How Do You Explain Career Gaps on Your CV?
Every career has fertile and fallow periods. While every CV should focus on the good stuff, it is always tricky to explain career gaps on your CV.
Contemporary CVs are more likely than ever to include a mix of permanent and temporary employment. Career gaps are not frowned upon as much as in the past. As long as a candidate can explain career gaps on your CV practically and positively, future employers will swiftly move on to more productive topics.
Let’s consider the acceptable reasons for an employment gap:
…. Laid off unexpectedly due to organisational changes
…. Extended parental leave – leading to a career break
…. Time off for medical reasons – or caring for someone else
…. Family relocation – national or international
…. Additional education, courses or certifications
Exploring career gaps
If the career gap is over a year (some say six months), you should mention the reason as a one-liner in your CV. Explain career gaps in advance – employers will have one less doubt.
You might consider that a period of freelancing could be regarded as a career gap. However, it is increasingly common, so you should include this as a separate section. List the dates when you started and finished, along with clients you worked for and a top-line description of what you were doing for them. Freelancing can help you to gain many new skills for your next permanent move. Be clear about why a permanent move is now the right thing for you. Your future employer won’t want you jumping back into freelance anytime soon.
Another reason for a career gap might be that you were simply looking for the right new role. Senior professionals might wait six months or more until the right opportunity comes along. While they should keep active with volunteering, freelancing or education, the fact that they value their career will be clear. A CV does not need to address gaps of less than six months, although be prepared for an interview question.
Possible approaches
While each career gap is unique and will have varying circumstances, here are three overarching approaches that should accompany your explanation:
Positive outcome. Identify how the gap contributed to your career. Parental leave may have allowed you to take a part-time evening course to acquire a new skill. Redundancy may have promoted a period of reflection and a change in career direction. How did you grow from it?
Proactive explanation. Whatever the nature of the gap, show how you were constantly seeking to make the most of your time away from employment. This may be a complicated mini-story, but it is better than embarrassing silence. Own every part of your career.
Unflinching honesty. Changing dates of employment or making up non-existent activity is easily discovered by an employer who wishes to carry out some basic background checks. You can get fired for lying on your CV – it really isn’t worth the risk.
You might consider disguising a career gap by just including years on your CV employment dates, but while this is okay for roles that are older than 10-15 years, it might seem a little strange for more recent roles. While you might not be lying, it is still somewhat deceptive.
Everyone has ups and downs in their careers.
The person interviewing you will likely have had theirs, so they will have empathy during that pause as you prepare to explain the career gap. Life can sometimes force us to hit the career “pause button,” but that is no reflection on our ability and certainly no reflection on our future potential.
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This blog is shared with Job Seeker Duetists.
Written by former recruitment ghostwriter Paul Drury (not AI).
