by Carolette Wright

Created on: July 26, 2009

I was talking to a client who was returning back to work after almost 20 years who needed help branding and promoting her experiences as a volunteer and stay at home mom. I thought that I would share our conversation. I hope this helps.

Hi,

I need some help here! I am 53 years old and have not worked since my youngest son was born 19 years ago. Both sons in college and a husband out of work leads me to the decision to go back to work. I have many skills that I have used in areas of being a Mom. President of several boards, fund raising for United Way, volunteering and mentoring at the schools. Am I marketable? How can I create a resume that would be attractive for someone like me. Any help will be good!

Here was my feedback:

Marketable? Most definitely. I believe what many of people fail to realize is what is considered a skill. Any task that you have done whether at home on on the job can be considered a skill. You may have organized various functions and by doing so you have some type of delivered results. The question is what were the functions and the results.

1. You were President of an organization. Did anyone join the organization?

2. You had campaigns. Did you raise any funds?

3. You solicited Company participation. Who where they and how many companies joined in the campaign compared to previous years?

4. Has there been an increase in participation and what was the trend?

5. Did you meet your goal? Did you break any records? Was there an expansion under your leadership?

6. Did you open additional branches? How well did you team work together?

7. Did you coach any of them personally or professionally - where are they now and how have they succeeded. Remember it is not all about you, but what you have done to help others develop.

8. How many volunteers did you have helping? Did you add additional volunteers?

These are the type of questions that employers are looking to for you to answers when they are looking at your resume.

Glean from what types of fund raisers and functions you put on or helped to facilitate and what were the results. If does not matter what you have done, but how well you can communicate why your skills will be an asset to the company (also include anything that you have learned)

That is the key...What were your results? Moving forward with your resume think results.

Employers want to know what did you do and what were your results. This produces a track record.

You said that both of your children were in college - this is awesome. This is also another skill that you can glean from and produce on your resume. Not only did you raise your children for 19 years, but you have raised them to be productive individuals - you coached, nurtured and raised up to be future leaders (even though they were your children) this skill set that you have gained and can be applied to helping other individuals become their best.

You want to your resume to stand out and be memorable. This involves including information that will be different from other candidates...Have you heard the saying "Find out what others are doing, and do the opposite"?

The key is to highlight what each of your positions, what you have done and then create a story of results, results, results. This is called branding.

Include percents of increase, reductions in loss, and dollars saved or gained. This is quantitative information that is measurable.

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