It's a common problem, especially for women.  Who is going to look after the children if you get a job?  Professional childcare is impossibly expensive for many.  So should you just go after jobs and cross that bridge when you come to it?

That's the advice of Hayley Taylor.  A questioner on her website says that the only jobs she can see are shift working.  She needs to have fixed shifts, she says, so that she can arrange childcare.  Should she mention this at the interview, if she gets one?

Taylor's advice is not very helpful.  Don't tell the employer, wait until you've got a job and then     "you will be surprised just how friends / family etc. will help out when they know you have an offer on the table".  Really?  I agree that it's not a good idea at interview with an employer to state that you can only work certain shifts because of childcare arrangements.  But these sort of jobs are almost always via agencies, and the agency will want to know if there are shift patterns you can't do.  They are used to that.  Perhaps you can only work days, or early shifts or whatever.  Say so.  You are hardly unique.  Once you've got your childcare arrangements in place you may be able to vary them. 
Julie
2/16/2012 10:36:33 pm

I have been a stay at home mum, and have had mental illness. You really find out who your friends are when you are mentally ill. I have nobody. My closest friend, who did not live local to me, died from M.S. I don't get on with my closest relatives, who live miles away and have full time jobs and very busy lives anyway. Relatives I do get along with are aged and also live miles away. Time I get to myself when my son goes to stay with his father, is always spent alone. It's easy to say 'join a club', or a dating website etc, but all these things end up costing money, and people run a mile when you say you are unemployed anyway. I'm highly educated but happen to live in an area where there is nothing going on culturally that is accessible. It's very hard to network with so many big holes in my net.

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