ML Interest Tag: work-remotely

New Study from LinkedIn Explores the Barriers Working Mothers Face

by Jennifer Swartvagher

Working mothers face many obstacles when returning to work after taking a career break. According to research done by LinkedIn, more than 70% of mothers are part of the US workforce. Yet there are barriers that they need to overcome when making the transition from mother to working mother. 

Woman in office

Rosanna Durruthy, VP of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at LinkedIn offers many tips for working parents based on this new study conducted via a Censuswide survey fielded from February 13 – 20, 2020, among 3,000 working parents ages 18-54 and 1,000 hiring managers across the U.S.

Durruthy shares that more than half of hiring managers recognize the difficulties working mothers face on a daily basis from inflexible work schedules to stigmas around taking time off. It can be very challenging for mothers to advance in their careers after taking a break, but they should embrace their time off. The data compiled shows that hiring managers tend to have an open mind when recruiting mothers returning to work. They see the value this group brings to the workplace and are eager to bring them in. Managers feel that moms are likely to be hard-working, have strong time-management skills and patience. Parents should highlight any career breaks on their resume and share the benefits gained by taking this time off.

When looking for a new job, moms should seek out companies that are right for their specific needs. Companies that offer a flexible work schedule are often the best fit. The interview period can be used as a time to gauge the company culture. Parents can also research part-time roles or work opportunities that allow them to work remotely. 

Parents should look for community resources when reentering the workforce. Managers can help with finding out what sponsorship opportunities are available. Reaching out to connections in their network, allows working moms to find mentors or new opportunities. LinkedIn offers groups for working women including Working Single Moms and Thrive: Professional Women’s Group. 

Duruthy writes, “The transition from employee to mother to working mother can be a remarkable shift, but remember that you’re not alone.”

—Jennifer Swartvagher

Featured photo: Dane Deaner on Unsplash

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Family Tales: Childcare Costs & How My Partner and I Divide Responsibilities in the Bay Area

by Erin Lem

Our new series, Family Tales, is an honest peek into the daily lives of families across the country who are on this crazy ride we call parenthood! From divulging childcare costs to breaking down family finances to managing bedtime routines with multiple kids, we tap into the Red Tricycle army of parents to find out how they’re making it work. This series is a judgment-free zone.

Interested in telling your story? Start by filling out our questionnaire here. All stories are anonymous.

Anxious About Our 2nd Kid and My Husband’s Fledging Business

My occupation: social media strategist
My partner’s occupation: self-employed. A year ago he left his corporate job to start his own design firm.
Annual household income: $120,000
City: San Francisco
Our ages: 35 (me) and 38 (him)
Childcare costs: part-time $30,000/year under the table
How we found our nanny: a private local mom’s group. One of the moms in the group only needs help in the afternoons so we use her nanny during the morning shift.
Our kid(s) ages: a two-year-old boy with a baby boy due in March

 

Anyone who doesn’t live in the Bay Area will roll your eyes at me, but let’s just get this out of the way: $120,000 household income in San Francisco is small potatoes. Last year my husband left his full-time corporate job to start his own design business. We knew what we were getting into giving up his generous six figure salary, but we had planned for this. For a few years prior we lived frugally knowing the day would come when we’d basically be on one income with one, possibly two kids. Sure enough, our second kid is due in March and we’re trying to navigate how we’ll make it work if my husband’s business doesn’t gain traction. Do we give up the nanny? Do we opt out of preschool? Should we sell our condo and move out of the city (cue my tears)? While we prepared on paper for being a one income family, I still lose sleep over our meager income in probably the most expensive city in the country. But, on the other hand, what pregnant woman actually sleeps well? Kidding…sort of.

Morning

My husband’s been up working answering emails from an east coast client when our son wakes at 7 a.m. When that happens all bets are off—it’s like the road runner invades our house and it’s impossible to get any work done. My son had a rough night and was up at 1 a.m. and again at 3 a.m. with bad dreams—so we’re all extra groggy this morning. As a first time mom, I’m not sure how to quell his bad dreams so we just rock and soothe him until he falls asleep (open to tips here, seasoned mamas). I grab a banana and cup of coffee and feed my son yogurt, sliced apple and a granola bar.

Our nanny arrives at 8 a.m.. She’s with us Mon.-Fri. from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. We pay her $25/hour under the table. Our nanny not only takes our active son out to an activity every day, but she also prepares all his meals and if she has time, straightens up our house. I feel like we got a great deal since she goes above and beyond typical nanny duties. In the city, I found that nannies asked for $23-$30/hour, which was a wide range to consider. We also pay for her monthly Muni (public transport) pass ($70/month), and give her a preloaded debit card for museum outings or for emergencies. We also provide for three weeks of fully paid vacation, but we all try to time it for when we’re both away like over major holidays. She’s in her 60’s with kids and grandkids of her own and has really helped me navigate new parenthood. She’s the one who told me when to transition from two to one nap and was the first to notice his sensitivity to eggs.

