I need to find a summer job. Fall OCI did not go so well. I had about 5 big firm interviews and a couple of gov't interviews, but no bites. Some I knew were not going well about 2 minutes in. A couple of the others I though went really well, and was a little disappointed. I'm not sure if my biggest problem is that I transferred from Not So Great School (NSG) or that I'm a mom. Soon I will have (hopefully good) grades in from my new school, so that should help out the transfer student problem. The mom thing is another matter (and I strongly suspect my bigger problem.)
I need a way to clear my resume of my mom status--without outright lying. Not an easy task due to the 7 year gap when I was staying home with the kids. I have considered saying that I was in prison, since that may actually be better than telling firms that I have children. But that would violate the lying part of my goal.
I'm wondering if I could just leave all the dates off my resume. I could pass for a recent college grad, but would firms notice and wonder about the lack of dates?
One of my husband's clients who is an attorney said that I should just say that I was working from home during that time. I have, very occasionally, done research projects from home. And DH has a part-time computer consulting business that I have, very occasionally, helped out with. I suppose I could stretch that out to appear as though I was working during that time. But it feels kind of sleazy. Then again, being discriminated against for having kids really PO's.
2 comments:
i did OCI in the fall as a mom. for the first week of interviews, i kept kid references off my resume, and i did not mention my children. i did have my own business for many years (starting when my oldest was born), and it spanned the entire 9 years that i'd had children, so it wasn't too hard to use that as the reason for any gaps in other employment.
but i wasn't successful that week, and i wasn't too comfortable with not really being honest about who i am and what my needs are.
so hte second and third weeks, i put something kid related (one of my volunteer activities) back on my resume, and came clean during the interviews.
it was those interviews that i got call backs for.
in my area, firms are considering "diversity" to also mean any sort of family arrangement - not only ethnic groups.
we'll see what happens, though.
I think you are right. I know that I probably do not want to work for a firm that is so concerned that I have kids, and I don't want any of the "stretching" on my resume to come back and haunt me.
Unfortunately, I am not in a big diversity area. Its pretty much still an old boys club around here.
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