Eldercare is a resume builder

Have you ever considered all of the valuable, useful employability skills you have gained while doing The Job? It’s absolutely true—much of what you have been doing can eventually be monetized, and it is important that you keep track of those skills. You can build your resume through eldercare!

Whatever income we now have we need to carefully protect, because The Job isn’t paying the bills or putting food on the table, but have you considered that it could provide future employment?  I’m fortunate that caring for Mom doesn’t eat into my family funds, since she is self-sustaining in her financial life. However, my family is quite reliant on my income, so I need to maintain my profession as an educator to a satisfactory degree. Looking ahead, however, I have realized that several significant “side hustles” can come from my many years as a caretaker, after I’m done. After all, I’ll have a whole lot of extra time, that’s for sure!

So much of what I do could, logically, be done as a paid position. One of the reasons I bring this up to you, the child doing this out of the goodness of your heart, is that The Job does have an expiration date. At some point, you will be done.

At that point, however, you will have gained incredibly valuable skills that could become quite lucrative! It’s time for you to consider what you do out of love as employability and soft skills that can potentially translate into a high-income position after this assignment is completed. It’s time to build your resume through eldercare.

Communicating with medical professionals

I can’t tell you how many times new medical professionals, mostly specialists, have asked me if I am in the medical field. Heck, no!

But I need to be fully informed so I can make good decisions for Mom’s care. So, I try to be as well informed as possibly by reading everything I can related to her medical situations. When I did this for Pop, it was a much more intense job, and I learned far too much about cancer treatments and spread, neurological issues and heart issues. Mom’s minimal medical issues have been quite a respite from all of those medical reports for the past six years, that’s for sure. What skills can I monetize?

Medical Transcription

This is a highly lucrative field that requires intense knowledge about a medical specialty. For example, I did this job for a year specializing in neurology, and I made enough that I didn’t teach while my kids were young. Pursue this in whatever specialization your family member is struggling with.

Front Office

This is an excellent position, for which you are quite qualified. You have dealt with numerous front office staff in a variety of doctor’s offices. The soft skills you have learned about showing compassion, gently directing patients and phone skills make you a great candidate for a front office position. Keep a good relationship with your primary caregiver’s office, and maybe you’ll work there someday! It is a great way to further build your resume through eldercare!

Medical Transport

This is an upcoming field, for which you may be specifically suited. This is particularly true if you have a handicapped accessible van for your loved one. Similar to Uber or Lyft, you can be hired independently to drive people to and from doctor’s visits—sometimes sitting in on the visit with them. Consider insurance needs carefully before pursuing this. 

Medical Billing and Coding

This is something I am keenly associated with! Nothing is more detail-oriented and time-consuming as dealing with the mountain of bills and information received from every doctor’s appointment and (gasp) hospital visit. I’ve had to weed through more medical information than I ever imagined possible, and it has made me extremely well-informed about Medicare, in particular, and what it does and doesn’t cover.

Patient Advocacy

 This is a relatively newer position in doctor’s officers, but has been around for decades in hospitals. This would be a great position for you, since you have been nothing but an advocate since you started The Job. This person is uniquely positioned to work with the patient by interpreting findings, offering alternative treatment options, and just explaining all of the jargon! 

Add Maintaining documentation To Your Resume

You are a secretary right now. A darned good secretary, too. Why not monetize it? Exactly what skills am I referring to? Let’s see…

1. Organization of information is paramount to virtually every business and particularly every office in the country. You had significant experience designing and maintaining a system of organization for your loved one’s medical and personal records
2. Computer skills are key, so keep track of what skills you have gained—Microsoft Office or Google for example—so you can add them to your resume when moving on to another position. 
3. Client services is a very valuable skill you have mastered through your many interactions with medical offices. This includes exceptional telephone skills as both a patient and provider that you can demonstrate to a prospective employer. 

Drive-in dining

You have excellent skills that can translate into the food and beverage industry! This is something you could actually start right now if you need a side hustle, too!

1. Being a delivery driver is absolutely something you can do to increase the coffers in your house. If you enjoy driving, doing this job for any number of current companies can even be considered “respite” for you from The Job. Even if you only commit a few hours a few days a week, it will get you out of the house at your convenience, and give you a chance to listen to your favorite music as loud as you want.
2. Host/Hostess is an excellent job that plays to your strengths in customer service, without having you working directly with food. Another great use for those customer service skills you’ve perfected!
3. Working directly with customers in food service would definitely suit your skills, based on years of serving your family, and the sparkling personality I know you have. Combining those strengths would certainly lead to a strong amount of tips, which could make this career quite lucrative for someone like you! 

Maintaining relationships

Let’s talk about a niche career that has gained prominence over the past few years: Virtual Concierge.

If you haven’t heard of this phenomenon, do some investigation! People are willing to pay you to do random errands or other small things that they do not have time or inclination to perform. Literally, you can be picking up dry cleaning one day, and walking somebody else’s pet an hour later! This might suit your need, even now, for employment on your own hours. You could start to hire yourself out as an on-demand concierge while you are still caring for your loved one, and this, too, could provide some level of respite care, since you will be out of the house and occupied in your own thoughts. 

Did I mention this can be a highly lucrative and independent endeavor? Consider it?

Home health

Do not discount the skills you have honed in the field of home health care! Home health care for the elderly and inform is one of the fastest growing career fields in our country, and absolutely something you can move into. 

Testing requirements might slow down the beginning of this career, as you will need different certifications for different positions. These could include CPR and other life-saving certifications, as well as obtaining a Health Card from the local county office.

Different levels of home health exist, so you can become involved as you are comfortable. Your incredible skills in dealing with confused or resistant patients will be invaluable in this regard, as you work with people suffering from different debilitating conditions

Hours are quite flexible in these career fields, including the ability to provide overnight care! This might be exceptionally well-suited to you if you have young children still at home, as you can minimize their daycare expenses by working evening or overnight shifts if your significant other can provide care. 

Long-term relationships can be developed in these industries that can be quite rewarding for you. Mom’s caregiver has been with us for three years, and we have developed a very close and loving relationship with she and her husband as a result.

Hospice care must be noted individually. The Job will take you through end-of-life care, and this niche industry is one that demands passionate, compassionate, committed people in its ranks. If you are called to this type of work, more power to you. It will be quite rewarding for you, I’m sure. 

From My Perspective

In my case, burn-out from years of caregiving will definitely keep me from pursuing anything in the medical or health field in the future. That said, I did build a healthy resume through eldercare.

You, however, may have found a passion that you can take with you into a career that will serve as a constant and happy reminder of the years you spent caring for your loved one.

Hopefully, this post has made you feel quite accomplished and qualified in many different industries! You have improved on a tremendous number of employability skills through The Job, and they will benefit you professionally long into the future. So grab some of the vocab from this post, and go beef up your resume!

THANK YOU FOR READING THIS FAR

Wow! You made it! Thank you for reading about bow to build your resume through eldercare!

Hey, since you’re here! You may as well check how to effectively celebrate with dementia, here, or different words of affirmation we love to hear as caregivers, here! Or, check out our other topics here! Either way, I appreciate you!

Please leave a COMMENT about any tips you may have!! Or comment with YOUR story! What are your next steps in eldercare? Let me know!

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