If you are a stay home parent a divorce can be especially frightening.
A person who is going through a divorce will experience major changes in his/ her personal life but work life may be consistent. However, a stay at home parent who needs to enter or reenter the work force may feel like s/he is facing a double challenge.
Here are some tips on how to prepare:
- Know your budget- A surprising number of people really don’t have a good feel for the amount of money needed to pay necessary bills. Gather information so that you understand your current budget as well as what changes would occur if you were single.
- Realistically evaluate your options about earning money– When did you leave the work force? How has the job that you used to do changed? What has gotten more difficult in that field? What has gotten better?
- Do you need training? Are your skills still up-to-date? Would you require retraining or relicensing to resume your former job?
- Create a resume. Make sure your resume is in a stylish format, and that you are aware of keywords needed to get your resume seen.
- Get skills in applying for a job– Applying online is different that applying in person and the technology changes all the time.
- Organize your information- Make sure you have your logins, and resume saved where you can easily access them so you are not re-creating the same information every time.
- Network – Talk to people, social network, and consider using an employment agency.
- Face the truth- It may be difficult, but you will get through it. You may feel a loss, and may feel scared, but you CAN and will get through this with determination and the help of your support group.
