Nobody in the world of work will ever reward you for being a good parent, keeping up in your field or your professional development. For that matter they don’t reward you for showing up dressed and with a pen. All that matters is what you get done within the confines of your “Job”. The parenthood, professional development, clothing and pen may be what you need to invest in order to be able to produce. But that is your concern, nobody elses.

When they know nothing about you, people try to read the tea leaves of your degrees, family, etc. But after that, your background is something people use to confirm what they have already decided about who you are. They decide who you are by the nature of the headaches or benefits you create for them at work.

When looking for a new job I start with the view that the world is full of people with problems they need to be rescued from. What sort of problems am I good at fixing and who can afford to be rescued from them?

ciao