Hello!

I had my first bub straight after high school,Only having worked at a fast food place for a year. My husband financially supports us right now.My question is whats an unqualified stay at home mum to do once her last baby goes off to school? I did do a business admin certificate but really am not interested in that. My husband has shown me how to completely work from home running a small business online, but i can’t wrap my head around the actual business side of it all the spreadsheets and keeping track of it all..


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  • You may need to do some further study in a field of work that interests you and work from there. Most jobs now require pieces of paper to show you’re qualified to do anything.


  • It’s not easy. Sometimes you can pick up odd one off jobs, like doing census returns (work is once every 10 years though!) and ticking names off at elections (I think they pay $600 a day for the election thing!)… I’ve seen work from home jobs (involving data entry and stuff like that) but never actually followed through. Otherwise it’s take your chances with whatever low paid causal work might be around in the local shops, and hope the hours aren’t too bad, or that they don’t prefer teenage staff… Training to be a lifeguard is also an option, if you can swim and it pays better than the retail work many teenagers do… or running kids swimming lessons, if you can stand being in the water lesson after lesson.


  • I would suggest tafe or online courses from home


  • I would look into a TAFE course, maybe have a chat and see what your interests and gifts are (you can do this as well with help of tests).
    In the meantime you could apply for jobs at supermarkets and kmart for example.


  • OH and in the mean time join the schools PTA so you have something more recent to add to your resume.. its a good thing to have when you have been unemployed for a while.. some advice my friend gave me.. so i joined the kinder PTA.. Will move onto the school one next year once i have worked out what i want to do…


  • Maybe like me, where i will be next year you should do more courses.. like a barista course.. or a food handling and hygiene course.. or a certificate in retail.. or even a tax statement course so you can do your own paperwork.. It is always easier to be employed by other and get a wage then it is to do your own business due to the records and tax statements.. etc..
    Personally I think its a great idea to work from home if you can.. so when the kids are sick you dont have to ring in sick..
    AS you can tell im still trying to work out where i am at…


  • Find what makes you happy, what do you enjoy, is this something you can do for work. Find suitable hours.
    You might not get the perfect job straightaway- suitability, finances, hours of work will all make a difference as well as being from the city or country.
    Always remember having something behind you is always that helping hand through the next door.


  • Perhaps you could do further study to do something you’d enjoy? Or do some volunteer work to try different things.


  • I suggest looking online at what you’d be interested in doing, whether it’s studying or going back to work even casually.
    Many places can offer traineeships where you get paid to do a qualification! I’m personally looking into it for childcare :)


  • I think you need to find something you like and them work out what you want to do from there. Swim teaching can be a good job that is flexible and a long way from business and spreadsheets.


  • I’m in the same boat. Help! I’m in a small country town and don’t have many options. Not sure what I’m going to do, as a single mum it’s hard and there’s no childcare here.


  • It might also help to attend a careers expo – they do suit all ages and stages.


  • There is a website called Open2Study and it gives you a small taster of different areas of study for free by running short courses that are entirely free. If you’re not sure what you want to do this may help you.


  • Have a few months down time to get used to it and then look at a part-time job or volunteering. Here is a site you could start with: https://www.volunteeringaustralia.org/home/get-involved/
    This could lead to bigger & better things and a great way to reconnect with “the real world”.


  • It can be helpful to write down on paper the jobs that interest you – the things you enjoy doing and try to translate those things into into a job.


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