Mamas Who Have Went Through Employment transition-What Did You Do?

I was laid off a week ago, and I know it will be tough to find a job in my field. There's not a lot out there right now. What I'm doing is dropping the kids off at school in the morning, then I come home and do housework, meal planning etc. Around lunchtime, I check Monster.com, Indeed.com, careerbuilder, etc etc. I check Linkedin, send a few e-mails to contacts to let them know I'm looking, available for consulting projects, etc.

In terms of your resume, I would highlight the skills you would need in your new field, and then use your cover letter to describe why you want to change careers, and how well suited you are to your new field. You could make several versions of your resume if you're applying for different types of work.

After lunch, I tackle a house project. This past week, I've re-organized all the closets, dropped things off at Goodwill, organized the bins of Christmas decorations (yeah, I'm really bored!), cleaned out the dryer vent... you get the idea. Tackle the stuff I put off when I was working full-time! It feels great to accomplish these projects, and I know that if/when I return to work, I'll be glad to have the house totally organized.

Then I pick up the kids from school, we do homework, I cook dinner, I take them to their ballet lessons, we come home and eat dinner, family time, and bed!

So far that is working for me. I'm trying to enjoy the time off and find some way of neverrrr going back to work again. All I have to say is, staying home with the kids is like living in a dream world. It's great! I have long suspected, but now can confirm, that my SAHM friends who have told me they have the hardest job in the world have no idea what hard jobs are like! Haha! Anyway, try to enjoy your time off! Looking for a job is a bummer, but you're in good company.

I stayed home from 12/08 up until 8/11. Once my DD went to full day K, I started a part time job. I had been looking for a full time job, but it didn't materialize. Luckily I found a part time job the week my DD started K. It was the perfect balance for me.

Fast forward to now, and I was forced to find a full time job, after not working for almost 3 years. Prior to that I was making decent money at a big company with great benefits.

My biggest recommendation is to hook up with a recruiter or employment/placement agency. They have relationships with companies that don't advertise their positions. I found a great temp-to-perm position with an awesome, well known, international company & I start on Tuesday :-). Direct hire jobs with decent pay just aren't that common in my area. Sure, I got calls back & interviews & job offers, but I wasn't just going to take anything. I waited & the job I got pays almost what I was making at my last job, just walking in the door.

As far as the balancing & everything, I didn't find it hard to balance it all when I worked part time, or when I was a SAHM. However, I am worried about what will happen when I start working full time & our world changes. The guilt has already started. I think you just have to figure out what rhythm works for your family & what keeps everyone the happiest.

I went through a series of career changes which were easy transitions within my field. The biggest career change I was able to pull off was to work in Europe which I've done for the past 28 years. It was tough on my youngest daughter as I was away for a few months at a time. I took the offer because America's economy was shut off by Ronald Reagan and his cronies and I could not get off the ground here. The offers were from contacts I had. Today we call it networking but without computers back then there was no way except person to person.
I wrote a book which is still in print as is my second book. Both were translated into a dozen languages.
To really succeed in hard economic times you have to break the mold.

I would recommend talking with a career counselor/coach. They can be found through Google, or through a state agency. They should be willing to help you decide between options, build a resume and a 30-second commercial/elevator speech about what you bring to an organization (whether in your previous field or a new field), and discuss job search and networking strategy with you.

I am in the same boat right now so I am interested in seeing the responses you get. I currently am handling preschool drop off/pick up, chores at home, things at home that have been neglected, etc during the day so at night I can relax and enjoy family time. When I am working, evenings become dinner, clean up, bedtime so I too am enjoying the change.

I am also looking for/applying for jobs several times a week but the bulk of my time is doing mom and wife stuff...stuff that I can't do when working and/or that gets neglected.