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Editor's Desk - From Beneath the Clutter
Feature Article - Resume writing for the stay at home parent
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This week's feature article is more or less the other side of last week's feature article. For those who didn't see it, last week I covered writing a resume to get a work at home job. This week's is resume writing for stay at home parents returning to work. Many stay at home parents do eventually return to work, so this is quite relevant.
I hope all you mommies had a wonderful Mother's Day. Mine was good, but funny. It just emphasizes the difference between men and women.
My husband went out in the morning on Mother's Day to get flowers for his mom, mine and my grandmother, as we were going to be meeting them at a big family Mother's Day picnic. I figured he'd just run to the grocery store (no flower shops nearby) and get them, maybe a 20 minute errand at worst.
It took him an hour and a half.
When he came back, he told me he'd had to go to two HOME DEPOTs to find the flowers.
I asked him why he didn't just go to the grocery store for them. His response was "They have flowers at the grocery store?"
Needless to say, it made a great story at the picnic.
Don't forget, you can contribute your articles or tips anytime for consideration. Just use the contact form.
Maybe your children are now in school and you’d like to go back to work. Or maybe finances are tight and you want to contribute. Or maybe you just really need adult interaction.
Whatever the reason, many stay at home parents do eventually decide to return to work. They face tremendous disadvantages, however. They may not have held a job ever previously. Their skills in the field they worked in before staying at home may be out of date. Whatever the situation, writing a resume after staying home with the kids can present a special challenge.
As with any resume, first take a look at your work and educational history. If you have spent several years at home, you will probably want to do a functional resume, that is, one which emphasizes your skills rather than a timeline, as the traditional chronological resume does. However, be upfront and honest when asked about the fact that you spent time at home with your kids. You do not want to be afraid to admit to it.
If you have professional skills, make sure you are up to date on them. This may mean taking a class in whatever your area of expertise is. Show potential employers that you take your skills seriously and are keeping yourself current. If you’re behind on the technology or techniques, you will not find many employers willing to hire you.
You can put “Homemaker” on your resume and list the skills you used as a homemaker if you like. These include handling bills, scheduling, cooking, cleaning and so forth. Find a way to express these in ways that are relevant to the job you want, and be ready to explain as necessary in the interview. You might feel funny about doing this, but what employer is going to challenge you when you assert that this was a real job? Certainly not one you would want to work for!
Be ready to deal with questions as to how you will handle childcare issues when you get to the interview. Know what you will do when your child needs to stay home because they are sick, have a doctor’s appointment and so forth. You may not be asked about this during an interview, but it is simply practical to be prepared for situations that always come up.
For writing your resume, remember to use active words, such as managed, scheduled, designed and so forth. These sound far more interesting on your resume than more passive words.
If this is your first job, do not be afraid to list your education, emphasizing those skills which are relevant to the jobs you are applying for. If your GPA was high, it is good to list it; otherwise do not bother. You do not need to include your date of graduation, especially from high school.
It is a big decision to transition from a stay at home parent to a working parent, but there are many good reasons to do so. Be honest, relate your at home skills to the job you want and emphasize your skills.
Stephanie Foster is the owner of Home with the Kids, a resource that knows that there's more to staying home with your family than just business. From money saving tips to parenting and marriage tips, to work at home jobs and businesses, you can get information and support here. You can visit the site at http://www.homewiththekids.com.
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So you want to offer a free contest on your website but you don’t know where to start?
First of all, you need to determine the type of contest that you want to offer. There are many kinds of contests that you can offer on your website and you can even come up with your own if you want to. The most common types of contests that site owners run are described below.
Newsletter Contest
A newsletter contest is a contest where your site visitors will need to
subscribe to your newsletter in order to be entered into the contest.
This is an easy contest to run.
Entry Form Contest
An Entry Form Contest is a simple contest where your site viewers fill
out a simple form such as name and email address and they are
automatically entered into the contest. Most viewers prefer this type of contest
because there is no further obligation.
Message Board/Forum Contest
If you have a Message Board/Forum on your site then you can offer a
post-the-most contest where site viewers are required to post messages in
order to win. The viewer who posts the most at the end wins the
contest. There are also other ways you can use your message board for
contests.
There are many other types of contests you can offer on your site. It all depends on your creative imagination!
Now you need to determine what you are going to offer as a prize for your free contest. If you own an e-commerce website and you sell products, you could offer one of your products or a gift certificate as a prize. If you have a service oriented website then you could offer free services as a prize. You could also ask other business owners to sponsor your contest by offering their products or services in exchange for site promotion.
Finally, we go on to why you should offer contests on your site. The main reason you want to offer contests on your site is to promote & market your site! You want customers to find your products and services! Advertising & Marketing your business are two extremely important aspects to running a successful business especially an online business. Contests are a great free way to advertise your site, get visitors to your site and to increase your overall site traffic. This is also a good way to get more subscribers and repeat visitors to your site. It’s also a way for your customers to sample your products before purchasing them.
Now that you know all about how to run a contest on your site and you have decided what you want to offer, you now need to promote your contest. There are many paid and free ways to promote and advertise your contest. The best way to advertise your contest is to submit your contest to the many free contest directories available on the World Wide Web. Most of these contest directory websites are updated on a daily basis, and since everyone loves free contests these contest directory websites have high traffic rankings which means your contest will be seen. Below is a list of free contest directories that I have complied while searching the web. Feel free to submit your contests to them. They all offer free and paid listings.
www.ContestForMoms.com
www.ContestHound.com
www.GrandMaJam.com
www.SandyRealm.com
www.ContestGuide.com
www.ContestListings.com
www.CashNetSweeps.com
www.FamilySweeps.net
www.GalaxySweepstakes.com
www.SweepsAdvantage.com
www.sweepstakesonline.com
www.TheWinnersClub.net
www.ContestAlley.com
Article Written By: Amanda Compton, a stay at home mom to Gage, age 3, and expecting baby # 2 in July 2004. Amanda will have completed a Masters Degree in Business Administration in May 2004 & she owns 3 Mom-related websites. Visit her at www.ContestForMoms.com, www.HomeJobsForMoms.biz, & www.HerWebService.com
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