I took a long career break to raise my children, but it’s time to focus on getting back into the workforce. What advice would you give to a woman to re-enter the job market?

Q. As a mother of two, I took a long career break to raise my children. They are now in high school, so I have taken classes and designed and led my own projects to get back up to speed, but I have no recent work experience (other than volunteering at my children’s schools) to reference in an application or interview. What advice would you give me to be a viable candidate?

A. As any parent raising children knows, working from home should be considered the hardest job anyone can have. So don’t minimize your experience at home and especially don’t minimize your volunteer experience at your children’s school.

You are an ideal candidate for a particular type of combination resume, a functional or skills-based resume, with timeline as a secondary section. When reviewing your work experience, even going back all those years, look at your skills and focus on the ones you’re good at and that are relevant to the job you’re applying for. Do you have experience in financial roles? If so, one of the areas of your functional resume would start with financial experience, then you would list four or five bullet points describing examples under that section illustrating the experience you have had, without listing the dates or the place where it occurred, but using the chip. points to describe your accomplishments in this role.

Quantify all possible types of success. If you have increased revenue by dollars or percentages or streamlined processes, be sure to explain the success demonstrated by each point. Take a step back and choose a second functional skill that you want to emphasize. You can use up to five or six of these in a functional resume, as long as they contain at least three or four meaningful examples. And at the end of this section, at the bottom of the first page or the second page, you will then list your chronological experience as it relates to these employers. In the chronological section, list these details in terms of your volunteer activities.

If you feel you don’t have enough content for a strong functional resume, you can create a chronological resume. Record any other activities you participated in if they involve specific skills. You mention volunteering for your children’s school and taking classes. Highlight any major training and responsibilities during this time, for example: managing distance learning for two school-aged children from March 2020 to November 2022, serving on the 2022-2023 prom planning committee, coordination of Spirit Week parent volunteers, volunteer work in the school library. from 2016 to 2022, etc. If these volunteer activities were larger and more complex, try to include more details if you can. Did you lead fifty parents in organizing the annual golf fundraiser, where you raised more money than any other year? Have you recruited twenty new parent volunteers for the library reading program? Again, each bullet and activity should show that you are dedicated to the success of the activity you are involved in.

There are organizations that work with parents returning to the workforce after raising their children, and these would obviously be a great resource to contact. One example is the Mom Project, a platform and community designed to support parents, particularly mothers, who have taken a career break and need help re-entering the workforce and finding flexible employment opportunities that meet to their needs. Another is the Lean in Network Return to Work Circle, which has a small Boston circle to connect with “restarters.” And iRelaunch, with its tagline Normalizing Career Breaks, offers a wealth of online resources and a job site where you can upload your resume for employers looking for candidates like you to find.

It’s likely that you have an extraordinarily large and diverse network within the school, parents of your children’s friends and other parents at the school. I encourage you to recognize that getting the opportunity to interview for a job will require networking and referrals. These people will be predisposed to like you and will recognize that even if your work experience dates back a few years, you are able to demonstrate that you are a reliable and dedicated employee.

Also remember the people you worked for and with. I hope you left on good terms and that they also have positive memories of your ability to contribute as a potential employee. Between professional organizations that support returning parents and your network, you should be able to translate your previous work experience and volunteer experience into paid work experience.

Boston.com