Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #978 Putting Mum on Your Resume

Transcript

#978 Putting Mum on Your Resume · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: It's the podcast for the.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Time poor parent who just wants answers now, Kylie.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: We keep on seeing it in the news. Cost of
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: living is biting more and more families finding themselves in
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: this situation where both parents need to work, and a
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: lot of mums in particular are kind of saying, this
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: is getting tricky. I don't all I've done for the
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: last little while has been a mum. How do I
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: put mum on my resume and get taken seriously? Just
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: recently there was an article on the ABC website where
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: jess On talked about precisely this challenge. She talked about
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: how even becoming a mum, she wasn't sure if she
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: wanted to be a mom, wasn't sure if motherhood was
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: for her, but then once she had that child, there
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: was nowhere else, nowhere else that she wanted to be.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: We've watched that happen with our own daughter.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Having six daughters of my own, I know that feeling.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: You think that you're going to be happier outside of
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: the home, but once you've got children who pull at
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: your heart strings, all you want to do is be
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: with them.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and of course how our eldest daughter has made
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: us grandparents. She's got her baby with her husband, and
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: she thought that.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: She would spend a lot of time outside of the
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: home being the bread winner while her husband stayed at home.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: That was their initial plan. Like literally, he was like, yeah,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: I'll stay at home, I'll look after the baby.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: You still would I think he still would, But she
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: knows not giving up that role for any one, no, no.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: No, nowhere else that I wanted to be. Jess Ong
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: said that, and I mean there's a whole lot of
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: research from the Australian Institute of Family Studies that points
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: in that direction, especially for new mums. I love what
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: jess said in her article. She said, to not have
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: to outsource care is of course a privilege full of
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: tender moments, but it's also isolating, relentless, and completely undervalued.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: And this is what I want to talk about in
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: today's podcast because as more and more mums are saying,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: oh gosh, I do need to get out to work,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: But what do I put on my regume? We've been there,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: We've done something about it. So here's what Jessong said
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: on an Instagram post, and she wrote about this in
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: this ABC article, She said, I explained in my Instagram
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: post that I'd updated my CV and decided to harness
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: all of my ruminations and include being a mother because
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: why not, She says, I haven't disappeared, but in the
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: eyes of the system and the payroll, I have yet.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Skills and talents that I've cultivated over the last thirty
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: nine years are put to good use and challenged every
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: single day.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: But as far as the CV goes, it's almost like
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: you've stopped learning, you've stopped growing, you've stopped progressing, because
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: you don't have a piece of paper that suggests that
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: either you've gone to school and studied and furthered your
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: education or you've actually worked for high flying business owners.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: So a few years ago, you were having a conversation
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: with somebody in your favorite retail outlet hashtag not sponsored.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: But you love adairs right like anything to do with
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: home furnishings.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: You know you're a frequent shopper when you're on first
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: name time with the boss of the storm.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: And all of the sales assistants as well. So you're
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: in a dairs, you're having a chat and she says, hey,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: we've got a position going you should apply, and you
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: came home and said, they've offered me a job, but
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: I have to apply. What am I supposed to put
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: on my regume? I haven't worked for over twenty years,
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: to which I replied, you haven't had paid work for
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: over twenty years. You've worked your tail off for the
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: last twenty years. We need to put that you've been
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: a mum in your resume, which is pretty much what
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: jess On from the ABC said. I wrote down that
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: I was a mum, and I put those skills in
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: and so you and I sat down and wrote a
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: resume that had all of your mum duties as a
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: reason why you should get this job in retail at Adairs,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: and I thought, in today's conversation, because so many people
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: are going through we should chat about what you put
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: into that resume so that you could score the job
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: that you really really wanted to have.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: I loved that we were able to have so much
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: fun with this because at the time I was just
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: looking at it, going as if they're going to be
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: interested in me.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: You've rolled your eyes and you said, no, we can't
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: say that I'm a mum, and I said no, no, no, no, no, no,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: you are. We're going to detail everything that you do
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: in your work experience as a mum. So I said,
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: you're a CEO, you're an operations manager, you're a human
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: resources manager. There's so much going on, And then we
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: started to list everything that a CEO would do that
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: you would do. Have a listen to this list.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Overseeing all managerial aspects of life for six children who
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: require significant levels of oversight and direction. Let's be honest
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: with my husband, it's seven people.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: I can't believe that we put that in.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Planning strategy and policy decisions for the team based on
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: values and mission, coupled with short and long term goals
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: via weekly management meetings and quarterly strategy sessions.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: So this is legit. You and I have a weekly
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: family meeting and we have quarterly strategy sessions as a
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: couple to make sure our family's on track. So you
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: were saying, as a CEO, this is what I do.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: I have these these regular meetings and I oversee all
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: of these aspects. Carry on, though, because the CEO does more,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: and you write down another handful of roles and responsibilities
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: in that CEO.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Outline, delegating and overseeing all staff activities maintaining client and
