they have the financial means to do so.
However, you may decide to return to work at some point in the future, perhaps after the kids have started school or when finding quality, cheap childcare becomes more feasible. However, returning to the workforce is not without its challenges. Getting back into the workforce can be challenging for a number of reasons, such as feeling out of touch with the sector’s evolution and lacking extensive experience, regardless of how long it’s been since you last worked or what kind of job or career you wish to pursue.
It may be difficult to get back to work but doing so may ultimately prove to be the best option. It’ll boost your finances, set you free, and improve your self-esteem, allowing you to go after your dreams. Keeping that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of suggestions for making your transition back to work as easy as possible.
Think Of Your Experience
Bringing up kids is a tough job that calls for skills you might not even know you have. A lot of things, like punctuality, politeness, cleanliness, caution, compassion, and strictness, are expected of you. Further, you will have a fundamental understanding of how to provide for children, maintain a tidy home, cook nourishing meals, and so on. That is to say, your regular activities might help you get back into the workforce. Even if you have never worked in an office or factory, you may have had a similar experience.
Don’t discount your skills and experience just because you’ve chosen to stay at home with your kids rather than work. The abilities you’ve developed may have become so ingrained and routine to you that you no longer see them as such. Step back for a second and examine your everyday routine carefully. If you were to use any of these at work, which would be the most helpful? In what ways might you improve your resume by adding these – albeit unusual – skills? Looking up tips for throwing a gender reveal party and organizing that party right at the start could have been your first step – think how far you’ve come now.
Start Slowly
Again, this will hinge on the professional path you have decided to return to or begin, but you may want to think about starting slowly, perhaps in a part-time capacity, and working your way up to full-time employment. If you do this, you will have more time to devote to your work and will be more likely to succeed. The transition from being a full-time parent to having a full-time job will often be challenging, and the difference between the two can be so overpowering that it may lead you to believe that you have made the wrong choice and give up on the notion of having a career entirely. If you are able to begin by working only two or three days a week, for instance, you will be able to gradually increase the number of hours you put in as your self-assurance increases and the logistics become simpler to manage.
You and your family will be able to adjust to your departure from the home more easily as a result of this. Keep in mind that your work won’t only have an effect on you (even though you should be the one you consider the most, which, as a parent, can be challenging but is also vital), and it may take some time before you get into a new routine that is productive.
You don’t have to stay working at a modest pace just because you start out that way; when you feel ready, you can raise your hours and go back to working full time if that’s what you want to do.
Try Volunteering
Volunteer work is a great way to test the waters of the working world and see whether it’s something you want to pursue more seriously. You’ll feel good about yourself while helping others, and you might even uncover some skills you didn’t realize you had in the process.
Your resume will also look great if you do volunteer work. If you took time off to have children, there will be a gap in your work history that will be easy to see on your resume. Even though you can explain this – after all, the reason you’re going back to work is that you took time off – it’s helpful to have something there to fill in the gaps a bit. It shows, for example, that you are willing to work and get better, and it also shows what skills you’ve picked up during that time.
There will be a lot of volunteer opportunities near you, so you won’t have to go very far to find something that interests you. Here are some things you could do:
- Pick up litter
- Volunteer at a youth group
- Join an after-school program
- Help the homeless by giving out information about shelters or volunteering at a soup kitchen
- Read to a blind or elderly person
- Visit hospital patients who don’t have family
- Volunteer at a charity store
Make Use Of Your Contacts
What about your contacts if you don’t know where to begin looking for work because you don’t know what you want, are unsure that you can get what you want, or just don’t know how to go about it because it’s been so long (and technology may have improved a lot since then)?
Over the years, you will have encountered a variety of people, and it is inevitable that each of them has some form of connection who is employed elsewhere. It would be wise to start here. Ask your friends and family if they know of any job prospects that might be accessible through them or their contacts. If you’re not too concerned with what you do for a job and are more interested in obtaining any form of work, this can work incredibly well. There will be many opportunities provided to you, so it should be simple to discover a job that fits what you’re looking for.
Utilising your networks could lead to you learning about a job that no one else is aware of or that you had never thought about before. You might be able to get an interview if your friend or relative puts in a good word for you. Asking is always beneficial and could even be the best course of action.
Negotiate
You might find a job that’s perfect for you, but the ad won’t say if you can work from home. If that’s the case, you should still apply. It could be that flexible work is the norm, so it wasn’t thought to be important to mention. On the other hand, it might be something you can talk about later. After all, if you get to the interview stage, the employer must be impressed with you and what you can do. If they really want you to work for them, they might be willing to change the hours or let you work from home to make sure you get the job.
If they really want to hire you and see your potential, they will be more open to giving you different kinds of work. They don’t want you to go to a different place that can give you what you need.