Why I have a Master’s Degree and am a Young(ish) Unemployed Mom.
When being ‘just’ a stay-at-home mom isn’t considered a job.
After finishing my undergraduate degree in International Business and even studying abroad in China twice, I thought obtaining a Master’s degree would thrust me into the fast-paced life of a future CEO. I am the first member of my family to obtain a graduate degree, and my parents would often brag about how successful I would become. My dad would call me a ‘jet-setter’ and often said I would be running big businesses in China in no time.
That all came to an abrupt halt when I announced I was pregnant.
My generation, the ones who came before Gen-Z and who shall remain nameless to avoid any ‘cheugy’ name-calling — were told that education equals success. We were told to skip the gap year to ‘find ourselves’ because if we didn’t completely throw ourselves into school and decide then and there what we were going to do with the rest of our lives, we were failing.
Fast forward to today. What happened?
Well, a lot and not that much all at once. I finished my Master’s program in the summer of 2019 while I was 7 months pregnant. I decided to take a small ‘break’ and enjoy my last few months of pregnancy before experiencing motherhood: more on that later. I had my son in November 2019, and in the foggy haze of breastfeeding, learning how to be a parent, snapping back, and trying to maintain a social life, 2020 happened.
How was I supposed to enter the workforce when almost every daycare was closed? Who could watch my son for me when you weren’t supposed to interact with anyone outside of your ‘bubble’ of 5 people? We lived on the opposite side of the country from both of our families, so we had no traditional familial support.
How was I supposed to get out there and claim my coveted 5 years of experience in anything related to business when the world was shut down?
I applied for hundreds of remote work positions but never landed a single interview. Do I speak a second language? Yes. Have I won international competitions in business? Sure. Do I have nearly a 4.0 GPA? Hell yes, I do! But that doesn’t matter in a sea of questionnaires about your work history.
I am someone with more education than most with absolutely no work experience in the traditional sense.
I was taught in business school to avoid talking about having children as a woman in an interview. Being a mother has been my full-time job for the past two years, yet I cannot include it on my resume.
“So are you working yet or still just staying home with your son?”
I’ve never taken a sick day, I show up early, stay up late, and am totally committed to my position. I would even say I have doubled my productivity in the past year going from having no idea what I was doing, to kind of killing it at the playground.
Now that things are slowly returning to normal and daycares are reopening, prices are increasing as well. Should I get an entry-level position to merely cover the cost of daycare for my son? Or is it better to take this time and stay home with him while my career sits on the back burner?
Can I do both? Is it even possible to do both without an intricate support system of nieces, grandmas, and family friends to watch your baby for free? My friends, I still don’t have all of the answers. But I am on a journey to find the answers.
Can I use my education to become that mom? The one who stays home with her kids, makes every meal from scratch, and is out-earning her husband while making it all look so easy (and hot)? Maybe.
Maybe I can use lessons from my many all-nighters and apply them to motherhood. Maybe this $80,000 degree won’t be wasted after all?
A new outlook.
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