If you didn't return to work for a year after you had your LO....

would you tell someone that in an interview? Someone recently told me that you would never tell an interviewer that you took time off to take care of your child. Reason being because it is illegal for them to ask you any personal/family questions unless you bring it up and then its fair game to ask away. What would you do? And if you don't tell them you stayed home to raise your LO what do you say?

Re: If you didn't return to work for a year after you had your LO....

I have mixed feelings about this.

On one hand, I think it makes you sound genuine and not that I feel it's fair or valid, there are some employers who if they see a gap, automatically assume the worst.

On the other hand, there are employers who automatically assume that if a woman is a parent, they will run into problems with her.

I know there are a bunch of people who work in HR here so I am interested to hear their thoughts.

Re: If you didn't return to work for a year after you had your LO....

I can only speak from my experience. After DS1 was born I went back FT and after 3 months decided I wanted more of a work life balance. So I interviewed outside my company and told them such. After having my child that I was looking to cut back on hte number of days in the office, to achieve a better work life balance. I got that job and worked there for 10 months until my whole team was laid off.

Now as I considering returning to work PT after 5 years as a SAHM, I am honest that I chose to stay home but now I am ready for more, and want to return to work for me, etc.

Re: If you didn't return to work for a year after you had your LO....

If you are asked about why you took time off from working, and the true reason is to take care of your child(ren), then I would say so.

I used to do a lot of interviewing for my law firm when I practiced law, and I think it's important to come across as genuine. If I were in your shoes as an interviewee, I don't know that I would make it a huge focus of the interview, but if it came up, I wouldn't run from it. And if asked directly, which I think is likely, what can you say? Make up a lie? Say "I don't feel comfortable saying."

As far as mentioning it proactively, I might do it in a low key way, but I would also try to focus on skills you acquired, classes you took, any experiences you gained - - to the extent there were any - during your time off that kept you ready to re-enter the workforce. If you don't really have anything to say about that gap period that could help, I would try to minimize that part of the discussion but not run from it. I know it's a fine line.

But the way I see it, taking time off to care for children is a common situation. And being a working mom can be challenging in terms of work/life balance. I don't think we should have to pretend we aren't mothers or that are kids/family life don't exist in order to succeed in our careers. And while I know there are companies out there that would think someone would be a less professional or a less committed worker because she has children, or put "family first" for awhile, I personally would not want to work for a company that held those views. To me, not being hired for that reason would just confirm that it would not be the right work culture for me.

Re: If you didn't return to work for a year after you had your LO....

I did not work for the first 10 months after my son was born. When I started interviewing, I had an interview scheduled for a customer service manager position that would have been PERFECT for me... The guy I was interviewing for called me early one morning to reschedule and heard my DS crying in the background. During my interview with him, he asked about my kids and I tried to be vague because I didn't think it was neccessary information. When he called me back after the interview, he said to me that the only reason I was not getting the job was because I had children... he had too many women in the office with kids who are very reliable. I was floored!!

From then on, when someone asked me about my gap in employment, I said I just took some time off for personal reasons or to care for my family.

Re: If you didn't return to work for a year after you had your LO....

Re: If you didn't return to work for a year after you had your LO....

I was laid off when I was 8 months pregnant and didn't go back until DS was about 7 months old. When I started interviewing, I told people the truth. If they didn't want to hire me b/c I have a small child, then that probably wasn't the right job for me. I wanted to know I'd have flexibility to leave early or come late if I had to for DS, so to me, it wasn't something to hide.