A working mother has gone viral after re-writing her résumé to highlight all the skills she has learned and perfected as a new mother.
Sydney Williams is mom to two sons, ages six months and two years, and during the pandemic, she has been caring for them while also working full time from home as GE’s global director of brand marketing.
Recently, the New York City-based mother-of-two decided to revamp her résumé, summarizing all of her parenting skills and how they apply to work, like how she does ‘everything you do, but I do it with one hand,’ thinks ‘ten steps ahead,’ and ‘maintains positivity, while my patience is pushed to the limit.’
Busy! Sydney Williams is mom to two young sons, and during the pandemic, she has been caring for them while working full time from home as GE’s global director of brand marketing
Sydney shared her experiment on LinkedIn last week.
‘I was curious what my résumé would look like if I rewrote it with ONLY the skills I’ve learned as a new mother,’ she explained.
‘Like many others, I am unbelievably shook by how the pandemic is devastating working women — particularly mothers.
‘My Mom Resume isn’t unique. I have no doubt that the Moms within the 156,000 women who left the workforce in December hold many, many more of the evasive skills we look for in our teams, colleagues, and leaders.
‘Something is fundamentally, catastrophically broken if we are letting this type of talent leave the workforce,’ she went on.
‘Perhaps if we shift the way we evaluate, prioritize, develop, and protect the skills we learn outside of the office, Moms would have a fighting chance,’ she concluded
She included an image of the new résumé — which seems to be made for a LinkedIn post only, not for sending out to potential employers.
‘I’m Mom to two boys under three years old,’ she began.
Skills: She recently re-wrote her résumé to highlight all the skills she has learned and perfected as a new mother
‘Most days, I don’t have a clue what I’m doing, but I adapt. I maintain the highest level of energy and creativity I can muster, so that the people around me feel safe, valued, and inspired.
‘I’m human, I lose my s*** and have bad days. But I start each morning with a new sense of optimism: today will be a good day, today’ll we’ll do more, today we’ll have a breakthrough.’
Under a ‘skills summary’ section, she listed ten bullet points, including ‘I prioritize integrity and honesty.’
‘I do everything you do, but I do it with one hand,’ she wrote. ‘Literally. I hold onto what’s most important (hint: my baby) with all the strength I have in one hand, while juggling the 1MM daily tasks of life in the other. I ruthlessly prioritize. Every day, I grow stronger and more efficient as a result.’
She also thinks ten steps ahead, explaining: ‘Each day is a 50+ piece Jenga puzzle that I manage with skill, strategy, and luck.’
She stays positive, even when her patience is tried: ‘My team has meltdowns, emotions run high, new challenges arise daily. I lead with compassion, listen to debate, and encourage resolution through compromise.’
Chin up! Sydney said she shared the post to give other women the same sense of ‘confidence and conviction’ that she got from writing it
Sydney also says she adapts, taking whatever life or children throw at her. Her past roles, she said, include teacher, chef, nurse, barber, garbage woman, builder, driver, hostage negotiator, seamstress, engineer, translator, swim instructor, therapist, and stylist.
‘I lead with empathy,’ she wrote. ‘My team comes first and foremost. I work for them.’
She added: ‘I fight ferociously on behalf of them.’
She also communicates ‘powerfully and prolifically,’ focusing on ‘clear, results-oriented communication to drive change.’
‘I am in constant search for a better way,’ she went on. ‘You can find me iterating on everything from process improvements, to product development, to communication tools. Creativity is fundamental to my job.’
She values collaboration, she said, insisting that teamwork is key to her success.
‘I forge and foster relationships between diverse groups of people in order to support, elevate, and maintain life among my team,’ she added, citing a mom group chat.
Hands full: She noted that she does everything non-working moms do but with only one hand
Finally, she said: ‘I do it all with very little “Thank You” and wake up each morning to do it again because of my capacity to find the joy and love in my work.’
Speaking to Good Morning America, Sydney said she shared the post to give other women the same sense of ‘confidence and conviction’ that she got from writing it.
‘It’s a different take on what it means to be a mom, a different way to reimagine the skill sets that we have as mothers and hopefully inspire confidence,’ she said.
She also responded to comments her post has garnered.
‘The majority of responses have been from women who have said, “I’ve chosen to take time off. I’m nervous to get back into the workforce and this has given me a new perspective and different way to think about the skills I have and how to present them,”‘ she said.
‘There have also been a lot of men who have reached out and said, “I have a newfound respect and appreciation for my wife and my daughter.”‘