"Full-time Parent"

MrCreosote

A friend of mine asked me for resume advice and the first thing I noticed was that she had included in her professional experience, Full-time parent for two years. When I suggested she take it out, she said that one possible employer had already commented positively about it, that he appreciated her being straightforward about it. I have never seen that on a resume, but have seen plenty of gaps on resumes that generally mean the same thing. When you go through work history in an interview, it is bound to come out, anyway. What do you think?

rad

It is not information that I would ask for during an interview, so it is not information I would want to learn from a resume.

sonny

Ditto Rad

Cinderella

Double ditto. I dislike it when people put info like that on their resumes. Sometimes I even get resumes with COLOR PHOTOS on them and descriptions of their health! Argh! xx(

MrCreosote

Thanks. If you were interviewing someone with a two or three-year gap on their resume, would you ask what they did during that time? I always have.

sonny

I would.

marc

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 09-02-04 AT 12:18PM (CST)[/font][br][br]Oops.

Parabeagle

Among my biggest pet peeves in resume review is seeing information like this. I don't want our supervisors taking such information into account during the interview process, so I generally redact it if I get the resume before they do.

Welcome back, Cinderella. x:-)

SMace

Sorry Beags, you misread the date of her post. She ain't back.

Parabeagle

Wow. Guess I should start paying attention to the dates. How the heck did a 4-month old post get resurrected, anyway???

marc

That is why I had the Oops. Resurecting threads is dangerous to those of us with bad memories. I did not remember this post, so when the gong went off, I began reading from the start, paying no attention to the dates. I saw the post from Cinderella and welcomed her back. Read on and discovered I had already replied to this thread and then noticed the dates - thus my edit. It's good to see I am not alone. Thanks Parabeagle.

marc

A significant gap will eventually be addressed, however if one leaves it out intentionally, one would get the opportunity to discuss it when questioned. I would look at it as an opportunity to emphasize values during an interview and wait for the question about the gap.

Not a big deal either way for me, but I don't think it belongs on the actual resume.

HRratrace

Having had a great deal of experience in recruiting, staffing and employment law, I personally would prefer that the information be left out. It is too much unnecessary personal information, and I would be fearful of potential legal ramifications for having had such information available to me on a job applicant.
Generally speaking...age, marital status and number and ages of childern are needed to enroll EE's into insurance and pension programs once they have been hired, or for other legitimate business purposes after hire. But NEVER do you ask for any of this information from a job applicant.
Eventually the gap in employment would be addressed on its own. Therefore, my vote is to leave the "full time parent" comment off of the resume.

Hunter1

Hmmmm. I'm going to take a contrary view of this subject: While reviewing the resume, I'm certainly going to wonder about the two year gap, and I'd prefer have an explanation in front of me.

deniseE

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 09-02-04 AT 01:58PM (CST)[/font][br][br]I'm torn. Yes, it's personal information...but how many of us would pass over a resume due to the lapse in employment in favor of someone clearly employed consistently? Be honest.

AND, depending on the position, one gains a ton of useful skills being a full time parent...budgeting of money and time, organizational skills, communication...

maybe it would depend upon the position for which i was hiring?

edit:

My hubby was a musician before he became a grownup...he did tours and the whole 9....but left this off of his resume when he decided to join the 9 to 5 world about 8 years ago...I finally convinced him to include it, eventhough it had no bearing on the jobs he sought, because it looked like he'd graduated from highschool and then nothing... It gave the appearance that he'd not been actively participating in life for 15 years!!

Crout

>It gave the appearance that
>he'd not been actively participating in life for
>15 years!!

Uh, no offense, Denise, but he really kind of wasn't...the lucky stiff.

HRCalico

I agree with those not liking to see that info revealed; I also agree with those who see the gaps and ask about them. However, I find that asking about gaps can be a crap-shoot - sometimes it is due to a personal reason that has no bearing on their ability to do the job, and they will come clean. I wish more people with the gaps went through the state DOL programs (ours is Workforce Development) and get the training on how to handle it appropriately.

Don D

I don't see the statement "full time parent" having any legal ramifications at all. Although I agree that social and personal calendar information should not be chronicled on resumes, I would not have a problem with that statement to explain a gap, and I think that was what she intended. Neither another manager nor I could reasonably draw an inference as to age, marital status or the ages of children from it. I would take it to mean simply "Here's why I wasn't working during this time".

I have often put resumes in the 'C' stack when the last job shown was over six months ago, and certainly if the last job was a year ago. I probably would wonder about a resume that had a year or more gap.

Like Hunter, I appreciate all the help I can get in resume interpretation and don't always want to make a list to clear up during an interview. I got this statement a few years ago on a resume and it was helpful, "Between Verizon and Sprint, I spent eleven months in Reno caring for my father who passed away." On the other hand, I'll never forget the cover letter that included date of hysterectomy and make of automobile.

Caroliso

Shame on me but I laughed out loud at the last sentence of your post, Don.

I bet if there were a thread called "unwelcome info included in cover letters" we all would come up with some doozies.