If you’re a mum staring down the “back to work” mountain, equal parts excited, nervous and wondering how your pre-baby brain ever survived a full workday, you’re in very good company. Returning to the workforce after having kids can feel like juggling flaming torches while riding a unicycle: you’re trying to remember who you were, figure out what’s changed, and somehow make it all fit around nap times and school pickups.
So, how the hell do you even start?
To find out, we caught up with Mela Lush, the founder of Jobs for Mums, a platform that’s become a lifeline for parents trying to find work that actually works. When she herself became a mum of two under two (thoughts and prayers?!) she experienced first-hand the challenges – a lot of them hidden – that parents go through trying to make it all work, and find work that understands the realities of bringing up a family.
Her biggest message? You need to remember that you’re not starting from scratch. You’re starting from strength.
“You’re not actually starting again. You’re starting from experience. You may be already juggling more in a day than teams do in a week,” she says. “It’s not about shrinking your story to fit a job, but to find a job that fits your story.”
In other words, you’re not a beginner. You’re a multitasking, logistics-handling, emotionally intelligent powerhouse, and the workforce needs exactly that.
Mela says one of the most common traps she sees is women underestimating just how valuable their experience is, both professional and personal.
“A lot of people that come to us are looking at flexibility as this big driver, and I understand it as a parent myself,” she nods. “It ends up leading to a lot of underemployment, because people find that they’ll take on the flexibility, even though it might not be at the level that they truly know they’re capable of. So it’s really important, the self-confidence piece, to remember that a lot of the skills that you do have are transferable.”
Think about it: you’ve probably managed projects, solved conflicts, negotiated with tiny dictators (aka toddlers), and handled tight deadlines that would make most CEOs sweat. That’s not a skills gap, that’s a skills jackpot.
Still, Mela says it’s completely normal to feel like the world has moved on while you were busy raising humans. The workplace evolves fast, and it can be daunting trying to catch up.
“I’d had a decade of senior leadership experience prior to taking time off, and then you come back, and it changes so quickly. Especially now, you think about AI and automation. Recent studies are suggesting that as many as 220,000 Kiwi women could need transitional roles by 2030.
“So my advice would be to think that next step ahead, what is it that you potentially want to get into? Never underestimate the power of lived experience. The workforce is shifting to value empathy, resilience, flexibility, and a lot of returning-to-work parents have those in abundance. The future of work isn’t about keeping up, it’s about showing up as yourself and growing from there.”
In other words, the world doesn’t just need your qualifications, it needs your humanity. And those late nights, tough conversations, and problem-solving marathons you’ve handled as a parent? They’re part of that.
So, where should mums start looking if they’re ready to get back out there?
Mela says while flexible roles in “marketing, customer service, and administration” are still the most common on the platform, there’s also a massive opportunity to branch into the emerging industries of the future.
“I’d really encourage more women to try looking for the more on-demand sectors, the sustainability, the project, the data, looking at the big gaps that they can then go into.
“It really does start with having a great CV, and we live in the age of AI and automation, so making sure the CV and cover letter are tailored to match that role. It sounds really basic, but that is actually the first step, having the confidence to apply for roles. A lot of the women that we get on our platform, based on our surveys, 98% feel more confident applying for roles because it’s on Jobs for Mums. We’re basically removing the elephant in the room.”
And that elephant, of course, is the worry every mum has at some point: will they judge me for being a parent?
“You don’t have to choose between being a parent and being the head of whatever department you want to run,” Mela says. “I wish I could say it’s changed, but we’re still living in a world where the expectation is that we parent like we don’t work, and that we work like we don’t have children. That’s why we have 1.3 million people come to us. There is actually a lot of need here.”
It’s one of the reasons Jobs for Mums has such loyal employers, companies who genuinely get it.
“The employers we get are family-friendly. It’s not just flexibility, it’s that authenticity, that you can be yourself. And that’s really important. Never underestimate the power of your lived experience, you have experience there, you just have to tailor it to the right role. Filling in the gap is a step forward in building confidence.”
And while the platform features a huge range of roles, from blue-collar to C-suite, Mela says some of the coolest innovation is happening in how companies structure hours.
“Term time is where you work during the school periods, and often you get the term times off and the holidays off,” she explains. “Some clever companies worked out that those aren’t their busy periods anyway, so they can get some really amazing, skilled candidates working those times.”
She says it’s not rocket science, it’s just about rethinking how work can fit into people’s real lives.
“We’re not promoting radical change. We’re not selling companies a roadmap to being amazing and flexible. We’re just saying, be kind, work out within your organisation what you need to make sure your people have the best chance of thriving.”
And what about the age-old “work–life balance” question? Mela says it’s time to ditch the guilt and the myth of perfection.
“We talk more about work-life effectiveness, it’s that acceptance that some days your work might take a backseat because you’re a parent, but other days it’s the opposite. There is no such thing as balance. People kind of run themselves to the ground thinking that they can have it all. The reality is, there are compromises along the way, and it swings. It’s about balance. It’s about a win-win.”
So if you’ve been waiting for a sign to dust off your CV, here it is, from Mela herself:
“It’s not about keeping up. It’s about showing up as yourself and growing from there.”