What are employment gaps on resumes?

Employment gaps are periods during your professional career in which you did not have formal employment. An employment gap can range in length from a period of several months to a period of several years and can occur voluntarily or involuntarily. Employment gaps on a resume can be a cause for concern if you don’t explain the reason for your gap in employment and the experience you gained during that time carefully.

How to explain employment gaps on your resume

Follow these steps to explain gaps in your employment history:

1. Spend your time unemployed preparing to return to work

The first thing you should do to explain employment gaps on your resume is to try to spend the time you are unemployed preparing yourself for returning to work. You can do this by using this time for professional development such as earning certifications relevant to your industry, taking continuing education courses, being active in professional associations and spending time doing volunteer or contract work. Doing this can help give you positive experiences you can use to fill employment gaps when writing your resume.

2. Determine which jobs you need to include

Next, you need to determine whether your employment gap needs to be included in your resume. It is not always necessary to include every job you have had in your resume. If you’re a professional who has several years of experience and your employment gap occurred early in your career, it may not be necessary to include the job you had before your gap in employment.Generally, you should include only your most recent and most relevant employment experiences in the employment section of your resume. Once you determine which jobs you need to include in your resume, you can determine which employment gaps you need to explain.

3. Try to disguise small gaps by omitting the month

Next, if the gaps in your employment history are only small gaps that occurred in-between jobs you can disguise these gaps by omitting the month from the date of each experience. Instead, simply list the years you were employed in each position. However, this method of disguising gaps in employment on your resume usually only works well if the length of the gap you are trying to disguise is less than a year in length and you worked in each position for a period of more than one year.For example, if you were employed in one position from August 2017 through January 2020 and didn’t begin your next job until August 2020, you can disguise this employment gap by listing the dates of your first job as 2017 – 2020 and the dates of your next job as 2020 – Present. However, while this can help you make it through the initial consideration round with your resume, you will likely still be asked about specific dates during an interview, so be prepared to explain the reason for your gap in a positive manner.

4. Use a resume style or format that makes the gap less obvious

Next, you can also try to make employment gaps look less obvious by using a resume style or format such as the functional resume format. A functional resume format focuses more on your skills and achievements than on your experience. You can include sections in your resume such as a career summary statement and key accomplishments to help make the positive experiences you have the primary focus of your resume. Then, include your employment section toward the end of your resume. You can also combine the functional resume format with step three to minimize the impact of small employment gaps.

5. List the reason for longer employment gaps as its own job

You will usually need to address longer periods of gaps in employment more directly in your resume than you need to with small employment gaps. If you have an employment gap that was more than a period of one year, then this gap will still be obvious on your resume even when only listing the years or when using a functional resume format.You can overcome this by including what you were doing during your employment gap in your experience section as if it were a job itself. However, you can keep the entry brief so it doesn’t distract the person reviewing your resume from more relevant experience. For example, if you spent four years as a stay-at-home parent until your child was ready for preschool, then you can include this time in your experience section like this:Full-time parent, Atlanta, GA, 2017 – 2021Took time away from professional career to raise young children and manage the household

6. Include experience gained during the gap when relevant

If you can relate the experience you gained during your employment gap to the position you are applying for, then it may be beneficial to include more detailed information in your employment gap entry. You can include specific examples of daily activities and responsibilities you had during your employment gap that are relevant to the duties or responsibilities of the position you are applying for.For example, if you have an employment gap of two years because you took time off work to be a full-time caregiver for a relative and you are applying for a position as a nurse, the employment gap entry in your experience section may look more like this:Full-time caregiver, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 2017 – 2019

• Took time away from professional career to act as a full-time caregiver to a relative
• Assisted relative with daily tasks such as feeding, bathing, dressing and grooming
• Administered medications as prescribed three times daily
• Checked vital signs on a regular basis to gauge recovery progress