People are asking me about gaps and employments and there are many different
types of ways that you could have this gap. You might be currently in a gap or
you might have had gaps throughout I want to go through kind of three four
different facets of this so let's talk about let's talk about the gaps in
employment I'm getting I'm getting this one a lot
can you see I don't do anything small even my coffee cups bigger than my head okay
so I know some of you are you you are in a gap or you are a stay-at-home parent
returning in the workforce some of you have elderly parents you've
been caring for some of you were just out of have been out of work for an
extended period of time and you've been you know searching some
of you've been consulting some of you been doing projects got all kinds of
stuff so I want to try to and I'm not gonna be able to go through every single
permutation and combination of this but I'm gonna hit a lot of them we certainly
that's we got the qa4 but now if you are in a gap at the moment or meaning you
know you were stay-at-home parent you're re-entering the workforce
whatever whatever reason there are six things that I recommend that you do to
kind of not on us a supercharged basically really give yourself a leg up
in returning and I'm gonna go through these very quickly but I just wanna I
wanna I want you to have this list so it can stimulate your thinking the first
one being you got a network so most of you have access to either the job search
boot camp program or my ultimate career course or I've got some even some free
live office hours videos where I talk about this session three of the boot
camp we go into this heavy in the ultimate career course there's there's
videos that go into this heavy and I even have a live office hours session
out there about why your jobs are just taking so long where I talk about
networking and I have a video out that's public business networking how to build
professional relationships but really take advantage of your network and
that's that's that's certainly an obvious one um but
as we get into some of these less obvious ones there's there's the
training aspect one of the things that we're gonna talk about when we get
really prescriptive here in a bit about what you have to do in your interviews
and in your cover letters and even on your resume is employers always want
explanations now if you are training training could be taking classes some of
you've gone we had a number of paralegals that has some people have
gone to nursing school we get a lot of this some of you are just taken
certifications we've got one guy I don't know if he's in here Daniel has taken
the Salesforce a Salesforce administrator certification so things
like that are absolutely fantastic if you're if you're currently in a gap
another thing is and I always like this one but violent volunteering so anything
that you can do that volunteers you in the direction of where you want to go so
all volunteering is good for the soul all of it is anytime you expend your
time which is your most valuable asset and and your time and attention is the
best thing you could ever give anybody but if you are trying to expend your
time wisely from a volunteer standpoint you want to make sure that you are doing
something in alignment with where you want to go if you're in the arts
volunteer in a museum I don't care if you're the hostess or the coat checker
or whatever but there are things that you can do and you would be amazed and
how many even even me for example how many enquiries that I got from kids in
college or recent college graduates that just wanted to intern with me and mile
walk to get some experience and I was glad to do that and I paid them a little
bit where I could or treated them to other things but that's a really good
way to to get something on your resume and by the way if you are volunteering
and you are actually working you don't have to say that it was you know and
unpaid I mean if you were volunteer and you were getting work experience that's
to me is as good as working there so that's something that you want to think
of another thing that you should not be afraid of it's never been easier than
ever to open up some type of small business that could
be consulting it could be projects it could be organizing people's closets I
don't care what it is don't be afraid to take a part-time job so one of the
things that I always stress is if there's a part even part whether it's
part-time volunteering part-time pay whatever it might be but try to do
something where you're gaining either the skills or the capabilities that you
need for what you are doing and the other one and I kick it over I don't get
this question right and I can't get over why not but there are a lot of wonderful
professionals out there who do job shares we actually care and I used to
work with a couple of awesome ladies super smart
program managers project managers and business analysts that's that was their
kind of area of expertise they they actually split a job 20 hours a week at
at a technology company which was which was really kind of cool so I thought I
think you know these are things that you might even you know to kind of open up
your possibilities to keep yourself engaged because if you're currently in a
GAMP you want to make sure that you are staying sharp now let's talk about K so
that was kind of leading up and giving yourself a better runway or starting to
rev up the engine so you could take off but those are kind of six or so things
that I would recommend that you look at if you are in a situation where you know
you're a stay-at-home parent you're working to re-enter the workforce or
you're in between jobs and there are things that you can do from a consulting
standpoint or whatever but I would I would try to look at those and think
creatively about how to stay engaged because when we get to the part of the
talk about how you gotta explain the stuff that stuff's gonna be paramount
now if you've had a gap in your past what's done is done I wouldn't I
wouldn't make a big deal out of that but for folks who are going through that
right now I would keep that in mind let's talk about some stuff that I
absolutely would not do and these are pretty strong recommendations if you
know what I mean number one do not under any circumstance ever put a functional
resume together that is code for when recruiting you
that is code for I'm hiding something code for I'm hiding something most of
them do not want to see those I've talked about this at length I've talked
about it in the resume course I've talked about it in her mouth Lee
coaching I've talked about it in my public stuff I've talked about it my
public recorded videos in my live office hours everywhere you can find me I am
Telling You do not put a functional resume together they give recruiters
headaches they want to know where you are now if you are not working that's
okay I will give you the formula for how to address that but don't don't
whatever you do use a functional resume they're terrible don't put up top non
