Stay-At-Home Mom Resume Templates and Examples for 2024

Stay-at-Home Mom Resume Templates and Examples (Downloadable)

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If you’re ready to re-enter the workforce after being a stay-at-home mom, you’re in good company. In the U.S., a significant majority — approximately 75% — of mothers with children ranging from newborn to 17 years old are actively employed. For the best chances of landing a job, you’ll need a resume that highlights your prior work history and the valuable skills you’ve gained while managing family responsibilities.

Review the tips and examples below to get your resume ready for your employment search.

Key takeaways:

• Highlight transferable skills: Whether from past jobs or your time at home, emphasize any relevant skills near the top of your resume and in the profile section.
• Use numbers when you can: Quantifying your experience helps hiring managers understand the scope of your past work and home responsibilities. Use numbers when describing things like budget sizes or the number of children you cared for.
• Optimize for Applicant Tracking Systems: Identify the key skills employers will be looking for by aligning your skills list with those mentioned in the job ad. This will ensure your stay-at-home mom resume performs well in Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).

How To Write a Stay-at-Home Mom Resume Example

If you’re a stay-at-home mom, craft your resume the same as you would for any other profession. The main difference is you can also include any skills you’ve built or experiences you’ve had during your time outside of the workforce. Your stay-at-home mom resume should include these sections:

• Contact information
• Profile
• Key skills
• Professional experience
• Education and certifications

1. Share your contact information

At the top of your resume, include pertinent contact information, like your name, phone number, and email address. You can also list your city and state, as well as links to any relevant online portfolio, website, or LinkedIn profile.

2. Write a dynamic profile summarizing your qualifications

Start your resume with a few sentences that summarize your workforce experience as well as how your time as a stay-at-home mom has prepared you for new challenges and opportunities. Your goal is to grab the attention of the hiring manager by sharing your top qualifications and any specializations.

For example, imagine you’ve led the parent-teacher association (PTA) and organized several fundraisers during that time. Let’s say you just applied for an event planner position, and the job emphasizes teamwork and leadership. In that case, you could mention in your profile that you have experience leading diverse teams to meet or exceed fundraising goals.

3. Create a powerful list of your past experiences

In this section, describe how you’ve used any key skills developed as a stay-at-home parent and in your former working positions. This part of your resume may look a bit different as someone reentering the workforce, but it can be just as impressive. Start with the most recent position you held before taking time off. Or, if you’d like to, you can even create a job description that lists your duties and accomplishments from home.

For your job title, you can give yourself a professional title such as “Family Manager” or “Household Coordinator.” Include the timeframe you held this position and then list your key responsibilities, such as budget management, scheduling, and early childhood education. When you can, use numbers to describe your experiences.

Resume writer’s tip: Quantify your experience

Use data and numbers to quantify your achievements from previous roles. This helps hiring managers understand your value. For example, if you oversee the budget for your household and want to include it in your experience section, get specific by listing the dollar amount. These metrics bring value to your work and emphasize all you’ve accomplished.

Resume writer’s tip: Tailor your resume for each application

Customizing your resume for the specific jobs you’re applying for can position you as a better match. You can start by looking over the job posting carefully and choosing some of the same key phrases to add throughout your resume. This approach can give you better results than simply sending a generic resume out to everyone.

For instance, if the job description highlights a need for “proficiency in digital marketing,” you would incorporate those exact terms into your resume. You could also detail a successful social media marketing campaign you led or improvements in a specific audience engagement metric. Show you can speak exactly to the employer’s priorities.

What if you don’t have experience?

If you’ve been a stay-at-home parent for a while and are feeling like previous experience is irrelevant or outdated — don’t worry. It’s likely you have more skills and experience to offer than you might realize.

You can include some of the parental and household duties you’ve been managing, along with any volunteer work. As for past positions you’ve held, some skills stay with you and are highly transferable, like being a strong communicator or good at analyzing data. Also, focus on your ability to learn new skills and the potential you have rather than what you might be lacking.

4. Include relevant education and certifications

If you’re a stay-at-home parent who has been away from the working world for a bit, sharing your educational credentials can help prove that you’re qualified. Include any degrees along with the corresponding institution’s name, location, and graduation date.

Focus on those academic accomplishments most relevant to the job you’re applying for, starting with your highest level of education first. Then, list certifications that you may have earned along the way or during your time at home that could help you stand out from other applicants. These could be for software proficiencies, industry-specific knowledge, or special training.

5. List pertinent key skills

Your resume should include the specific skills that make you a viable candidate for the position you’re seeking. If you’re returning to a job you’ve held before or one similar, you’ll have a good idea of what employers are expecting. Alternatively, if you don’t have much relevant experience, focus on transferable technical and soft skills you’ve gained caring for your children. Here’s a list of examples to use as you write your stay-at-home mom resume:

Resume writer’s tip: Use strong action verbs

The words you use on your stay-at-home parent resume can be even more important than someone doing traditional work. Impactful verbs can illustrate your strengths and showcase your accomplishments in a vivid way. If you can find a way to start each bullet point of your professional experience section with an action verb rather than simply listing daily tasks, it can keep the reader engaged. Consider incorporating some of these powerful verbs into your resume:

How To Pick the Best Stay-at-Home Mom Resume Template

The right template will help you confidently present all the skills and experiences you’ve gained during your time as a stay-at-home mom. It should be well-organized and neatly arranged, without too many distracting colors or graphics. Choose designs that prioritize simplicity and feature elements like bullet points for a clean and professional look.

Stay-at-Home Mom Text-Only Resume Templates and Examples

Frequently Asked Questions: Stay-at-Home Mom Resume Examples and Advice

How do you align your resume with a job description?

With employment bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels, the job market will continue to become more competitive for stay-at-home moms heading back into the workforce. To keep up with the competition, it’s important to align your resume with the job description of each role you apply for. This starts with a thorough understanding of what the employer is looking for in a candidate.

Consider all the skills and qualifications mentioned in the job ad and how your previous experience or time at home has prepared you to meet those requirements. For example, if teamwork is vital to the job, you could mention your role in a local support group. Describe how you collaborated with others to organize events, offer support, or share resources.

What is the best stay-at-home mom resume format?

The combination format is often the best choice for a stay-at-home mom resume as it provides space to highlight both your transferable skills and experience. Following a robust skills list, you can describe time spent managing your home, volunteering, or taking on freelance projects. A functional format can work as well, especially if you’d rather emphasize skills over experience.

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Andrew Stoner

Executive Resume Writer and Career Coach

Andrew Stoner is an executive career coach and resume writer with 17 years of experience as a hiring manager and operations leader at two Fortune 500 Financial Services companies, and as the career services director at two major university business schools.