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Job opportunities grow for mothers who reinvent themselves and set goals

By Maggie Jackson, Globe Correspondent, 10/23/2005

PAT GREENHOUSE/GLOBE STAFF Lori Sharton (left) discusses job search strategies with Tufts University's Leslie Warner.

What to do when mother is on your résumé. Last of a two-part series.

Say you're a mom with a good-sized gap in your résumé, and you want to go back to work. The other playground moms are put out, your Rolodex is ancient history and you wonder how you're going to explain away all those years of fund-raising and baking cookies — if you ever land a job interview.

Is it tough to go back to work after a years-long hiatus? As I wrote in my last column, it certainly is.

But is it doable? Absolutely. Opportunities are burgeoning for mothers who have the will and wits to reinvent themselves. Those who have clear goals, know how to market themselves and how to build bridges to the employers who want and need them will land back in the work world.

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''I think it is very, very important to give women the message that it is doable,'' says Nancy Collamer, an Old Greenwich, Conn.-based career counselor who specializes in helping returning moms. ''There's a whole lot more attention being paid.''

So how do you begin? First, know yourself. Many women who have been home for a while have different priorities and interests. ''They're different people,'' says Laurel Schwartz, a New York psychologist who helps moms return to work. A recent Wharton business school study of high-level returning mothers found that 60 percent joined smaller companies and 60 percent changed industries.

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Lori Sharton, who's stayed home in Needham for nearly eight years to raise her children, decided to give up social work and pursue marketing after working with Leslie Warner, assistant director of alumni career services at her alma mater Tufts University, where such services are free to most alumni. Warner also taught Sharton that the skills she honed at home are useful in the work world — and she should say so to employers.

''A lot of job ads will say, 'detail-oriented, able to multitask, able to work under pressure,' and I say, 'This is something I'm keenly aware of raising two small children,''' says Sharton, a mother of two boys, 7 and 5.

Warner adds that returning moms ''often don't have good knowledge or ideas about what they're good at.'' Remember that social, problem-solving, and leadership skills are learned in the unpaid world, too.

Next, network furiously. This is crucial if you have a résumé gap and you've let your contact list lapse. Talk to anyone who can give you information, a referral or better yet, a job. ''The trick is really in knowing yourself, knowing what you have to offer and how to present it, and having a network to present it to,'' says Rita Allen, a career counselor in Waltham.

Don't forget to nurture relations at home, too. Along with your own possible ambivalence, you may need to deal with mixed reactions from friends and family.

When Sharton began job hunting in January, her husband was initially lukewarm, and fellow moms are still skeptical. ''My favorite is when people say, 'I can't believe you're going back full time. I couldn't do that,'?'' Sharton says. To cope, find ''boosters'' who applaud your decision.

Finally, the best way to get back to work is to never cut your ties. Plunge into professional organizations, read the literature.

The good news is that more bridges are being created for moms to do this.

While having her first child during a year-off abroad, Karen Sheehan dreamed up W2W Ventures, a Washington, D.C. company designed to help at-home mothers nationwide stay connected with the work world. Along with posting flexible job openings online, the firm offers a ''champions'' program in which companies foot the bill for valued, departing employees to take courses, get contract work and network.

''So many people, when they put mom on their résumé, stop developing their professional side,'' says Sheehan. ''By staying engaged, even for a small amount of time, it gives them a tremendous advantage when they do try to phase pack in.''

Maggie Jackson's Balancing Acts column appears every other week. She can be reached at .

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