work stuff so if you are volunteering and it's truly volunteering and you're
doing it in the PTO or you're helping you know Feed My Starving Children or
you're doing whatever do not make that appear as though it is your is your
current job unless it is actually a job and you're volunteering because you're
not getting paid that's okay but don't put stuff up there
and if you're stay-at-home dad or stay-at-home mom don't put stay-at-home
mom stay-at-home dad up at the top don't do that on the resume the resume is not
you do not need to explain it there so I just speaking of I do not want you to
explain it in your resume it is what it is if the last time you worked was 2011
then the last time you worked was 2011 just leave it there just leave it there
but there are some things that you can do on your resume if I did this
yesterday with somebody I don't know if she's here but I did her resume review
actually I'd be interested to see I'm just glancing I don't think she's here
oh wait she is here Debbie's here okay but I did a resume review yesterday and
and and and it looked pretty good it so Debbie looked pretty good and and and
she had a gap she's returning to work after after a layoff and she's done some
really good things and let's talk about how you might be able to address that in
the resume so the one thing that you do have to realize is you need a written
explanation so you are going in some way shape or form more or less let's call it
90 the time I mean except for the situation
where you meet somebody or you know somebody who watched in to an interview
and they say to their partners or their co-workers or the HR person or whoever
hey you know Jane Smith is awesome she hasn't worked in the last five years
she's coming back because she had her first two kids I know her well interview
her and they do obviously there's not a lot of explaining you need to do at that
moment but but you are for the most part most of you going to have to explain
this in the written form okay so what do I mean by that so I'm talking about in
your emails in your cover letters those kinds of things it's okay to say I am
returning to the workforce after an 11 year layoff I'm you know the
stay-at-home mom or stay-at-home dad or took care of my elderly parents which
require two years of you know me moving to a different city or whatever it's
okay just explain it it's life it happens I know a lot of you feel as
though you're anemic situation this stuff happens a lot a lot recruiters are
are you have to think about what recruiters see they see lots of resumes
and inquiries on a daily basis they see lots of people coming off these these
types of issues and that are getting their themselves back on track
so you want to make sure that you just simply clarify it this is what the
situation was I you know I was stay at homeland for five years and I'm going
back and I'm sure I'll shit up my hurry and whatever so just you need some kind
of written explanation the next thing that you need to do in your resume so if
you got a gap in your resume whether it's your current it whether it's a
current gap or whether it's a gap somewhere else if it's a current gap
it's a little tougher but what I always recommend is and we talk about this a
lot you have a career profile you have a career highlight section and then you
have your work history that's for most of you most of you will will go that
route you can pull forward up to the top whatever you want to put the accent on
so you know in in in in Debbie's case we you know she's done a lot of loan
related work escrow officers other things of that
nature while she did that earlier in her career she did a lot of it for a number
of years we just pulled that off for to the top and and and highlighted that in
the career profile and in highlights or whatever that is important you can pull
that forward the other thing that you can do is and I know some of you've gone
back to school or if you're getting heavy-duty certifications you can pull
all that up so there's nothing wrong if you are returning to the workforce or
making a career change by pulling your education toward the top this is the one
exception that I would say it's okay to keep move the education from the bottom
to the top because you want a high like that we I have up like the Hat we had
like at the last two months we're like a half a dozen paralegals who were either
making switch at legal secretaries too or legal administrators to paralegal or
they were coming back from a laughs and had gone to paralegal school or whatever
you can move that education up to the top I still would recommend having your
career profile up top and if you are getting certifications then even in the
profile you can put you know about to complete certification I'm gonna have
this certification by recently completed certification of and so on all of that
stuff is cool so remember we are the terms that I use are controlling the
narrative you were you are making me as a review or see what you want me to see
regardless of what has happened to you most recently it's the one kind of fair
Shack that you get to adjust the way that I look at your resume so we're a
functional resume is code for lying putting it in the highlights in the in
the career profile is not so I would I would do that I would take advantage of
that and then the other thing is in the interview I always could ask well how do
I explain it just explain it I'm I was a stay-at-home mom or I was taking care of
my elderly parents or I left my company a year and a half ago and I've been
consulting ever since and I've been working on these ventures and all that
good stuff whatever it is just say it and don't make it big don't make a big
deal out of it if you make a big deal out of it they're gonna make a big deal
out of it and in most cases people will on
understand that what most of them will be interested I know I certainly am when
I'm faced with situations where people are in those predicaments I want to get
to the goods okay if you say that I will take it at face value I really will I
mean it because I have more faith in my ability in my training in my experience
to be able to elicit the information that I want to know about you to
determine if you're gonna be a good fit for my company and for this role
spending more time talking about that is going to give me a better indication
rather than me spending a lot of time trying to figure out what you did for
the last 18 months so so keep that in mind most most skilled recruiters will
do that so in an interview just explain what it is if you know if they say you
know what have you been doing for the last year just explain it five years
whatever it is so don't don't don't it's not as big a deal as you think I mean if
you are in an interview they they think pretty highly of you at least on paper
anyway even if you haven't been working you have to remember that right what do
I always say if you're in the interview you're qualified that's what the
employer is saying otherwise they're not gonna take the time to talk to you so I
hope that helps
you