Baby On Board! How To Job Search While Pregnant

Unemployment Baby On Board! How To Job Search While Pregnant Ariella CoombsJenna ArcandJune 14, 2022Pregnant woman makes a phone call Bigstock {"adCodes": [{"desktop": "\u003cdiv class=\u0027rblad-wit_content\u0027\u003e\u003c/div\u003e", "display": true, "mobile": "\u003cdiv class=\u0027rblad-wit_content\u0027\u003e\u003c/div\u003e", "new_amp": "\u003camp-ad width=336 height=280\n type=\"doubleclick\"\n data-slot=\"/22278042776,22664312254/wit/wit_content\"\n data-multi-size=\"300x250\"\u003e\n\u003c/amp-ad\u003e", "order": 0, "tablet": "\u003cdiv class=\u0027rblad-wit_content\u0027\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"}, {"desktop": "\u003cdiv class=\u0027rblad-wit_content\u0027\u003e\u003c/div\u003e", "display": true, "mobile": "\u003cdiv class=\u0027rblad-wit_content\u0027\u003e\u003c/div\u003e", "new_amp": "\u003camp-ad width=336 height=280\n type=\"doubleclick\"\n data-slot=\"/22278042776,22664312254/wit/wit_content\"\n data-multi-size=\"300x250\"\u003e\n\u003c/amp-ad\u003e", "order": 1, "tablet": "\u003cdiv class=\u0027rblad-wit_content\u0027\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"}, {"desktop": "\u003cdiv class=\u0027rblad-wit_content\u0027\u003e\u003c/div\u003e", "display": true, "mobile": "\u003cdiv class=\u0027rblad-wit_content\u0027\u003e\u003c/div\u003e", "new_amp": "\u003camp-ad width=336 height=280\n type=\"doubleclick\"\n data-slot=\"/22278042776,22664312254/wit/wit_content\"\n data-multi-size=\"300x250\"\u003e\n\u003c/amp-ad\u003e", "order": 2, "tablet": "\u003cdiv class=\u0027rblad-wit_content\u0027\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"}], "adsOrder": [2]}

Job searching for two? Congratulations! As a pregnant job seeker, you're likely experiencing a myriad of emotions—excitement, happiness, fear, and stress. Taking on a job search while pregnant can be a challenge. Fortunately, we've got some great tips that will make your job search a little easier.

1. Understand What's Important To You Pregnant woman sits at a desk

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“As a brand-new mother, I can say with overwhelming certainty that having a child will change your life—and your priorities," says Amanda Augustine, career advice expert for TopResume. “When you're evaluating different job opportunities, consider what's most important to you when it comes to the role and the organization."

Consider what kinds of things you'll need in order to both perform your best on the job and support your growing family. What kinds of benefits are going to be important to you as a mom?

Here are a few things you should consider when researching companies and roles:

  • Competitive Compensation Package
  • Quality of Insurance/Benefits
  • Parental Leave Policies
  • Flexible Work Arrangements
  • Ability to Telecommute

Augustine also recommends checking out Seramount's 100 Best Companies List when building your list of companies to target.

2. Focus On What You Have To Offer Pregnant woman looks for a job

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“Don't begin each job interview (or job application) by mentioning your pregnancy," says Augustine. “Remember, the focus should be placed on learning more about the position and communicating your interest in the role and your qualifications, not your family plans."

Employers are looking for great candidates. Just because you're pregnant doesn't mean you're not a great candidate. Instead of focusing on your pregnancy, showcase why you're the best person for the job. In fact, if your pregnancy isn't visibly obvious yet, there's no need to mention your pregnancy during the interview at all, according to Augustine.

3. Be On The Lookout For Illegal Questions Pregnant woman waits for her job interview

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Employers aren't allowed to inquire about your marital status, children, or your future family plans during the hiring process. Watch out for seemingly innocent questions that stem from a casual conversation such as, “Sorry I'm running a little late—had to drop the kids off at soccer practice. Do you have any kids? Love 'em, but they're taking over my life with their activities!"

The truth is, your interviewer might not realize that these questions are inappropriate. He or she might just be inexperienced or extra friendly. However, it's important to tactfully avoid answering these questions because the wrong answer can impact your future at the company.

As a result, it's important to handle the situation tactfully. Remember, your goal is to make a great impression. Calling out an interviewer for asking an illegal question is, unfortunately, not the best strategy when trying to accomplish this.

