Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a PhD in the social sciences and have been a SAHM for the past 10 years. I want to work part time and have applied for over 25 jobs (in my field, not in my field, including entry-level jobs). I have even left my graduate degree off of my resume in hopes I am not immediately seen as overqualified. I mist work remote and have applied only for those jobs.

I have gotten exactly zero interest. Zero.

I’m a woman in my 40s with seemingly zero opportunity to on-ramp.

I’m starting to get really depressed.

People here are being mean. Sorry.

Could you talk more about your work and your SAHM situation? Do you do anything with schools? Where do the parents around you work? What do you have to earn today? What do you have to eventually earn?

In my opinion, if you just want to slide back into working, you’re in the DC area, and you have a small kid:

- Try to get online tutoring work just to make some money, if you need money. Especially in language arts. It’s pretty easy to find math tutoring but hard to get tutors who can help kids go over their writing.

- Instead of trying to get hired, use your education and knowledge of Generation Alpha to start a Generation Alpha Consulting firm. Figure out how to do small, informal, online focus groups with small children in your community, and, ideally, nieces’ and nephews’ communities. Find some other little consulting firms’ BS reports and model your reports after theirs. Do little webcasts where you make lofty pronouncements about what small children think about the pandemic, insurance ads, etc. Name your kids to be vice presidents (if they want) and help them write Generation Alpha market blog updates. Make connections with people who actually know how to do national surveys of small children and what they charge, or figure out how to get what you need by surveying babysitters and nannies to find out what they’re thinking. Also, try to analyze the GenAlphaMom market. Try to get gigs analyzing that market for toymakers, tutoring companies, etc. If you get a client charge enough so you can hire the company that knows how to do the surveys for half the money and keep half. Or figure out how to use Survey Monkey and the like to do surveys. Basically, you could be a reseller of other people’s surveying and market research services, with Gen Alpha frosting, and maybe you could turn your kids into famous analysts (if they’d enjoy that).

Anonymous wrote:I have a PhD in the social sciences and have been a SAHM for the past 10 years. I want to work part time and have applied for over 25 jobs (in my field, not in my field, including entry-level jobs). I have even left my graduate degree off of my resume in hopes I am not immediately seen as overqualified. I mist work remote and have applied only for those jobs.

I have gotten exactly zero interest. Zero.

I’m a woman in my 40s with seemingly zero opportunity to on-ramp.

I’m starting to get really depressed.

I think I’d be hesitant to hire a person who has been a sahm for 10 years part time. I’d assume they don’t share responsibilities equal with their husband (hence the part time) and would always be asking off work / being late / constant sick appointments. Full time I think it would be different.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, first - I would adjunct. Teach a single class at Gtown, GW, GMU, UMD, etc. If anything, it is helpful having an academic affiliation in terms of getting back in the swing of conferences, networking, etc.

Second, I would look into consulting -- open your own shop and keep this as a side hustle.

Third, get to conferences. They are happening more now and with zoom there are more that are accessible and cheaper. Network.

I know people who adjunct at gtown and GWU and it’s not a job you walk into after ten years out. It’s not easy to get and they hire either professionals with good day jobs (eg, PhD feds or think tankers) who like to teach for enjoyment or young academics with recent PhDs.

Anonymous wrote:OP, first - I would adjunct. Teach a single class at Gtown, GW, GMU, UMD, etc. If anything, it is helpful having an academic affiliation in terms of getting back in the swing of conferences, networking, etc.

Second, I would look into consulting -- open your own shop and keep this as a side hustle.

Third, get to conferences. They are happening more now and with zoom there are more that are accessible and cheaper. Network.

Anonymous wrote:OP, first - I would adjunct. Teach a single class at Gtown, GW, GMU, UMD, etc. If anything, it is helpful having an academic affiliation in terms of getting back in the swing of conferences, networking, etc.

Second, I would look into consulting -- open your own shop and keep this as a side hustle.

Third, get to conferences. They are happening more now and with zoom there are more that are accessible and cheaper. Network.

Anonymous wrote:Why are you even returning to work? You can’t want to work that badly if you’ll only consider remote and part time jobs. This basically screams you don’t really want to work and is what most people think when they find this out.

The problem is you haven’t worked in a decade so you don’t bring enough to the table to demand this kind of arrangement.

If you want this type of flexibility you have to stay in the workforce.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you are looking for the unicorn. You first need to work FT for at least 5 years, prove yourself, and then go part time.

This. Anyone with a big lacks credibility. If you’re coming back saying you only want to do part time and remote forget it. That screams “I don’t want to work.”

^big gap

Anonymous wrote:What did you do before you were a sahm?