The decision to leave the workforce and raise a child isn’t always voluntary, especially during this recession. I personally know a handful of women, including myself, who were laid off while pregnant or on maternity leave. While all of us initially looked for full-time employment, job hunting gets tricky when you have a visible “bump” or need to breastfeed every couple of hours. As a result, many of my friends have temporarily stopped their searches and are settling into their unexpected roles as stay-at-home moms.

Anytime parents stay at home with children they face the reality that reentering the workforce can be difficult. Like it or not, some employers have a bias against hiring people they feel “opted out”. Many job candidates also find their skills and networks get rusty rather quickly.

Before you panic, consider a recent article in The Wall Street Journal. In Sue Shellenbarger’s Work & Family column, she tells the story of three stay-at-home moms who successfully returned to the workforce after a hiatus, despite the lousy economy.

One woman’s story was particularly encouraging and offers a road map any stay-at-home parent can follow. The key to success for a former design manager was that she took on volunteer work that kept her skills sharp. She chaired a $115,000-a-year scholarship program and co-headed a 60-parent school group with a $65,000 budget. The new boss says she was attracted to the designer’s resume because the volunteer work showed she could manage a lot of complexity.

So does this mean a mom shouldn’t waste her time helping out in her daughter’s classroom? Or teaching an art class at the local playground? Of course not. But it shouldn’t be the only volunteer work you do, especially in the year or two before you decide to start looking for paid work. It’s better to find something that uses your professional skills. In fact, this is often good advice even for parents who are working. In my case, I’m helping out my daughter’s preschool this Fall by giving a financial seminar based on my book, The Wall Street Journal. Financial Guidebook for New Parents.

Volunteer work that utilizes some of your work-based experience also serves another purpose. It gives you an opportunity to network with other professionals in a more formal setting than a child’s birthday party. You’ll also get the chance to show off some of your job-related skills.

Do you volunteer? If so, have you thought about how the experience could boost your resume? Please share your thoughts wit
Read more: http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/family-finance/laid-off-while-pregnant-or-on-maternity-leave-consider-volunteer-work/974/#ixzz1ZwbHMYoS

“MBA MOMs 3.0″  —

GEN Y WOMEN, NOW YOUNG MOMS, PUTTING CAREER FIRST

Flexible Resources says many won’t even consider not working,

but insist on flexible work arrangements

The end of the helicopter mom?

STAMFORD, CT, April 12, 2011 — Unlike the previous two generations of working mom executives - first the Baby Boomers, who blazed the trail in the workplace for work-family balance, then Gen Xers, who often put careers on hold while raising young children, Gen Y women are different - they aren’t even considering slowing down or not working as they are now experiencing motherhood for the first time.

Gen Y women, having graduated from college in the late 90s and finished graduate school in the first years of the 21^st century, are now married and starting families. But many are saying while they are seeking flexible work arrangements, they would not even consider not working. Here’s what they are telling us at Flexible Resources, Inc.:

• The current economic situation had made it imperative that they accumulate as much wealth as possible for their futures, having experienced a major economic meltdown very early in their careers;
• Fear that taking even one year off will cause their skills to erode, because technology changes the workplace almost daily;
• Being a fairly driven group, many of these women are telling us that they fear ‘losing their edge’ - that the workplace will not want them if they step off the career track for any length of time.

“They tend to be very driven young women,” says Nadine Mockler, who, along with her partner Laurie Young, founded Flexible Resources Inc., 23 years ago to help Baby Boomer moms like themselves find a way to balance career and family, and often faced a work environment hostile to their needs.  Their company was a direct outgrowth of their inability to secure flexible work for themselves. Flexible Resources is a staffing and consulting firm that specializes in creating all types of non-traditional work arrangements at the professional level.  They work with small and large companies to structure work arrangements that enable companies to staff effectively and efficiently using flexible work arrangements.

“These women have much to offer companies. They are super-efficient and focused, and can pack 10 hours of work into a five-hour day.  We are having no problem finding places for them, even now, on a contract basis, or in permanent part-time positions. They make the case for flexibility - it creates focus, commitment, motivation, which translates well to the bottom line.”

CONTACT:    Joyce Fredo, Redbird Communications, 203-968-0786; jgfredo@optonline.net.