Dealing with Employment Gaps on your Resume
By Judy Sheridan
Over the course of anyone’s career, rarely is a person’s work experience completely seamless. At one time or another, for whatever reason, people often have time off or gaps between periods of employment. People who fall into this category tend to wonder how an employment gap on their resume will appear to a Hiring Manager. Will it look like you were fired? Lazy? Unable to find a new job for so long? Is this going to automatically eliminate you from consideration for new roles?
While many automatically assume the worst and feel like any gaps will stand out like a sore thumb, the reality is many people have them, and more importantly, they don’t have to be a big issue. This month we discuss how to deal with having an employment gap on your resume.
Employment Gaps – Not So Uncommon
Employment gaps on a resume used to be a much bigger issue in the past when people traditionally worked for fewer employers over the course of their career, and for longer periods of time. Today, people switch jobs much more frequently and often they’re not leaving one job and joining a new company immediately.
HR departments and Hiring Managers understand that people have different outlooks with regards to their careers now as well – an increasing number of people are exploring entrepreneurial endeavours, taking extended breaks to travel, going back to school, or even taking time off to volunteer for a cause they’re passionate about. Also, more and more people today are refusing to be slaves to their career, and re-claiming a healthy work-life balance – and that may include taking an extended break from their career to focus on a personal interest. Because of this, those who hire are becoming more accustomed to seeing gaps on resumes, and as a result, they’re not the immediate red flag they might have been in that past.
Don’t Avoid It – Explain It
When it comes to employment gaps, the old adage ‘honesty is the best policy’ applies. There’s a bit of a natural instinct to want to try and hide something like an employment gap hoping that maybe, just maybe, the Hiring Manger won’t notice. The problem is that HR professionals and Hiring Managers are trained to look specifically for things like that on resumes – to go through a candidate’s prior experience and make sure everything fits. Trying to hide an employment gap on a resume makes it seem like it might be something you’re less than proud of and instantly gives it a negative connotation - when in reality it could be something entirely positive. Accurately stating all start and end dates even if they don’t match up shows you have nothing to hide and are comfortable with your past work history.
As mentioned, there are many reasons why a person might have a gap on their resume, including those where people chose to take a leave from their career voluntarily. Even if the leave wasn’t voluntary however, there are many legitimate circumstances that might cause someone to be without work through no fault of their own - companies downsizing or shutting down, positions being eliminated, contracts ending, or large clients leaving are all valid reasons why someone may have lost their job and have a gap between jobs on their resume.
Your cover letter presents a good opportunity to explain any gaps on your resume that you feel a Hiring Manager may wonder about when reviewing your resume. Keep your explanation short and to the point, and leave any details for an in-person interview. One or two lines mentioning the reason for the gap and how you spent the time away is sufficient:
“After my time at xxxxx, I had the opportunity to travel for six months and visit a number of different countries. During this time I experienced different cultures, learned two new languages, and gained perspective on how business is conducted in other areas of the world.”
As always, highlight the positives and try and show how you used that time away productively.
Focus On The Positive
Often times how you communicate something is just as important as what you’re communicating. As with most situations, if you take a proactive approach and address your gap instead of waiting to be questioned, you take control of the situation and have more influence over how it will be perceived. Once in an interview, it’s important to describe an employment gap with a sense of confidence. Don’t make it out to be an undesirable situation you were thrust into, even if that was the case. Instead focus on the good that came out of it – the positive things you did with that time, what you learned, what you gained, and ideally what you took away that you could bring to the workplace.
Even if you didn’t do anything particularly adventurous with your time off, chances are you still spent that time in a way that allowed you to gain new skills or build on existing skills. Sometimes what you gained during that time isn’t immediately apparent, but it’s important to thoroughly examine all of the different things you might have done and think of them in terms of how they might be seen as valuable to an employer.
The key thing here is to make it apparent that you weren’t sitting idle during your time between jobs – that you were still being productive and doing things that bettered yourself. Think outside the box when coming up with things you might have done or learned, and remember that’s it’s all about how you present it. Communicate these things in a way that makes you seem proud of what you did with your time between jobs.
One of the biggest concerns of employers when it comes to employment gaps is if a person will have any “rust” to shake off. Ideally companies want to hire people who can hit the ground running with minimal ramp-up time. Keep this in mind when referencing how you spent your time between jobs. Where possible, mention how you were still utilizing your relevant skills and keeping them fresh.
It’s Not What They’re Looking For – It’s What They’re NOT Looking For
In the end, employers aren’t looking to see anything specific during gaps of employment, however there are things they don’t want to see – they don’t want to see a person who was passive and just sat around idle waiting for something to fall in their lap. Companies want people who show initiative and seize opportunities – even if it’s in less-than-desirable circumstances.
Remember that more and more companies today are hiring based on things like cultural fit - it’s less about specifics and more about personality, attitudes and ambition. Own any gaps on your resume, put a positive spin on them, and they’ll become a non-issue or even a positive point for you.
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As Champion of our Resume Report Card service, Judy has a wealth of knowledge and insight around resume best practices.
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