4. Don't Talk About Maternity Leave Until You've Gotten The Offer Pregnant woman joins a video meeting

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While it's tempting to ask about the company's maternity leave policy during the hiring process, Augustine strongly recommends holding off until you've been offered the job—in writing.

“Whenever possible, save this conversation until you're ready to negotiate your compensation," says Augustine.

Instead, do your homework. Research the company's parental leave policy on sites such as Glassdoor and Comparably. Doing a little detective work beforehand can save you some major headaches down the road.

5. Think Ahead Pregnant woman job searching

Bigstock

“Keep conversations about your maternity leave to a minimum with the employer," says Augustine. “Remember, it's only a temporary absence and shouldn't impact your performance."

However, you will need to give your employer a heads up on a few things, so think ahead. When it comes time to discuss your pregnancy plans with your employer, be prepared to answer questions like...

  • “When do you anticipate going on maternity leave?"
  • “When will you return to the office?"
  • “How do you plan to cover your responsibilities to ensure a smooth transition?"

“When you take the time to prepare thoughtful responses," says Augustine, “you're showing your new employer your commitment to the company's success and also demonstrating your value as a long-term employee."

As a mother-to-be, you've got enough on your plate these days. Don't make your job search more stressful than it needs to be. Instead, take these tips and apply them to your search today!

Job searching while pregnant isn't easy, but we hope these tips will help you successfully find a job if you're expecting. If you need more help finding a job while pregnant, we're here for you.

We'd love it if you joined our FREE community. It’s a private, online platform where workers, just like you, are coming together to learn and grow into powerful Workplace Renegades.

It's time to find work that makes you feel happy, satisfied, and fulfilled. Join our FREE community today to finally become an empowered business-of-one!

This article was originally published at an earlier date.

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So your looking for a job need to explain to a recruiter why you've been job-hopping. How can you effectively explain your job-hopping habit without disqualifying yourself as a job candidate?

The Best Way To Explain Job-Hopping To A [email protected] How to explain job hopping to a recruiter. #recruiter#interviewtips#interview#jobinterview#jobinterviewtips#jobinterviewquestions#jobsearchhelp#jobsearchtips#jobsearch#careeradvice#careertok#edutok#careertiktok#careertips♬ original sound - J.T. O'Donnell

Well, first, you need to understand job-hopping from the recruiter's point of view. To a recruiter, job-hopping is a red flag. They're worried that, if they do hire you for a position, you're going to ditch the company six months later because that's a pattern in your work history.

In order to effectively explain job-hopping to a recruiter, you need to revise your work history by filling in the gaps.

For each job, a recruiter wants to know:

  • What did you learn?
  • What did you experience?
  • How did you grow your skills?
  • What made you leave your job and move to the next one? (What opportunity was at that next job? What was the next thing that you were going to learn there?)

Walk the recruiter through your job-hopping history by talking about what you learned and how you learned even more at the next job. When you get to the current situation, you then look at them and say, "For those reasons, I'm now very clear in the value that I can bring and what I want in a job. And I am looking to stay put. And so while I know it looks like I've been job-hopping, I believe that that journey brought me to this moment where I have all the experience that I need to stay here and do a really good job for you."

That's what recruiters need to hear. If you follow this strategy, your job-hopping habit won't prevent you from landing your next job.

Navigating job search challenges like this one can be incredibly difficult, especially if you're not sure what value you bring to the table as a professional. The good news is, I can help.

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Sign up for my FREE community and become a Workplace Renegade today! My team and I are looking forward to working with you soon.

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What if I were to tell you that you might be doing the good old SWOT analysis incorrectly?

And on top of that, you're only doing half of it?

SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats—a classic framework familiar to many in the business world. It’s often used as a situational analysis for an organization’s strategic planning.

The SWOT is so common that its usage, in some cases, has morphed from its original form. This results in an analysis that is only partially complete. And rarely helpful.

It also has a whole other half—the TOWS analysis—which is where your SWOT goes from “I made a list” to a practical, actionable strategy.

Here are the most common steps that we get wrong when completing a SWOT.

“I Just List My Company’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, And Threats, Right?”

Well…kind of.

Many people get the Strengths and Weaknesses correct. Indeed, you simply list out your company’s areas of mastery and shortcomings.

However, the Opportunities and Threats sections are where most people make their first SWOT mistake.

The O and T are NOT specifically about your company.

O and T are to be lists of EXTERNAL factors that could affect your business. In other words, things that in most cases are beyond your direct control.

