Many women who take a break from their career to bring up a family are daunted by the prospect of going back to work. They are often highly qualified, experienced women yet they feel apprehnsive about going back to work and often struggle to find interesting family-friendly jobs.

Parents returning to work usually want flexible or part-time jobs that provide a good work life balance. The problem is often finding an employer who can see past the career gap in a C.V. or is prepared to offer genuine flexible working hours.

Finding Flexible Employemt

Fortunately, there are many employers who offer flexible work as they recognise that returning parents make skilled, loyal employees. Many employers offer freelance or project based work as well as full time jobs.

Knowing what type of Job to look for

For many returning mothers, the key is to establish what is important to you now. You need to consider what you value and what your needs are as these can change considerably due to the changes in your life.
e.g.

• Money could be the driver
• Regaining your identity
• Learning new skills
• Something to fill in the time while the kids are at school
• or finding a meaningful and fulfilling career

How to write a winning CV

Spend some time carefully thinking about your work skills as well as the experience you have gained during your career break looking after children. Think of the things you’ve done during this period that are relevant to the job you’re applying for. If you’ve been helping out at a playgroup, this demonstrates organisational skills. If you’ve been a member of a school committee which raised money for new computers this demonstrates fundraising skills and team work.

Your CV is not the place to be modest. State your achievements clearly and give examples of achievements or when your solved a problem.

Ideally a CV should be tailored to each job you apply for. It must be well laid out and easy to read. It should include contact details but does not need to include your age or marital status.

Here are a few links that will help you brush up your CV writing skills so you can land the job you want and get back to work.

• CV Tips for Mums returning to work
• Mums returning to work
• Advice for Mums returning to work

As of 1 October 2008, the minimum wage rate for people over 21 is  £5.73 per hour. For 18 to 21 year olds it is £4.77 per hour. This lower rate also applies to some trainees. A new rate introduced on 1 Oct 2004 extends the minimum wage for the first time to 16-17 year olds, starting at £3.53 per hour.

For calculating what you’re owed, ‘pay’ in this case means gross pay and includes items such as overtime, bonus payments, commission and tips and gratuities which are paid through the payroll.

There are special cases for some workers. For example, Students doing higher education work placements are exempt. Those on standby or workers provided with accommodation have different regulations, and the minimum wage doesn’t apply at all to family members working in the family business, volunteers, or people working and living as part of a family.

For further advice, contact your union, see the DTI’s National Minimum Wage site or ring the Government’s National Minimum Wage helpline on 0845 6000 678 (charged at local rates).

Here’s a quick list of part time student job categories that you might want to consider:

• Part Time Retail Jobs
• Temporary Office Jobs
• Waitering Tables, Bar Jobs & Coffee Shops
• Fast Food restaurants
• Student Brand Managers
• Promotions Work
• Corporate Internships
• Internet / Home Worker – Article Writer, Completing Surveys, Data Entry
• Childminder / Babysitter
• Dog Walker
• Charity Fundraiser
• Customer Service Representative
• Cleaning Jobs
• Teaching Jobs
• Hotel Jobs
• Supermarket Jobs
• Rickshaw Riders

Some links to places with student jobs 

• JustJobs4Students
• E4s 
• JobCentrePlus
• HotRecruit
• JobisJob
• Gumtree
• StudentJobs
• FuseJobs

However the number of sites and range of job vacancies on offer present an almost bewildering choice if you haven’t already got a clear idea of what you are looking for. That’s why it is essential to do a bit of planning before diving straight into the jobs listings.

If you read yesterday’s post you will remember that I urged you to create a list of your goals for 2009, well now it’s time to dig out your list of goals, review it and we’ll start adding some more information that will help guide you towards finding the right part time job for you.

The first thing to do is to look at the goals that you wrote down and put a monetary value to each one, this will help you determine the kind of salary you are going to have to achieve in order to reach your goals. Obviously the scale of your goals is going to determine the type of job you need to secure and the timescale for reaching your goals. So, if you set really ambitious goals you are going to have to find something a little more lucrative than evening bar work or  flipping burgers, but if you have big, ambitious goals, don’t downsize them just yet as I will be discussing some part time jobs that can achieve pretty impressive returns in due course.

If your goals are more modest, say a good holiday, some new furniture or a new dream kitchen then I want you to put down the value of your goal on your list and then below that calculate how much you would need to save each week to achieve your goal by this time next year by dividing the value of your goal by 50.

Now that you have a target weekly salary it is time to start thinking about your job preferences, then we will be able to start looking at the types of jobs that are suitable.

Try and answer the following questions and write your answers on the page containing your goals:

• Where do you want to work? (at home, indoors, outdoots or in a specific area)
• When do you want to work? (mornings, afternoons, evenings, weekends)
• Is there anything that you would really like to do?
• Is there anything you really don’t want to do?
• What previous qualifications or experience do you have that might be relevant?

The process of just thinking about your preferences and writing them down will help you narrow down the range of suitable jobs much more quickly. Once we start looking at job categories you may need to adjust your goals or preferences but don’t do that just yet. The main thing to do at the moment is to write down your goals and preferences and visualise them. Try closing your eyes and picturing yourself one year from now having achieved your goals. Let your imagination wander a bit and embellish the mental picture you are creating, then take a snapshot of that mental imagine. Perhaps you are lying on a sun drenched beach, perhaps you are pulling up outside a swanky restaurant in your new car. The important thing is that you create a vivid mental picture of you achieving your goal as we will come back to this and use it to help drive you forward towards achieving your goals. Simply visualising yourself achieving your goal is an important first step on your way to achieving it.

Spend some time thinking about your job preferences and dreaming about your goals before we start drilling into your preferences and starting to come up with some job categories.

Until next time…

At this time of year many of us find ourselves reflecting on the year that has passed and wondering what the year ahead will bring. All too often our thoughts turn to money, jobs and happiness and what we can do to improve our position in all three. My ambition with this new blog is to help you with all three of these by providing you with useful information, tips and resources on Part Time Jobs in London which will hopefully help you secure a part time job that you enjoy and improve your income and happiness as a result.

The great news is, I’ve got a ton of useful information and resources to share with you and I’m looking forward to receiving your feedback, comments and even contributions to the site. Over the coming months this site will become a magnet for part time job seekers, not just in London, as we add a wealth of exciting content. I hope you join us, benefit from the site and get involved by sending us your feedback, comments and ideas.

So lets get started… 

The New Year is an excellent time to set your goals for the coming year. Infact, it is only by setting goals that you can start to figure out what steps you will need to take to achieve them. Don’t set your goals too small, be bold and set yourself some nice big, but not totally unachievable goals.

Here goes, here’s my goals for Part-Time-Jobs-London.co.uk…

By the end of 2009:

• Part-Time-Jobs-London.co.uk will be the definative website for finding information and resources to help visitors find part time jobs in London.
• Part-Time-Jobs-London.co.uk will have tens of thousands of regular visitors  and become a vibrant community hub for part time job seekers.
• Part-Time-Jobs-London.co.uk will have helped thousands of people to find a new job, improve their income and become happier and more fulfilled in the process.

Try it yourself…

• Where would you like to be by the end of 2009?
• What would you like to be doing?
• What would you like to be earning?

Have a good think about it and don’t be afraid to day-dream a bit. Next, make sure you write down your goals and put them somewhere safe as we will be coming back to them again very soon, as we are going to need to work out how you are going to achieve your goals and then break that down into a series of smaller  steps. 

 Until next time….