Taking breaks in career is pretty common than you think. These breaks can happen because of many reasons which may include personal reasons. One of the most asked question by job seekers is how do you explain an employment gap on your resume? Although gaps like these on a resume does not make a good impression but still this cannot effect your career growth. You should always tell truth about the gap and be confident that this gap will not have any effect on your career. In this article, i will tell you ways on how do you explain an employment gap on your resume?

Understand the Nature of Your Employment Gap

When you are working on your resume, it is important to know the reason of your employment gap. There can be multiple reasons that can cause employment gaps for instance:

Personal Health or Family Reasons: One of the most common reason of employment gap is health issues or family problems.

Educational Reasons: It can be possible that you decide to gain more knowledge about your career through courses that cause the employment gap in your resume.

Moving To a New Location: Moving to a new location can cause an employment gap for you to settle at the new location.

Change of Career Goals: It can be possible that you changed your career goals and the new career requires courses that caused employment gap in your resume.

Global Events: It can be possible that some sort of global event like COVID pandemic become the reason of the employment gap in your resume.

Stay honest

While learning how do you explain an employment gap on your resume, the key is to always tell the truth and don’t lie to employers. If the lie got caught, it can lead to worse outcomes. Let’s see how to address different types of employment gaps in resume:

Personal Reasons: You don’t have to go into details rather than that just say that due to some personal and family issues, I took some time off and now ready to continue working.

Example: Took a gap due to family issue and now ready to re-enter my professional career.

Educational Reason: If the reason of the education gap was educational and skill-building related, highlight the skill that you gained in that period.

Example: Got my masters done in [field] to improve my expertise in my field.

Highlight the Positive Impacts

When learning best way on how do you explain an employment gap on your resume, try to explain the experience and skills you gained during the employment gap. This explanation will change the negative effect of gap into a positive effect. Here’s how to include it in resume:

Volunteer Work:  If you volunteered during the employment gap, make sure to include it in resume.

Example: During my career break, I worked volunteered in a local firm to gain experience in my field.

Freelance: Even though you worked on short-term projects, always include them in your resume.

Example: Worked as free-lancer in my field for multiple clients.

Use Your Cover Letter

Although your resume will have to reason for the employment gap, but still your cover letter is an excellent way to provide further explanation. In this way you can present your employment gap in a positive way and tell that this gap was helpful in building your skills. When you are finding ways on how do you explain an employment gap on your resume, cover letter can help you explain the reason in professional way.

In your cover letter, focus on things that helped you gain experience and skills in your career path. A good written cover letter can have a positive impact.

Structure Your Resume Effectively

Your resume’s format can help you explain an employment gap. Here’s some ways by which you can reduce the attention to the gap:

Use A Functional Or Skill-Based Resume: this format will help to draw the attention to the skills and experience rather than on the gap.

Group Short-Terms Role Together: If you have multiple short term roles, try to add them in one main heading like “Freelance/Consultant work” to make your resume look cleaner.

List Education, Certification, Or Training at Top: If you completed a course or earned any certificate during your gap, add it on top of the resume to draw the attention away from gap itself.

Choosing right format for the resume is very important in how do you explain an employment gap on your resume without having a bad impact on your resume.

Conclusion

Employment gaps are now not considered as career-ending gaps that they once used to appear. By using the gap time in a positive way, you can help it make a positive impact on your resume. The key on how do you explain an employment gap on your resume is to be honest, confident, and focus on the skills you gained during that period. Don’t let the small gap effect your career goals. By using the steps mentioned above, you can make this gap have a positive impact on the resume.

Frequently Asked Questions

1-How much details should I give about my employment gap?

You only need to share as much information that is required to prove the importance on the gap. Oversharing personal information in an interview can have bad effect on your personality. Focus on the skills you learned during that gap.

2-Will the employment gap effect the chances of getting hired?

No, many employers understand that these gaps happens for various reasons and in many cases these can have a positive effect on the job-seekers.

3-Should I mention short gaps of less than six months?

If the gap is shorter than six months, it doesn’t need much explanation. Only gaps longer than 6 months need to be explained accordingly.

4-Is a functional resume better for employment gaps?

Yes, functional resume can reduce to draw attention towards employment gaps, and focus on the skills gained in that time.

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