How to Explain an Employment Gap in Your Resume

A lot of us take time off from work, for numerous reasons. Sometimes, it’s a preference; possibly you were involved with your kids, traveling, or decided to go back to school. In other cases, it may have occurred because you were laid off or dismissed and it took time to seek a new job. Recruiters commonly accept your resume as the document to take into consideration to form their initial thoughts about you. Explaining the employment gap in your resume carefully is necessary to make sure those gaps don’t affect the impression that is set about you.

Understanding ways to include employment gaps in your resume in an assertive way can help you build a great experience division in your resume. Further along, we explain everything you need to be aware of explaining the employment gap in your resume, including where to mention those employment gaps and supporting it with a list of good reasons.

Prepare to Return to Work

The primary thing you should do to explain employment gaps on your resume is to try to utilize your unemployed period in developing yourself for reverting to work. You can do this by professional advancements such as gaining certifications applicable to your industry, attending advancing education courses, being active in professional connections, and contributing time doing volunteer or contract work. Achieving this can support you in gaining positive experiences that you can use to replace employment gaps while writing your resume.

Decide the jobs you need to mention

Moving forward, you must decide if your employment gap needs to be included in your resume. It is not essential to mention every job you have had in your resume. In case, you are a professional with experience of several years and the employment gap happened initially in your career, it might not even be much of significance.

Usually, you must only include your most current and relevant employment activities in the employment division of your resume. Once you conclude which jobs you need to include in your resume, you can be certain about which employment gaps you need to explain.

Be Upfront

A recruitment consultant always gives indifferent tips for resume writing to job seekers with gaps in their employment history. The one advice to follow is to be upfront rather than trying to hide pieces of information. Employers habitually will be able to tell if you’re hiding something.

State longer employment gap as it is a job

You must address more extended gaps in employment in a more straightforward manner in your resume than you need to do with a short period of employment gaps. Employment gaps exceeding more than a year are very significant and should be addressed directly in your resume, even when only listing the years or when using a functional format of a resume.

You can compensate for that by mentioning the activities you do during your employment gap in your experience division as if it were a job itself. However, you must mention briefly so it doesn’t distract the hiring manager from more relevant experience.

Also Read : 8 Things You Must Research Before a Job Interview

Employment gaps in your Resume

Employment gaps can happen for both intentional and unintentional reasons. When describing employment gaps on a resume, you want to try to show a good reason for the gap. Those gaps in your work history might exist for numerous good reasons, including:

Time spent seeking a new job.

Organizational changes led to you being laid off.

To be a caregiver or stay-at-home parent.

Health-related issues.

Expanding your educational qualifications.

Gaining certifications or licensing.

Geographically relocating from one area to another.

Utilizing the employment gap for personal development.

Where to describe your employment gaps in your resume

Additionally to being aware of ways to explain employment gaps, you must also know where to explain those gaps. Generally, there are three areas you should mention the gaps in your employment: your cover letter, resume and during a job interview if asked about it. While there are techniques to reduce the occurrence of employment gaps in your resume, it is yet necessary for you to be honest and upfront about explaining the gaps in your employment.

The cover letter is a nice means to explain vital gaps in employment because it enables you to explain in detail how you utilized your unemployment period to prepare to resume working. Describing employment gaps in your cover letter and resume also shows hiring managers and recruiters that you are upright and honest, which can further make you stand out from other applicants.

Finally, represent the enthusiasm for returning to the workforce and create a really powerful case for why your target job would be appealing for you and an exceptional fit.

We, at Human Resource India, provide professional resume writing services. Our team comprises of professional resume writers with deep knowledge in this area. They will make sure that their resume writing tips and services help you create the best resume that will help you in landing your dream job.