7 Mum Skills That You Can Transfer into the Workplace

Are you a stay at home mum and you want to jump back into the workforce? Don’t be worried if you haven’t worked in a while; believe it or not, there are plenty of transferable skills that you’ve worked on at home that can be applied at your new job. Here are just a few of them:

Communication is key when you’re raising a child. You’re always teaching them, scolding and telling them what you want and need from them. The same goes for the workforce.

While you might not be working in a managerial or supervisory role, you’ll still need to know how to clearly convey what is necessary, whether it be talking to your coworkers about which tasks need to be done or to clients about how you can help them.

Talking clearly and concisely is something that all parents learn to do when taking care of their child, which can be an advantage to you in your workplace. As a stay at home mum, communication is key.

A good parent listens to their child, even if what they might say is ridiculous. Everyone wants to be listened to and heard, not only that, but listening gives you vital information about what your child wants and needs, and if and when that will change.

When you’re at work, listening to instructions or to your client’s desires is integral in order to work efficiently both on an individual level and as a team.

If you can negotiate with a toddler, then negotiating with an adult should be a piece of cake. When you work with a variety of clients or even with co-workers, you’ll notice that at times, they too can act just as unreasonable as young children.

Being a mum, you should know that good conflict resolution is to be understanding and patient, but it also means being firm and setting clear boundaries.

Raising kids is tough. You’ll need to work hard and be resilient, just like when you’re in the workforce. There are always going to be challenges, like dealing with difficult people, being dumped with a bunch of tasks or learning how to operate certain programs and machines.

Fortunately, however, taking care of kids does build up your tolerance. It doesn’t make those challenges any less difficult, but it does give you the tools to cope with it in the best possible way.

As a mum, you’re constantly juggling all these different tasks, such as playing with your child, making sure they’re safe, doing household chores and many, many more.

The same goes for work. More often than not, no matter where you work, you’ll be assigned a ton of jobs that you’ll need to complete at a particular deadline. This also coincides with time management; prioritising what you need to get done for the day is both a skill that you need as a mum and as an employee too.

A big part of parenting is solving problems that you haven’t ever encountered while also giving solutions to problems that your children have. Sometimes, you have to be creative and think outside the box, particularly during difficult times, like when your child is throwing a tantrum.

You’ll have to do the same at your job. Focusing on the issue, coming up with a list of potential solutions and judging how effective they will be is something that you probably already do in your head.

A lot of mums plan out what they need to do during the day, whether they need to take their kids to school or watch them play sports or even just going out and spending some quality time together.

You have to squish so much in your day the only way to really do it all is through a to-do list. A to-do list is also beneficial in the workplace since it’ll give you something to refer to, and helps you keep track of all the tasks you have to do.

These skill sets are highly sought after by potential employers, so don’t think that because you were away on maternity leave, or even if you’ve never worked outside of your house, that your job search won’t be successful.

By listing the skills that you’ve built up as a mum on your resume, your chances of getting a job will certainly improve.