After Divorce, Making Ends Meet

Both CareerWomen.com and BeyondMotherhood.com offer free job searches and charge employers for listings on the sites. Other job boards like JobsforMoms.com and HireMyMom.com charge users for memberships in sites that work to connect them with these flexible work arrangements.  "I know there are a lot of moms eager to work and have skills and abilities but not the time to market themselves,” says Lesley Spencer Pyle, who launched HireMyMom.com in May and has signed up about 600 members. The annual fee is $99.   

She says she offers listings free to businesses because they  are considering candidates they may hire as contract workers. "Most of the time you're not going to meet this person in person," she says of the candidates who companies find through her site, "so you need to get more feel for them over the phone. For the business, there's a little bit more risk. So we make it free for them."    

Most of Pyle's clients are small businesses and home-based businesses with small staffs looking to hire people who can help with things like Web site design, marketing research, public relations writing and blogging. Many of the people who have been hired through her site work from home, she says. Pyle, a working mom who ramped up her home-based businesses after her divorce in 2002, says she hired three moms looking for flexible arrangements to work for HireMyMom.com.    

"I hired someone to help with Internet marketing strategy, someone to help write articles and someone to do online networking posting on message boards."   

Davis, who offers flexible opportunities on Beyondmotherhood.com, sees her site as being particularly useful for women whose work needs change because of divorce. "Some are looking for work from home because they have little ones and some are open to on-site possibilities," she says. "They're not quite in a position where they can go back full time because they still have children and other responsibilities, but they're looking to use the part-time possibilities as a stepping stone to full-time work in the future."    

Employers are embracing these more flexible arrangements, says Career Exposure Network's MacKenzie. "The notion that you have have to be tied to your desk and computer at 6th and B Avenue has really evolved," she says. "There are a lot of variations of work these days and employers are trying to find the best possible way to meet the needs of their shareholders. It's a very sophisticated blend of things. When it comes to work and keeping employees happy, that blend works well."

Stacey Tiedge Alatzas of Bel Air, Md., is a freelance journalist, blogger and new media consultant with 12 years of experience writing and editing for daily newspapers. She can be reached at s.alatzas@divorce360.com. 


JOB BOARDS FOR MOMS:

BeyondMotherhood.com
iRelaunch.com
JobForMoms.com
FlexibleResources.com
MomCorps.com
CareerWomen.com
HireMyMom.com
W2WVentures.com