Hi, I’m Jeri Walker, Career & Job Search Strategist and I receive questions from people
asking, “I was laid off and I haven’t been working for several months, how do I
explain this on my resume”?
In this video, I’m going to teach you about how you can address an employment gap on your
resume.
If you’re currently unemployed or have had a gap in employment, the first thing I want
you to do is put this employment gap in perspective.
People step away from the workforce for a lot of different reasons—they may have family
responsibilities like raising children or caring for an elderly parent.
They may be working on some educational goals, or they may have been laid off due to a corporate
downsize.
If you’re qualified for a position and your resume demonstrates this, most employers aren’t
going to penalize you for a gap.
Recruiters see these things all the time so if you’re not apologetic and don’t make
a big deal about it, neither will they.
There’s two different situations to deal with regarding employment gaps.
If the gap was in the past and you’re currently employed, then there’s really not a great
need to address it on the resume.
Focus on your current job experiences and career highlights and just be prepared to
discuss the gap in the interview.
Now, one thing you can do is list your employment dates in years only so the period of your
gap isn’t so obvious.
For example, look at the difference in this presentation that lists exact months of employment.
It’s obvious here that there was an eight month gap of employment.
Now compare that to this presentation that lists only the years.
You can see that by removing the months and just using the years, the gap disappears.
Now if you’re currently unemployed, things become a little trickier for a couple of reasons.
One, with so many companies using the automated Applicant Tracking Systems, your resume may
be penalized or even kicked off into the black hole if you don’t have a current employer
listed on your resume.
Also, if you aren’t currently working and don’t address it, you’re really leaving
it up to the recruiter to assume why that is.
And they may not assume the best story as to why you aren’t working or why nobody
will hire you.
So here’s how you deal with this
You use a Combination Resume Format with a placeholder for your current position.
There are basically three types of resumes.
There is a Chronological format which is the one you’re probably the most familiar with.
It lists all of your work history in reverse chronological order with the most current
position listed first.
Then there is the Functional resume.
This is a resume that lists your job experience by your skills or areas of expertise and really
minimizes exact employer history.
I don’t recommend using them because they’re often perceived by recruiters as an attempt
to hide large gaps in your work history.
They just seem sketchy.
Now the third type of resume is the Combination resume which starts with a professional summary,
your career highlights, achievements, and skills on the top part of the resume, then
followed by a chronological time line of your work experience.
This is really the best format for you to use because if you do a good job on the top
section of the resume, by the time the recruiter gets down to the area that reflects your job
gap, you’ve already impressed them!
I do have a video that goes over everything that should be on the top part of your resume,
I’ll put a link for that down below so be sure to watch it.
As I mentioned earlier, if you’re not currently working, I generally recommend that you have
a placeholder as a current work experience so that you won’t have problems with the
online Applicant Tracking Systems.
This means you have a current “employer” which you can call for example, “Professional
Sabbatical” and a job title which is the job title that reflects either your last job
or your target job title, assuming you have that level of expertise.
You don’t need much text under this position, just one short sentence is plenty.
Keep in mind that recruiters aren’t interested in the fact that you’re unemployed as much
as they’re interested in what you’ve been doing with this time.
They want to know how you’ve been spending your time that has helped you maintain or
improve your professional skills.
And a quick sentence will generally address this.
If you’ve been getting some professional certifications, completing coursework, or
doing volunteer work that’s related to your vocation or skillset you should mention it.
Or if you’ve been networking to generate some consulting opportunities, that’s certainly
more productive than binge watching Judge Judy all day.
Anything you’ve been doing of a professional nature during your gap can and should be reflected
in this current position.
Here’s a few examples of what this might look like.
This first example is one that you can use if you were laid off or downsized.
The quick explanation tells the recruiter that while you aren’t currently working,
you’re keeping in touch with your industry to maintain your skills and keep your expertise
fresh.
Next, this is an example of what you can do if you’ve taken some time off and are currently
working on some type of certification or education.
Now this next example works if you’ve been doing volunteer work using your professional
skills and expertise.
Do be cautious and make sure that it's perfectly clear that this is a volunteer position and
not an actual paid position, otherwise it could appear that you’re trying to pull
a fast one on the recruiter.
And then finally this last example is one you can use if you’ve been doing some consulting
work.
Again, keep it short, just enough to give a taste of what it is that you've been doing.
What do you do if none of these situations apply to you?
Well, either start researching your industry trends, take a professional course, volunteer
using your professional skills, or do some freelance work!
Because you want to present yourself as someone who is plugged into your industry and hasn’t
become stale due to your absence from the workforce.
And please don’t fake it—actually do one or more of these things so your resume is
honest!
Plus, if you’ve been in a long term unemployment situation, you’ll be surprised at how much
better you will feel if you do activities outside of just looking at job boards all
the time.
Also, if you have taken a leave due to personal reasons, it’s not really necessary to address
that on your resume.
Just select one of those four examples or a similar iteration that applies and save
any additional clarification for the interview.
I hope this gives you some ideas on how you can address your job gap on your resume.
If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up, and subscribe to my channel for
more career and job search advice.
Thanks for watching, I’ll see you next time.