For moms planning to return to work after an absence from the job market, different strategies will play on different realities about how today's employment world works. For lots of enterprising women who are looking to take advantage of any opportunity, including work-at-home job roles, taking a gradual approach can pay off big in terms of creating flexibility for your professional life and navigating a job market in a tough economy.
The New World of Freelance and Work-at-Home Jobs
People who are focused on the work world of the 20th century tend to think of a job as a solid, long-term contract between a company and individual. However, for lots of people who are living in the now, that's not always the way a career works. Companies shed workers continually in all kinds of economic situations, and those who want to weather the storm of change have to know how to land on their feet.
Lots of workers in many various fields deal with this by developing the ability to find new work opportunities. In today's employment world, this includes exotic arrangements like contracted work, 1099 freelancing, consulting, and a lot of other non-traditional roles. What's happening, in a nutshell, is that the needs of businesses have changed, and more companies of all sizes are looking at hiring on a freelance basis rather than staffing a desk for a decade.
Using Expertise in Work-at-Home Jobs
One big tip for those looking for this new kind of work opportunity is that in almost any field, specialized experience can be applied to freelance and work-at-home opportunities that involve training and education.
Some experienced freelancers understand that in the digital age, knowledge of nearly any kind is a commodity. That means work-at-home moms or others in career transition can play on their practical experience as a way to make money in developing web or print materials, including business promotions, training curriculum, public information and much more. This is just one example of how a person with experience can gradually get herself back into the workplace, not by interviewing for "her old job back," but as a versatile professional with many irons in the fire.
The Benefits of a Gradual Return to Work
To lots of people, the benefits of work-at-home freelancing as opposed to full time on-site work are evident. Still, it's worth pointing out some of the main economic advantages of this kind of job approach.
Basically, lots of new moms and other women working from home have to balance some significant family responsibilities with any work that they choose to do. In a lot of ways, the new business paradigm of 1099 contracting, off-site roles and temporary job offers works out extremely well for women who need to mix work with day care and other family needs. Day care can be extremely expensive, but with a home office (and the right work at home strategy), multi-tasking can save most of that cost, boosting a family's "budget efficiency" and creating a win-win situation for working parents.
Besides this, there are a lot of other reasons to think about a versatile, gradual entry into the workplace, especially for those many women who are adjusting to a new life as a mother.