Here’s a simple example. Let's say you are running a food cart that sells pie… because...pie! As I'm a native Midwesterner, it has to be pie-on-a-stick.

(Don't question me here. All Midwesterners know that anything can be eaten on a stick!)

Strengths – The things your company excels at. These are internal factors.

S could include having a recognizable brand, great employee perks (free pie!), being debt-free, and offering a customer rewards program.

Weaknesses – Things that prevent the company from reaching its optimum performance. These are internal factors.

For instance, not offering gluten-free or vegan options, you only have one cart location, and an unwillingness to invest in payment technology, so you only accept cash.

Opportunities – These are external factors that can help give your business an advantage.

For instance, your pie-on-a-stick food cart enjoys local tourism traffic, the permit fees are low, and food suppliers are dependable.

Threats – These are external factors that can negatively impact your business.

For example, there is a shortage of workers in your town, your region has bad weather for half the year which drives away foot traffic, and the stick manufacturer is raising prices.

Remember, O and T are external forces only. Many people tend to make O and T internal factors. And, well…it’s tough to do a situational analysis when you’re not fully examining the situation from all angles.

A SWOT Is Not An Island.Woman creates a SWOT analysis on a whiteboard at work

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That is to say, never do your SWOT in isolation. I’ve found that a SWOT analysis is typically done by one person or one department, with no additional research or data collected.

To get a truly holistic view of your company, you need to talk to other people (and not just the managers). You need to hear diverse voices from all departments and job levels for a truly representative set of data.

You may think you know your business’s strengths and weaknesses, but if you do not listen to a representative group of people from across the entire organization, you're not getting the full picture.

For external forces, monitor the environment for things that could potentially affect your business. A good framework for this is a semi-localized version of a PESTLE analysis, if you want to go deep.

Now, let's go back to our pie-on-a-stick food cart example.

Example of a Weakness that comes to light after talking with an employee:

You hear from one of your high school workers that none of their teen friends will eat at the cart because your business doesn't accept mobile payments. That could be cutting out a large chunk of potential customers, as the high school is located just around the corner.

Example of an Opportunity you could take advantage of, found from keeping tabs on the local business environment:

You learn from a local media outlet that there is a new off-site kitchen space opening up, which would be perfect for expanding your food prep capabilities, if you’re considering opening a second location but need more prep and storage space.

TOWS Is Just SWOT Spelled Backwards, But It Unlocks The True Power Of This Tool.TOWS analysis matrix

Did you know that there is an entire step two to the SWOT? It's called the TOWS analysis. And yes, that is SWOT spelled backwards!

In a TOWS analysis, we look at the relationship between the internal and the external factors and what actions your business needs to take to improve your current positioning.

To do this, we use a matrix that, believe it or not, is called the TOWS Matrix.

Put your company’s Strengths and Weaknesses on the Y-axis and the external Opportunities and Threats on the X-axis. Then combine your S and W with the O and T, making actionable strategies for each quadrant.

In the SO quadrant, ask: “How can we utilize our strengths to take advantage of the current opportunities?"

For example: The pie-on-a-stick business is a well-known local brand, allowing you to take advantage of cross-promotional opportunities with nearby retail businesses, who you learn are looking to partner with popular local food brands.

In the ST quadrant, ask: "How can we utilize our strengths to overcome any potential threats in the current environment—and potentially turn them into opportunities?"

For example: Your established customer rewards program might help to weather planned road construction near your location that could cut into new customer foot traffic. You might encourage your biggest fans to stop by more often and receive double rewards during this period to help make up for lost new customer sales.

In the WO quadrant, ask: “How can the current opportunities help to mitigate our weaknesses?"

For example: You discover an opportunity to set up an indoor food stall across town that would not only add a second location (a weakness) but also be more immune to bad weather that affects your outdoor cart location (a threat).

This is an instance of a Weakness-Opportunity-AND-Threat strategy combo!

The WT quadrant is the danger zone! This is an area you need to watch out for. It's wise to create some offensive strategies to help manage risks if your weaknesses might magnify current threats.

For example: Your cash-only payment system could backfire as society moves more and more towards mobile and touchless payments as the norm. You might consider investing in new technology so you’re not left in the dust.

I’ve found that the TOWS analysis will dramatically improve your SWOT. Instead of merely listing things out in a SWOT and calling it a day, the TOWS adds actionable strategies and tactics based on research and data from the internal and external environments. Good luck!

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