Does organizing playdates count as an employable skill?

Laundry done? Check. Groceries put away? Check. Kept the kids alive? Check.

Your daily ‘to do’ list was pretty ho hum while you were off work, right? Though you may not feel like you have much to offer right now, you were actually raising new and productive members of society, so don’t ever forget that. The experiences you’ve had raising kids and running a household have made you an expert at multitasking, organization and emergency management, and yes, those are valuable skills to any organization. But now what?

Your first step is to update your resume. Chances are over the years you’ve volunteered at your kids’ school, or for their sports teams. Pee Wee soccer coach anyone? Convincing 5-year-olds to stop picking the flowers and actually run after the ball is a skill…really. Though it may not seem obvious, the experiences you gained when you were not working at a paid job were valuable, and you need to figure out how to highlight them, and market yourself.

Projects, volunteer work, or classes you’ve taken are definitely good to record on your resume. For example, if you were a manager for your son’s hockey team, you’ve got people and organizational skills. If you volunteered on your school’s parent society, you have experience working with a team and building consensus.

The next step is to do some serious soul searching. Look at your life and decide what type of job works for you, your family, your lifestyle. Women have many reasons for going back to work and it’s not always a choice, so ask yourself what you need. Is it making a good salary or having a flexible work schedule? Could you possibly create your own work? Something entrepreneurial?

Figuring out your lifestyle priorities before you start looking will help guide you in the right direction and make choices that work for your life. If you want to be able to pick your kids up after school, you are not going to want to work for a demanding corporation with a culture that expects you to work until 8 o’clock every evening.

This leads me to the third step: research. After you’ve updated your resume, identify your work-related priorities and the type of job you are looking for.  This will be one of the most important things you do. You need to figure out what kind of organization you want to work for, explore different companies and job descriptions and see what might be a good fit.

It’s also wise to take a close look at your industry, it may have changed quite a bit in the time that you’ve been away. Take classes, webinars and find out how have things changed in your field and how you can update your skills in the most efficient way possible. Or, if you are looking for a complete change get informed. If you need a new skill set, look for employers willing to provide on the job training or take necessary courses.

Once you’ve identified some potential jobs, here comes the final step. And, bonus, it’s fun too: networking! Wait, don’t run away. It’s really nothing to be afraid of. You really never know where your best work lead will come from, it really could be anywhere, so start to tell people — and by people I mean everyone — you are looking for a job. If you’ve done your homework, updated your resume and figured out what kind of job you are looking for, this won’t seem as overwhelming or intimidating.

Use your ‘mom network’ to find out who is, or was, in your industry and whether they have connections. Talk to other friends and family. Make connections and have coffee with whomever you can if they are related to your industry. You never know who may have a lead for you. Above all, get your name out there to as many people as possible.  

If you are planning to return to the same industry you left, another great way to make connections is to join any industry-related professional organizations. If you’re not already on it, join LinkedIn, and also look at Meetup or Eventbrite for industry events you can attend.

When you get that job and start back to work, it’s important to remember that nobody starts out knowing everything. Just like when you had your first baby and thought, “what the hell do I do now?” and just dove right in, use the same approach with your job. Fake it till you make it. I promise it works.