Mid-Day

I work remotely at a coffee shop or nearby shared office space. Getting anything done with my son home would be impossible, but I wonder how it’ll be once the baby arrives and I go back to work, but need the privacy to pump (let’s shelve this dilemma for another time because even thinking about being tied to a pump for another year makes me shudder).

Luckily, everything around us is walkable so we can save money on gas and tolls. My husband rides his bike to his business partner’s house two miles away. I spend most of the day working on a deck for a potential client and answering Slack messages, while trying to ignore all my bookmark tabs on preschool research. I never thought that the preschool app process would be harder than the college admissions process. I get home by 12:45 p.m. since our nanny leaves at 1 p.m. My son is on a one-nap schedule and will go down 1-3 p.m. so I’m able to work while he’s sleeping.

Evening

While I’m nervous about being the sole breadwinner with two kids, I have to admit that I love my husband’s flex schedule. He now makes it home by 4 p.m. whereas at his old job, he’d often walk in the door past bedtime. We’ve made it a point to do no-phone family time between 4-7 p.m. and I’ve actually been really good about setting expectations at work that I’ll be offline during that time frame. I love cooking and on the weekends we’ll make a trip to the farmer’s market and cook up meals together. But, on the weekdays it’s all about saving time and honestly, I’m just too tired to do it all on the weekdays.

photo: Gobble

We’ve found that with just the three of us, it’s more efficient to subscribe to a meal delivery kit. I’m partial to Good Eggs, but have heard great things about Gobble. Once I take into account the time spent shopping, cooking and washing dishes, meal kits are just worth it for us. While I get dinner ready, my husband will take our son and dog for a walk and by the time they get home our meal is served. My husband will clean up while I play with our son and get him ready for bed. For awhile we were doing everything together—and while sometimes we still do, the whole “divide and conquer” approach works for our family.

Bedtime

Our son is in bed by 7 p.m. We’ll do milk, a quick goodnight to all of my son’s stuffed animals, a story and then lights out by 7:30 p.m. It may be the shift in my husband’s schedule or my son senses his impending sibling, but he has not been sleeping through the night. I’ll usually try to hop online for a couple hours to answer emails and do more preschool research since I feel like I am way behind. But this baby is making me so tired so I’ve been going to bed by 9 p.m. with my husband coming in much later. Our nanny always preps my son’s breakfast so at least I don’t have to worry about that in the morning.

Nighttime

Like I expected, my son is up at midnight and again at 3 a.m. My husband and I take turns going in to soothe him. We never formally slept train him—he’s generally a great sleeper so this is really throwing me for a loop. Is sleep training a two-year old even a thing? He can’t yet communicate fully what is bothering him so we rock him until he calms down. Our nanny said he’s his normal happy self during the day so I’m hoping it’s just a phase. As they say: this too shall pass. Let’s just hope it passes by the time our baby arrives.

Our new series, Family Tales, is an honest peek into the daily lives of families across the country who are on this crazy ride we call parenthood! From divulging childcare costs to breaking down family finances to managing bedtime routines with multiple kids, we tap into the Red Tricycle army of parents to find out how they’re making it work. This series is a judgment-free zone.

Interested in telling your story? Start by filling out our questionnaire here. All stories are anonymous.

 

 

 

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Family Tales: How Being a Working Mom Has Made Me a Better Parent

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Find a Work-from-Home Job with These 6 Smart Tips

By FlexJobs

Photo: Photo via Bigstockphoto.com

Even on the best of days, being a working parent is tough—especially if you’re the captain of your family, which is my way of saying you’re the go-to, primary caregiver. Doesn’t “captain” sound better? One way to remove some of the peripheral junk that makes being a working mom feel so hectic is to work from home.

There’s a constant juggle between work priorities, home priorities and all the obstacles in between. What to wear to work? How will the commute be this morning? When was the last time I exercised? Did I catch a cold from Coughing Susan in the next cubicle? And those are just the concerns we have about our days. Our brains are also flooded with thoughts about our kids, spouses and partners, parents, neighbors, friends. It’s a lot.

Luckily, working from home is more of a possibility than ever before. Between 2005 and 2015, regular remote work in the U.S. grew 115 percent. And as of 2017, 43 percent of U.S. workers now work remotely at least occasionally, up from only 9 percent in 2007.

If you’re wondering whether you could work remotely, the answer is absolutely yes. The stereotype of a fresh college grad working from his parent’s basement for a start-up company couldn’t be further from the truth. The average remote worker is 46 years or older, has at least a bachelor’s degree, earns a higher median salary than an in-office worker and works for a company with more than 100 employees. And slightly more women (52 percent) than men (48 percent) work from home.

As a working mom, a career coach for remote job seekers and a remote worker myself, I want to help you work this way! Landing a remote job involves many elements of a traditional job search, but with a few key things to know as you search for jobs.

Let’s get you started searching for your own work-from-home job with these six smart steps.

1. Use the right keywords when you’re searching online.

Don’t use work-from-home or work-at-home when you’re searching job listings online (reading articles like this, about working from home, is okay). Scammers use those phrases to attract unsuspecting job seekers into employment scams. Instead, stick with keywords like telecommute job, remote job and virtual job because legitimate companies tend to use those most often.

