How to Advance Your Career as a Single Mother

As a single mother, you’ve no doubt gots lots on your plate and not much free time at your disposal. That’s just the way it is for lots of single parents, but there’s no reason to believe that your situation should stop you from pushing your career as far as you want it to go. Many mothers accept that they can’t achieve all of their career dreams when that’s not necessarily the case at all.

However, it might not always be clear to you how you should go about advancing your career as a single mother. It can be done, and you just need to approach it in the right way. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself because this is going to be difficult enough already and that added pressure will only make things more difficult for you. Instead, take a calm and rational approach to things.

We’re going to talk about some of the specific steps you might want to take as you aim to advance in your career and make the best of your situation going forward. Read on now to find out precisely what you should do next.

Know What You Want From Your Career

First of all, you should be clear about exactly what you want from your career. Not everyone knows what they want, and it’s impossible to achieve what you want and be happy with it if you don’t even know what that looks like. So set some time aside and really think about what you want from your career and what the main things you want to achieve are. It’s not always easy to do this and many people do struggle with it to some extent, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t give it a try.

Accept Help From Family

When you’re a single mother, you often feel like you have to do everything yourself in order to prove to the world that you’re coping and that you’re able to deal with everything on your plate. But accepting help from your family is never a sign of weakness and it’s certainly not something to be ashamed of. If you’re focused on achieving something in your career, there’s nothing wrong with asking a close family member to look after your child once a week so you can do the necessary work.

Find a Relevant Course

If you want to take a next big step in your career, it might make sense to find a course that can help you get to where you want to be. There are plenty of them out there and if you can fit learning around your schedule, it could really help you to make that step up. Head to Kettering’s online MSECE page to find out more about your options. It won’t be easy to work, study and parent but it’s certainly not impossible either. You’re capable of more than you think!

Create a Long-Term Plan

Having a plan in place tends to help a great deal when you’re looking to forge ahead with your career. It acts as a road map that tells you where you need to head next and what you need to do to get there. It also brings structure to your life, which is something that can be lacking when you have a lot to deal with at home and at work. So try to find the time to map things out and make a plan for your career progression going forward. It might really help you achieve what you want to.

Keep Work and Home Life Separate

As difficult as it can sometimes be to do this, you should certainly try your best to keep your work life and your home life as separate as possible. You don’t want these two aspects of your life to overlap too much because when that happens, it tends to be your personal home life that loses out. Your personal time should be for you, your family and your friends. If you start bringing your work home with you, it’ll take your attention away from all of those important things somewhat.

Prove Yourself With the Quality Not the Quantity of Your Work

Overworking yourself doesn’t tend to work very well either. You will only end up burning yourself out and this will not only hurt your ability to produce good work, but it’ll also make it more difficult for you to stay on top of all of your parenting duties too. So that’s why you should try to prove yourself at work with the quality of your work, rather than the quantity of it. After all, it’s the quality that really matters more than anything else and it doesn’t have to involve working yourself too hard.

Use Innovation and Creativity

There’s no reason why you can’t innovate and be creative in your work life. Showing that innovation and a willingness to think outside the box can really help you to stand out from the crowd. If you want to clinch a promotion or take things to a new level in your career, doing something different and interesting is one of the best ways to do that by gaining more positive attention in the workplace. And there’s no reason why being a single mother might prevent this. In fact, it might even help.

Do What’s Right for You

At the end of the day, you need to simply focus on what’s right for you and what you feel works best for you. If you allow yourself to get bogged down in what other people are telling you, you might miss out on what’s right for you. You shouldn’t let that happen. As a single parent, you’re already going to have a lot to deal with, so at work you should focus on your own success and don’t worry so much about what other people around you are saying or doing.

Never Let Being a Single Mother Become Your Excuse

When you don’t quite it the heights you want to in your career, you shouldn’t immediately assume that it’s because you’re a single mother. Of course, the job of a single mother is vital and difficult, but you have enough within you to succeed in your career too. One thing you should never allow yourself to do is allow being a single mother become an easy excuse that you can fall back on because it then makes it easy for you to not put any effort into your career at all.

Show Loyalty to Your Company

Loyalty can go a long way in the world of business. If you’re willing to stick around and work hard for your current company through thick and thin, good times and bad, it will show your bosses that you can be trusted. Although it might seem too much like playing the long game, loyalty usually is rewarded and it’s one of the easiest ways to climb the career ladder for many people. It also involves less disruption, which is often beneficial to single mothers like yourself.

Make Sure Your Job Fits Your Situation

If your job really isn’t suited to your situation as a single mother, there’s nothing wrong with moving on and finding one that is. After all, being a mother is the thing that’s always going to come first for you and that’s the way it should be. By finding a job that meets your needs and your circumstances, you’ll feel much less stressed about your work and that should help you to flourish in the role and genuinely offer your very best to the company.

Adopt the Right Mindset

The mindset you adopt is going to be a big part of how successful you’re able to be in your career. If you display confidence and exude confidence each day in the office, advancing your career will be a whole lot easier than it might otherwise be. This is something that you can work on each day and gradually get better at. Even if you don’t see yourself as a naturally confident and assured person, you can fake it until you make it because that works just as well.

Make Sure You Have a Babysitter You Can Trust

Having a babysitter you can rely on and trust at every turn is one of the most important things for single mothers with hectic careers. If you’re not always able to rely on family and sometimes you need help with the kids, having the right babysitter is obviously key. Look for one with good references and plenty of experience looking after children. And make sure you get along with them too.

There’s no reason why being a single mother has to hold you back and stop you from achieving all the things you want to achieve in your career. It’s more than possible for you to advance your career and make a success of it, no matter what your home life is like. So don’t let this situation stop you from achieving things.