How to Address Your Role As Caregiver on Your Resume

Written by Lauren Beam, MS, NCC (’07), Director of Mentoring and Alumni Personal & Career Development, Wake Forest University

Between the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising costs of childcare, a staggering 1.8 million women exited the workforce in 2020. Additionally, recent studies have found that approximately 53 million U.S. adults serve in caregiving roles for a spouse, elderly parent or family member, or special needs child. Taking on the job of caregiver – as your full-time responsibility or in addition to your paid employment – is quite literally a lot of work!

According to the Center for American Progress, we are finally seeing the level of women in the workforce returning to pre-pandemic levels, particularly as more flexible work options have become available with the rise of hybrid and remote job opportunities. For job seekers hoping to make a return to the workforce, how do you address your role as caregiver on your resume?

First and foremost, let’s all acknowledge that unpaid work is still work. The time you’ve spent away from a professional work environment has value. Caregiving duties along with other commitments and responsibilities that you’ve taken on during this time can showcase your relevant and transferable skill set. Here are a few tips to consider as you build out your resume.

Talk to people in your network/industry. Do you have professional contacts who work in your intended job industry? Reach out to them and ask about the pros/cons of directly listing your work as a “Full-time Caregiver or Stay-at-home Parent” on your resume. Some industries may be more open or accepting to seeing this listed as a job title on your resume document while others may not. Better yet, seek out other professionals who have returned to work after a break as a caregiver and get advice from their experience.

Include “Caregiver” or “Stay-at-home Parent” as a job listing on your resume. As mentioned above, it’s up to your discretion whether you want to include a specific job entry dedicated to your caregiving duties. If you decide to include this, here’s what it could look like:

Full-time Caregiver, Self-Employed, City, State, March 2020-Present

• Include action-oriented bullet points showcasing relevant skills.
• Example: “Managed monthly household budget and all financial investments and payments using XYZ financial planning software in collaboration with a financial advisor.”
• Example: “Demonstrated multitasking, communication, and organizational skills while managing all aspects of household tasks and overseeing academic, physical, and emotional health of three children under the age of 10.”

Craft a targeted Summary Statement. Use a well-crafted summary statement at the top of your resume to highlight your education, training, and previous employment. Connect your past experience and time away from the workforce as a caregiver to your future professional aspirations. For example: “Marketing professional with over 10+ years of experience designing and writing digital communications for brands. After a brief break away from the professional workforce to be a stay-at home parent, seeking to utilize newly acquired knowledge and skills to market, communicate about, and support the sell of products and resources specific to women and parents.”

Include recent professional skill development and/or training opportunities. Take advantage of the free, online courses that you can find through websites like LinkedIn Learning or Coursera. Whether you need to upskill on Artificial Intelligence (AI) trends, learn how to do basic graphic design, or hone your project management skills, you can complete an online training and include it on your resume! 

Consider providing freelance work. Do you have a skill that others could benefit from? While you’re looking for a new job opportunity, offer up your skill set as a freelancer and then include this as paid work experience on your resume. In fact, you can use a website like Upwork to advertise your freelance skills.

List your volunteer work and/or community involvement. PTA volunteer, board member, community-based organization volunteer, Sunday School teacher, poll worker, mentor, animal shelter volunteer. You likely have taken on multiple volunteer-based roles during your time away from the professional workforce. These deserve space on your resume! List them under a “Volunteer Experience” or “Community Involvement” heading and include action-oriented bullet points showcasing your relevant skills and accomplishments.

Use a cover letter and your LinkedIn profile to your advantage. A resume can’t convey every aspect of your employment or caregiving history, nor should it. Your resume should feature the “greatest hits” of your skill set and experience. Meanwhile, you can leverage a cover letter along with your LinkedIn profile to provide additional context or information about your professional experience and time as a caregiver. As mentioned above about writing a “Summary Statement,” you can expand upon this in a cover letter or on the Summary section of your LinkedIn profile. Connect the dots for future employers about how your past and present realities make YOU the best candidate for a future job role.

Still need help drafting up your resume or simply want feedback?

• Reach out to a professional in your intended job industry and ask them for edits and feedback around what would make your resume more competitive and appealing.

• Use a resume scanner tool like Cultivated Culture’s ResyMatch.io to see how your resume matches up to the job for which you’re applying.
• Check out our LEARN Alumni Career Development Model’s Step 5: Navigate What’s Next web page, which includes resume and LinkedIn resources.
• The Alumni Personal & Career Development Center team is always happy to provide resume reviews for WFU alumni from College of Arts & Sciences programs. Reach out to us via the Ask a Career Question form here. If you graduated from other degree programs (business, law, medicine), reach out to your respective program for career support.