How Being a Parent Makes You a Stellar Job Candidate
photo by: Markus Spiske
I believe my mom experiences have enabled me to grow and develop many skills, including resilience, self-awareness, and strategic thinking. In our workplaces, these are sought-after skills, which is why my mom experiences should put me “in the running” for jobs, not looked at as an impediment.
There is lots of information out there on how to stand-out as a job candidate, from what you should write on your resume and cover letter, to having a LinkedIn profile, to how to prepare for an interview. I’m not sure that having a scented pink resume, like the character Elle Woods had in the movie Legally Blonde, is the way to go; however, I think Elle was on to something. Truly showing who you are and how you acquired your “awesomeness”, including parent experiences should totally be shared when vying for a job.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the popular concept around the number of jobs a human will have in their life-time. My take is that being a parent is a job, one which for me has not only been the most rewarding, but has given me life experiences and skills that I otherwise would not have. Still, up until recently, I did not have “mom” reflected on my resume or my LinkedIn profile. I’ve changed this now, and I’m not sure what will come of it. I just know that as proud as I am of my kids, I’m equally proud of the type of human I’ve become and continue to evolve into because I’m a parent. I don’t want to be afraid anymore of sharing these experiences when I’m looking for work, they are after all part of who I am.
Recruitment and Parenting Experience
When recruiters are looking for new employees, there are tons of different assessment methods that are used, for example: tests, interviews, and reference checks. When initial screening is done of cover letters, resumes and social media profiles, recruiters are looking for what you do, what you’ve accomplished and whether you’ve got the skills they are looking for. When it comes to being a parent the list is long and telling, and so it stands to reason that this experience should be reflected and considered. Now, I’m not saying some organizations aren’t already looking at parenting experiences, I just think more of them need to start.
When it comes to interviews, often questions that are scenario or behaviour based are asked. For example, a scenario question like, “You have an angry customer yelling at you, what would would do?” Or a behaviour based question like, “Tell me about a time when you completed a task on time.”
With my mom lens, I would ace these questions. But, when I’ve been interviewed in the past, there have be countless times when I’ve wanted to share a “mom-experience,” but I thought, “Well, that doesn’t count, they are looking for ‘real-work’ experience.”
As a recruiter, over the years, and especially after having my kids, I have found myself encouraging hiring managers to broaden their scope when trying to find their next employee. I’ve sat with them in interviews where when a “parent-experience” is shared, we discuss how this experience illustrates the skills we are searching for. I’ve always said that recruitment is not an objective process, as much as we try to make it so. There is of course value in being objective, but the reality is, as interviewers we come with our own life mental models and biases, just as the interviewee does. The recruitment process is and should also be subjective to allow for finding the right candidate and for the candidate to showcase their skills and accomplishments, including those acquired via parenting.
My Transferable Skills Because I’m a Mom
In my 10 plus years of mom-experience, I have learned so much about myself as a human, the skills I had, and the ones I needed to build. My “top-ten” mom acquired and still working on skills are:
1. Learning to manage my time under the themes of “quality-time” and “get stuff done time”.
2. Practicing being a “serial-tasker” vs. a “multi-tasker”. Doing one thing at a time well and to completion before moving on to the next (this is one I’m really still working on!)
3. Learning and applying emotional intelligence concepts, in particular self-management and self-reflection.
4. Asking for help, that is, learning to delegate!
5. Honouring myself. I read Brene Brown’s Daring Greatly in 2011, after my daughter was born. To this day, I often remind myself that “I’m enough” and doing things perfectly imperfect is more than okay.
6. Practicing gratitude and celebrating “small-wins”. Both of these have been reinforced for me by two friends. As a mom, I have found practicing gratitude with my kids brings me peace as does checking off my mom “to-do” list.
7. Self-care, including meditation, physical exercise and sleep! (again, something that still needs some work!)
8. Establishing boundaries. As a mom, figuring my sphere of influence when it comes to my kids, their friends, other moms, and teachers, has been fascinating.
9. Applying empathy and establishing trust with my kids so we can communicate meaningfully and effectively.
10. “Losing my sh*t” in a healthy and role-modeling way! I’ve embraced things like giving myself a “time-out” and going back and re-enacting an experience, what my wonderful therapist calls a “re-do”.
