What’s the method of explaining career gaps in a resume?
Asenqua Tech is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
A resume communicates qualifications and brand, highlighting you as different and reflecting what makes you different from recruiters. A resume that lets you stand out in a sea of applicants is necessary, and in this regard, you need to make a strategically targeted and polished resume to get you an interview. Even when you have a few years of total job experience and big career gaps, you will get an option to craft a resume that will present you as a promising candidate. So, you should master the art of including employment gaps in your resume.
Explaining gaps in your employment history:
Employment gaps refer to periods during a professional career where you did not have formal employment, ranging from several months to several years, and occur voluntarily or involuntarily. Employment gaps sometimes become a cause for concern, so there’s a need to carefully explain the reason for the gap and the experience gained during that time.
- Spent time preparing to return to work
Always ensure that you’re stating that while you had been unemployed, you were preparing to return to work. Mention that you had been using this time for professional development, including earning certifications relevant to the industry, being active in professional associations, taking education courses, and doing volunteer or contract work. Doing this will reflect that you were having positive experiences to fill employment gaps.
- Determine jobs to include
Determining the kind of jobs that you need to include in the resume. Also, address whether the employment gap needs to be included, as it is not always necessary to include every job. As a professional with several years of experience and an employment gap early in your career, you don’t need to include the job before the gap in employment. Include only the most recent and most relevant employment experiences. Also, be wise enough to determine which employment gaps to explain. Suppose you are unsure what to include in the employment gap. In that case, you can take the assistance of a team offering Resume writing services in India, as they have the needed experience in framing the suitable reasons for a candidate’s employment gap.
- Be Honest
It is never necessary to omit a two-year-long employment gap, as you will have to reveal it during your interview. Be honest about your employment history or lack of it. Potential employers eventually find out about your employment gap, mostly in the case it is lengthy or recent. Trying to hide it won’t be a wise idea as it will damage the application and give recruiters reason to believe you’re dishonest. Recruiters are humans and will probably understand the legitimate reasons you have stated when you are straightforward about your employment gap.
- Disguising small gaps
You need to be very smart about disguising gaps in your employment history. If there are small gaps between jobs, disguise them by omitting the month from the date of each experience. List the years employed in each position, but remember that following this approach works when the gaps are less than a year, and you have been working in each position for more than one year.
- Use resume style or format, making the gap less obvious.
Try making employment gaps look less obvious. The approach you need to follow here is using a resume style or format as the functional resume format, as it focuses more on skills and achievements than experience. Include sections such as a career summary statement and key accomplishments. It helps reflect positive experiences as the primary focus. Include the employment section toward the end.
- Show You Never Stopped Learning
Highlighting skills and knowledge acquired cover past employment gaps, and that works wonders to show that you were working on developing yourself as a professional or individual. Give a valid explanation and justify it the best way you can. Highlight new skills acquired during your time off. However, it gives you an even better chance of explaining what motivated you to acquire the skills. Regardless, don’t overshare. It’s not wise to overshare the details of your employment gap. Rather, relate the experience gained during the employment gap to the position you are applying for. Also, ensure that you are giving the resume more detailed information. Include specific examples of responsibilities you had during your employment gap relevant to the responsibilities of the job position you are applying for.
Final words
It is worth noting that recruiters and hiring managers usually use the resume as the document to draw a conclusion based on the first impression of you. So, learning the art of addressing employment gaps in your resume is necessary. Also, when you’re applying for a desired job position with a resume, you need to ensure those gaps don’t harm the impression formed about you. To rest assured that you are perfect with your newly developed resume highlighting the employment gaps, consider hiring a team of professionals who specialize in offering LinkedIn profile writing services in India. The professionals will put their best efforts into creating a resume to present you as the best candidate over the rest, regardless of the employment gaps.
