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With Industry Insight by: Chris Wood, Consultant  How to Define a Stay at Home Mom in a Resume: Job Title
Recruiters are busy. Most spend only 6 seconds looking at a resume before they decide if the applicant is a good fit for the position. When a recruiter skims down to the ‘Experience’ section, the listed job titles are the beacon of their attention. For most positions, this is a very straightforward portion of your resume. When you take a job you should have a strong understanding of your job title and responsibilities, but for stay-at-home moms, this can be a bit tricky. How can you embody all of the responsibilities of a stay-at-home mom in a job title? There isn’t a lot of information on this topic out there, so I decided to ask a top recruiter in my area. I specifically wanted to inquire about the use of ‘CEO’ to describe your leadership role within the home; I had seen this listed on a few mom blogs and Facebook profiles. Though I do believe there are many parallels between the work of a stay-at-home mom and a CEO, Chris, Account Executive with Spencer Reed Consulting in San Diego, brings up a good point: “[Using CEO/COO as your job title] could automatically have them [the recruiter] move on to the next resume because they didn’t look through the details and assumed the mom/candidate was overqualified.” This brings me to the primary goal of your job title and your entire resume: stay relevant to the position at hand. If you are applying for a position in Marketing, then shape your job title to reflect the desired skills for the position. A resume builds your career story and the list of job titles ideally show a progression in the field you are pursuing. Crafting your job title to align with your past and future work experience is a strategic way to make your time at home appealing to a potential employer. I think using "CEO of Smith family" as a job title to represent your time as a stay-at-home is meant to communicate the leadership skills necessary for the position. Leadership is an incredibly marketable skill, but it should be communicated in a way that convinces the recruiter that you will lead work projects effectively. For example, a CEO of a company makes high-level decisions involving millions of dollars and hundreds of employees; whereas, you may be applying for a human resources position that requires the candidate to be detail oriented with strong interpersonal skills to lead employee benefits projects with small groups. Although these are both leadership skills, they are very different when applied to the day to day acts of the position. Crafting a unique job title from scratch may be tricky. Below, you will find some job titles, separated by industry, which you may consider using as your stay-at-home mom job title on your resume: Education: In-home Lead Instructor, Residential Activities Coordinator, Home Life Facilitator, Family Education Specialist, Home Childcare Leader, Residential Program Lead Business: Residential Communication Specialist, Family Finance Coordinator, In-Home Childcare Manager, Household Administrative Assistant, Household Operations Specialist Healthcare: Home Case Manager, Familial Medical Specialist, Residential Care Coordinator, Home Infant/Child Health Aide Looking at the job post of your desired position and those like it will help you to understand what the employer wants, allowing you to have greater insight on choosing the most appropriate job title. Some job posts may state specifically what job titles and experience they are looking for, use that to lead your job title decision. One of my favorite sites to research and find a plethora of job titles is O*Net. Check it out to begin your search! Finding a strong job title is the just the start of marketing your time at home to employers. Please read the next which covers ways to align your experiences at home with those in your next career endeavor. HUGE THANKS to Chris Wood for contributing to this article! Good Luck, Em
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