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Why You Should List Caregiver Experience on Your Resume
HigherEdMilitary
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There are over 53 million unpaid caregivers in the United States, more than 5.5 million of them are caregiving for former or current U.S. military members. Pre-pandemic polls show almost 42 percent of caregivers can no longer hold their full-time employment after taking on the caregiving role. More recent polls show over 3 million employees left the workplace during the first year of the pandemic in order to take more of a caregiving role in the household. The stark reality is that 1 in 5 Americans will become an unpaid caregiver for a loved one.
In my role as a caregiver advocate, I work with a lot of caregivers who have had to give up their employment to start, or continue, providing care for a family member. For myself, it was a service-connected injury that changed our life and forced us into a single income household. Whether it's a sudden stop, a slow slide from full-time to part-time, or no employment, to caregiving full-time, the harsh reality that we caregivers don't like to talk about is the end of the caregiving journey. We all hope that our journey ends under happy circumstances, a loved one healing or a child going to college, but sometimes the end of the journey comes loaded with grief or pain.
No matter the reason, our caregiving journeys will come to an end and many of us will be left with the question of how to return to the workforce. When the time comes, we will stare at our computer screens, trying to decide if it's kinder to our job prospects to just wipe those caregiving years from the face of our resume, hopeful that we can explain away the employment lull in an interview, if we manage to wrangle one. Caregivers torture themselves over the correct way to portray those years of unofficial employment.
Torture yourself no longer. It's time to include it on your resume, under the heading 'caregiver.' The best thing we can do is start translating that experience into actionable, job-related skills that are relevant to the position you are applying for.
Work-life Balance
Caregivers all know that we excel at having valuable insights into work-life balance. Without an impressive work-life balance and self-care routine, we would've burned out long ago.
High-stakes Outcomes in High-stress Environments
Caregivers know that we've developed master level competency in coordinating and managing care across multiple medical primary care, specialty care, and pharmaceutical teams. If we didn't, our loved one's health care suffered immensely. Talk about a high-stakes outcome in a high-stress work environment.
Public Relations
Caregivers also know that we've learned to have the best public relations face known to man. No matter the medical necessity, diagnosis, or roadblock, we've managed them all with a smile while sidestepping barriers, high level regulations, and legalese. All while probably venting your frustration in a beautiful internal monologue.
But unless you disclose these things on your resume, your employer will never understand the skills you've honed while being a caregiver. So, it's time to proudly stamp the caregiver title on your resume.
Transferable Skills
Then it's time to work those skills you learned caregiving into transferable skills relevant to the job you're applying for. What's a transferable skill, you ask? It's a way to parse a skill learned in one environment to make it relative to a new field.
Problem-solving Under Pressure
Making medical decisions while a loved one is in the ICU could possibly be transferred as "proven problem-solving capability under pressure with positive outcomes."
Case/Project Management
Managing the records, scheduling, and making life-altering decisions for your caregivee highlights that you can manage complex daily schedules and case/project management.
Efficient Communicator
If you facilitated communication between primary care and specialists, this is no mean feat and deserves to be highlighted as: Clear and efficient communication between disparate organizations.
Attention to Detail
Managing intricate medication schedules equates to: Ability to adhere to strict scheduling with a fine attention to detail.
Don't let your time as a caregiver detract from your employment growth. Caregivers bring a lot to the table for any employer. Our challenge is making sure that the potential employer knows what we can bring. The only way to do that is to no longer hide our experience as caregivers. Indeed, it's time to use your resume as a way to highlight those core competencies that make you stand out from other applicants who haven't walked the caregiver journey.
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