2. Research remote-friendly companies.

Some companies are much better at hiring and utilizing remote workers than others. Check out FlexJobs’ annual list of the 100 Top Companies for Remote Jobs which features the companies that hire the most remote workers each year. And Remote.co features interviews with over 100 mostly or fully remote companies, including their most common job interview questions!

3. Play up your previous remote experience.

Have you ever worked from home? Even occasionally or casually? Maybe your kids were home sick from school. Or you were waiting for the cable to be installed. Or the weather was terrible so you skipped the commute. Maybe you worked from home at a regular interval. Or perhaps you completed volunteer projects, classes or certifications from home. All of this counts as remote work experience–and that’s exactly what remote-friendly employers want to see.

Update your resume and cover letters with any previous remote work experience you have, even occasional. Use phrases like “experience working remotely” or “five years of regular remote work” to tell employers you’ve got what it takes.

4. Play up the skills you have that would make you a good remote worker.

Even if you don’t have previous remote experience, you likely have many of the skills it takes to be an effective remote worker. Being able to focus and work independently, comfort with technology and troubleshooting, time and task management and communicating through email, phone, IM or chat are all important. These skills should be listed on your resume, mentioned in your LinkedIn profile and discussed during your job interviews.

5. Put a Technology Skills section on your resume.

Companies that hire remote workers also want to know that you’re quick with technology, but many of the job seekers I coach don’t have any mention of this on their resumes!

Include a list of remote-specific tech you’re familiar with, such as IM programs (Slack, Google Chat), file sharing (Dropbox), document collaboration (Google Drive), video conferencing (join.me, GoToMeeting, Skype) and other remote collaboration tools. A note about your ability to learn new programs quickly is a nice touch.

6. Use your network.

Whether you’re searching on job boards, LinkedIn or pitching clients so you can work remotely as a freelancer, it’s vital to involve the people you know in your search. One of the simplest ways to do this is to check LinkedIn before you apply to each job.

See who you might know at the company (strong ties) or who your connections know at the company (weak ties). Leverage those strong and weak ties to help get your application referred to a human being with hiring power within the company.

Remember these tips as you start your search for a remote job and you’ll soon be dropping your commute and professional wardrobe to work from home in your fuzziest slippers

FlexJobs was created in 2007 to provide a trusted, more effective, friendly, and overall better way to find professional remote and flexible jobs.  We were founded by job space pioneer Sara Sutton after she had been looking for a flexible job after starting her family. She realized that millions of others were just as frustrated by the ads, scams, and inefficiencies on other job boards that wasted her time in finding a good flexible job, and so she decided to create the solution she was looking for.

It wasn’t our original intention, but somehow FlexJobs has become a leader in the flexible job movement that's currently disrupting the traditional workforce. Today, FlexJobs is the leading job search site specializing in the best remote, part-time, freelance, and flexible jobs available. 

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Need a New Gig in the New Year? Here Are the Fastest-Growing Remote Job Fields

by Shahrzad Warkentin

Working remotely remains a growing trend across the country, which is good news for parents looking for a more flexible work schedule. With this growth comes the expansion of career categories that offer remote work. If you’re hoping to land a new gig in 2019, FlexJobs just named the fastest-growing remote job fields—and the list might surprise you.

Analyzing over 50 different career categories, FlexJobs has created a list of the top 10 remote job categories that are not usually associated with remote work. These fields have shown a growth of 50 percent or more since January 2018.

Photo: Janeb13 via Pixabay 

Here is the top 10 list, in order of greatest growth to least. All positions are at least partially remote.

1. Math & Economics: Sample job positions include actuarial analyst, economics faculty member, mathematical programmer, data scientist and high school math teacher.

2. Insurance: Sample job positions include loss control specialist, nurse case manager, premium auditor, underwriting manager and claims representative.

3. Nonprofit & Philanthropy: Sample job positions include senior national fundraising director, program director, policy manager, major gifts officer and partnerships manager

4. Mortgage & Real Estate: Sample job positions include senior loan officer, director of sales, district manager, real estate content producer and real estate valuation manager.

5. Marketing: Sample job positions include associate product manager, marketing specialist, marketing operations manager, online campaign manager and digital marketing analyst.

6. Engineering: Sample job positions include solutions engineer, software engineer, automation expert, design-field engineering technician and head of frontend engineering.

7. Project Management: Sample job positions include business process consultant, engagement manager, project manager, scrum master and project management manager.

8. Science: Sample job positions include clinical research associate, science teacher, science coach, senior clinical scientist, medical science liaison and life sciences content writer.

9. Legal: Sample job positions include global senior manager of contracts and agreements, paralegal specialist, general counsel, privacy and compliance manager and BAR regional director.

10. Pharmaceutical: Sample job positions include pharma regional sales manager, vice president of clinical effectiveness, clinical pharmacist, and regional neurology account manager.

—Shahrzad Warkentin

 

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