As we all know, stay-at-home moms are resilient, hard-working, and determined. Here at Otter, we are on a mission to help parents recognize the value of the work they are doing and share how they can include the skills they use every day on their resumes. If you haven’t already, be sure to read the first few parts of our series:
Transferable Skills for Stay At Home Moms: Household Management
Stay at Home Mom Skills to Add to a Resume: Time Management
Transferable Skills for SAHM Resumes: Communication Skills
Today we’re going to touch on one last skill that moms can confidently add to their resume: problem solving.
All children have problems that need to be solved. Moms need to mediate arguments between siblings or friends, potty training needs to be mastered, and toys need to be fixed (or sometimes stealthily replaced). Add in sleep training, conflicting schedules, and teaching children new skills, and it’s no wonder moms are so great at solving problems!
In the workplace, there will always be problems that are presented with varying levels of urgency. The skills that are gained at home can easily apply to the conflicts that may arise at work. Let’s take a look at some of the most common problems at work:
Conflicting schedules and priorities
Prioritizing will always be a challenge in the workplace. Fortunately, moms are well-versed in handling conflicts, and can somehow juggle swim lessons, soccer games, carpool schedules, doctor appointments, and more. Should your daughter go to their dentist appointment and miss basketball practice? How will you make snacks for her class party and still make it in time for your son’s parent-teacher conference? Prioritizing needs according to urgency level and juggling conflicting schedules is a daily requirement for a mom!
These skills can be highly useful in the workplace when critical meetings are scheduled at the same time, or when trying to coordinate a good time to sync with everyone on the team. Upcoming deadlines can sometimes conflict with other important tasks that must be completed. The problem-solving skills you’ve put into practice already as a mom can be used to triage priorities and meet deadlines at work based on urgency.
Personality clashes and miscommunications
Remember that epic fight your kids had that you had to step in to mediate? Those mediation skills can also be helpful when dealing with differences at work. As humans, we all have different personality types, unique ways of communicating, and even conflicting ideas on the way things should be done. Being able to stay calm and mediate differences is an invaluable skill in the workplace!
Lack of motivation by the team
If you’re a mom, you’re all too familiar with the concept of motivation. Every time we leave the house, we need to motivate our kids to get dressed (silly costumes count, right?), get their shoes on, and climb into their car seats. For older kids, this might mean supporting homework that has a due date, encouraging them to complete a project on time, or having them finish up chores to do something fun. Sometimes we even need to motivate ourselves to motivate the kids so we can get errands done or get to an appointment on time.
In the workplace, there are days where there’s too much to do, or the tasks may seem daunting to other members of the team. This is where your skills can come into play - keeping a positive attitude while encouraging others can make a big difference every day in increasing team motivation!
We hope this series helps as you consider entering (or re-entering) the work force. What you do is so important and the skills you’ve learned are invaluable - both inside and outside the home!