Can stay at home Mums return to corporate work?

Welcome to the community, Olga. I would encourage you to stick around, as it's a great place to get yourself back up to speed to developments in the HR world that will help you when you do secure some interviews.

The fact is that the jobs market is especially difficult for job seekers, right now. Entry-level HR roles have always been hard to break into and it's even harder, right now. I say this not to discourage you but, rather, to make sure that, first, you understand that your struggle to secure employment is not a reflection upon you as a candidate; and, second, that you appreciate that the battle you are fighting is not the same as ones you've fought in the past.

Job-hunting is ultimately always a numbers game. The more applications you put out there, the more interviews you are likely to attend, the more jobs you are likely to be offered. But those numbers have scaled by an order of magnitude, lately. You can improve the outcomes by tailoring your applications carefully to the adverts but, of course, that time investment can reduce your total output and you have to constantly balance volume with quality to maximise your odds.

Given your work history, you should get yourself onto the temp worker lists of several agencies. Join the NHS Bank for your local NHS Trusts for administrative work. See if your local authorities run casual work registers and sign up for these.

Finally, I'm afraid your aspiration for remote work is, whilst not doomed to failure, seriously crippling your chances of securing employment. As we have long-lamented on this forum, employers are turning against remote work, which means that the few full-remote roles that are out there are inundated with applications, bearing in mind that they can draw on candidates across the country and are highly sought-after. Rather, you need to now get into a role, determine that all or most of it can be completed remotely and, having established your bona fides as a trustworthy, competent professional, submit a Flexible Working Request. However, do note - as I'm assuming that you will still be the primary carer in your family - that "working from home" is not a substitute for childcare. Trying to look after young children and work at the same time leads to one or the other being neglected.

The costs of childcare, these days, are eye-watering and even when they are affordable, available spaces are few and far between. If you want to get back into employment, you may have to accept that as much as 100% of your income will go to cover the costs of childcare, but don't fool yourself that this therefore makes it not worth it because (a) children do get older and require less direct attention as they do; and (b) having a job makes it much easier to find the *next* job that pays more money, whereas, as you're discovering, having *no* job makes it very hard.

Welcome to the community, Olga. I would encourage you to stick around, as it's a great place to get yourself back up to speed to developments in the HR world that will help you when you do secure some interviews.

The fact is that the jobs market is especially difficult for job seekers, right now. Entry-level HR roles have always been hard to break into and it's even harder, right now. I say this not to discourage you but, rather, to make sure that, first, you understand that your struggle to secure employment is not a reflection upon you as a candidate; and, second, that you appreciate that the battle you are fighting is not the same as ones you've fought in the past.

Job-hunting is ultimately always a numbers game. The more applications you put out there, the more interviews you are likely to attend, the more jobs you are likely to be offered. But those numbers have scaled by an order of magnitude, lately. You can improve the outcomes by tailoring your applications carefully to the adverts but, of course, that time investment can reduce your total output and you have to constantly balance volume with quality to maximise your odds.

Given your work history, you should get yourself onto the temp worker lists of several agencies. Join the NHS Bank for your local NHS Trusts for administrative work. See if your local authorities run casual work registers and sign up for these.

Finally, I'm afraid your aspiration for remote work is, whilst not doomed to failure, seriously crippling your chances of securing employment. As we have long-lamented on this forum, employers are turning against remote work, which means that the few full-remote roles that are out there are inundated with applications, bearing in mind that they can draw on candidates across the country and are highly sought-after. Rather, you need to now get into a role, determine that all or most of it can be completed remotely and, having established your bona fides as a trustworthy, competent professional, submit a Flexible Working Request. However, do note - as I'm assuming that you will still be the primary carer in your family - that "working from home" is not a substitute for childcare. Trying to look after young children and work at the same time leads to one or the other being neglected.

The costs of childcare, these days, are eye-watering and even when they are affordable, available spaces are few and far between. If you want to get back into employment, you may have to accept that as much as 100% of your income will go to cover the costs of childcare, but don't fool yourself that this therefore makes it not worth it because (a) children do get older and require less direct attention as they do; and (b) having a job makes it much easier to find the *next* job that pays more money, whereas, as you're discovering, having *no* job makes it very hard.