Gwen Johnson:
From Homemaker to Paid Job
Gwen Johnson creates a portfolio to demonstrate that many
of the things that she has done in her role as an energetic,
actively engaged mother make her a strong candidate for the
paid job she is now seeking.CAREER SITUATION
Gwen Johnson has been a homemaker for the past fourteen years. She
got married just before her senior year of college, and shortly after
graduating had a baby girl and then, a year later, a little boy. Instead
of pursuing a career, she became a very dedicated, full-time mother. In
this role, she coordinated her children’s participation in numerous ex-
tracurricular activities, led some of the programs they’ve been involved
with (such as Scouting), and did a lot of volunteer work for her chil-
dren’s schools. She also did a considerable amount of volunteer work for
a local foundation, Wishes and Dreams, that finds ways to grant wish-
es to children with life-threatening illnesses who would not otherwise
be able to realize their dreams.
Since her children are now older and less dependent upon her,
Gwen finds she has much more free time and would really like to get
going on her own professional career with a full-time, paid job. She
wants to get into an active, multitasking work environment that can
absorb her abundance of energy and she wants to continue to be ac-
tively involved in things that are meaningful to her. She knows that she175
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