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: employee relationships via an extremely complex calendar involving multiple moving parts.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: It's so brilliant.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Building alliances and partnerships with other organizations.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: In other words, organizing playdates with other families.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Development of a culture that promotes performance, excellence and builds
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: team morale. Providing conflict resolution strategies wherever there is conflict
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: between tricky personalities on the team, and providing inspired leadership
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: for the team.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: So I'm reviewing this with you right now. I'm watching
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: it as you read this, and I'm thinking, we did
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: this without chat GPT like this. This is a really
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: really creative, really fun resume. That's the CEO role, but
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: we also included OPS manager and human resources manager. Why
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: don't you go through the five duties of a mum
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: being an OPS manager.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Being responsible for intricate logistics operations from five am to
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: team PM and later for a large team, managing a
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: complex schedule for eight people, conducting analysis and improvement of
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: all organizational processes and workflows, working to improve quality, productivity
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: and efficiency in the team, and occupational health and safety
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: responsibilities for the entire team.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: I just love that one. And the human resources manager
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: we've put three things down for that as.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Well, determining and establishing training procedures for the team, developing
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: team roles for each new member of the team based
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: on individual development, training and capability. I love this and
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: capacity building of team members.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: So I mean, we're having a lot of fun with this.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: But as we sat down and worked through this, you
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: and I essentially said, all of these things that you
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: do with your kids, you do this with adults in
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: a team environment. So let's write it down in a nutshell,
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Running a large family requires you, as a mum to
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: learn and master an extensive range of skills that are
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: really tremendously transferable to the workplace. The maturity and the wisdom,
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: the experience that you get from being a mum is
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: so valuable. And that's just a small taste of the
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: various things that we could write down that represent your capabilities.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: So that's part one of what we jotted down, But
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: then we added some more.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: So over the years, I have done extensive volunteering within
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: our church organization, and I added to my resume CEO
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: of a children's organization, president of a women's organization, and
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: the president of a young women's organization. And within those
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: I outlined the different areas that I had worked and
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: trained in to help each of those organizations flourish.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: The million dollar question, well it wasn't really a million
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: dollar question, but it was more of like a twenty
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: four dollars an hour question, did you get the job?
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: When I sat down with my boss who wasn't my
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: boss at the time, and we had the interview, she said,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: can I just tell you that your resume was the
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: best resume I have ever read? She said. I sat
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: down with my partner and we just laughed our heads
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: as we read everything that you've achieved, and she said,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: and the reality is, yes you have. You are doing
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: all of those things on a daily basis.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: I want to go back to the statement that jess
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: On made. She said, being a stay at home mum
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: is full of wonderful, tender moments, but it's also isolating, relentless,
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: and completely undervalued. But when you look at what that
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: unpaid work taught you and how you were able to
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: put that into a resume and turn it into something
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: of value, you got that job because being a mum,
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: being involved, getting your systems right in the family, it
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: teaches you so much and if I recall correctly, you
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: were pretty highly valued on the team. Won't you like
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: that number one salesperson or something like that?
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: I was for a while, for a while. Yeah. If
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: nothing else, what it showed my future employer was that
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: I was able to look outside the box and really
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: get creative about how I might utilize my talents and gifts.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: And I think that was ultimately what got me the job.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so jess on to wrap things up, she said this.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: I returned to part time paid work six months ago,
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: and since then I've started correcting people when they ask
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: how work is going, gently interjecting with paid work. You mean,
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: it's not to make anyone uncomfortable, but I need to
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: agitate the narrative because until I became a mother, I
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: never really gave any of this much thought either. I
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: never thought about the little value society places on the
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: biggest job of raising its future, about how the label
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: stay at home mum diminishes and simple lifies the hours
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: of never ending and complex, unpaid work. Now we're going
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: to share your resume. We'll make a couple of edits
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: and alterations so that it's not too personal, but we're
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: going to share your resume at Happy Families dot com
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: dot au and on our social media pages, because I
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: reckon there's going to be a lot of mums who
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: are going to look at this and say, hmm, I
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: can take this, I can tweak this, and I can
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: make myself look like I'm presentable to an employer because
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: as much as I want to stay at home, I
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: need to work at the moment because everything costs so much. Kylie,
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: I think it's inspiration. I think it's awesome what you did.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: The thing that really stood out to me as I
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: went through that process was when we started it, I
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: felt so unsure of myself and I felt like I
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: didn't have anything to offer. But as we went through
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: the process of pinpointing all of the various skills that
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: I had learnt and developed over our twenty plus years
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: of parenting, it gave me the confidence to walk in
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: there and say I actually have something to offer. It
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: was powerful. It was really powerful.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: The Happy Families podcast is produced by Justin Rowland from
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: Bridge Media. Craig Bruce is our executive producer. If you'd
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: like more info to make your family happier, or to
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: get more information about specifically what we've talked about today.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: Visit happyfamilies dot com dot au, or go to our
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: social media sites at all of the major platforms.