Being a mum entails sacrifices, but it doesn’t mean that your career has to take a backseat. In support of work-family balance, we got Sher-li Torrey, founder of career portal Mums@Work, to answer job-related questions from mums in Singapore.
Q: I stopped working for a few years to look after my children. Now that I plan to return to work, I find it difficult to address the career gap in my resume. How do I explain the gap to employers?
A: Many caregivers (including mums) are ashamed of the career break they took.
Firstly, do not attempt to hide your career break. Rather than come up with excuses for the gap in your resume, try to reframe the way you perceive the break. Women who stop working to take on caregiving duties were not pushed out of the workforce. Often, they made a conscious decision to stop and focus on a different part of their life. Therefore, you do not need to apologise or feel guilty about having a career break. At that moment, it was the best possible option for your situation. Just as it is the best option for you to return to work now.
Having the right mindset will allow you to think logically and analyse the situation realistically. Before the break, you had jobs and were actively contributing to your employers’ firms.
Take some time to look at your previous jobs and ask yourself these questions:
- What skills did you pick up in each job?
- What achievements did you accomplish in each of those roles?
- What were the networks you tapped into while doing your job?
- Were you a subject matter expert?
- Did you have good management capabilities?
- Did you get compliments from your bosses, colleagues, clients or vendors?
Spend some time writing down the answers to these questions. In addition, note down your strengths, focussing on your personality, values and skills. List down your motivations for returning to work.
Your answers will be needed to complete your resume and to answer the challenging interview questions that you might face in your job search process.