What to do with gaps in your work experience
Listing your professional experiences on your resume is a difficult task. There are so many elements to consider: job titles, time frames, key responsibilities, transferable skills, etc. The process becomes even more difficult if you have gaps in your work history. Your potential employer will not have a way of knowing why there is a three and a half year gap in your professional experience just by reviewing your resume, for example. The employer may wonder if you skipped over one of the jobs you held because it doesn't meet your career objective, or they may assume that you didn't work at all during the time frame that is unaccounted for on your resume. Any gaps in your employment history will need to be explained in writing; thus, don't skip any information on purpose.
There are a few general rules about resume gaps:
- Any unaccounted time that is shorter than three months doesn't need to be explained. Having 60-90 days in between jobs is not too unusual, and often goes unnoticed within a resume. However, any gaps extending beyond three months should be addressed in your cover letter or e-mail. Whether you had personal or professional reasons for not working, the gaps in your employment history need to be explained as you don't want to leave the employer to make their own assumptions.
- Be honest! We can't stress this matter enough. If you are honest with your potential employer, you will not have to worry about them checking your references, doing a background check, or surprising you with questions in an interview.
- Don't exclude months of your employment from the job listing. You are better off explaining the gaps in your resume than trying to cover them up. Honesty is really the best policy when it comes to your resume.
- If you have held jobs that are not applicable to your career objective, list them on your resume anyway. Rather than create gaps in your resume, explain why you held jobs outside of your field in your cover letter or in an email to your potential employer. Again, whether the reasons are personal or professional, explain yourself honestly and don't leave room for assumptions on the part of your potential employer.
- Regardless of the reasons for the gaps in your professional history, it is important that the tone in your cover letter and your resume remains positive. Do not sound apologetic - life happens and you don't need to be sorry for taking time off of work. Be positive, and show your potential employer that you never lost focus on your career.
While we all agree that life takes unexpected turns and respect that there will be circumstances that create gaps in our resumes, we can always consider the following actions in order to stay competitive within our field:
- Apply our time and experience to volunteer positions, community projects, and consulting or freelance work.
- Take a class at a community college or at the community center that improves your work-related skills and allows you to interact with people with similar professional backgrounds.
- Read about the new developments in your field. Get a subscription to a professional publication/magazine, or get the newly published books that discuss changes or improvements in your profession.
Most of all, be honest and stay positive. You can't change your work history, so do your best to show your employer you are a perfect candidate for the job by focusing on your experience and your education, highlighting your achievements and your qualifications.
Terms of Use for this Private Label Article
Possibly Related PLR Articles:
Mountain Biking Vacation
Taking a mountain biking vacation is an excellent
way to unwind and explore America. There are several
companies that offer mountain biking tours that go
through scenic routes, and they often arrange any
accomodations for travelers as...read more
Cooking with Oils
Everyone knows the foods to eat that improve health,
although how we cook the food can be just as important.
With there being so many oils and butter products
claiming to be the best, it can be quite difficult
to know which ones to use and...read more
Making Money with Articles: The Importance of Keywords
Keyword density and placement are important parts of optimizing your articles for search engines. Search engine spiders scan a page in a way that makes it important to place your keywords where they will be detected and recognized as a keyword, so...read more
Eye And Heart Disease
Eye disease is very common with Golden Retrievers. Most Golden's will generally have hereditary cataracts, which is a common eye problem. At an early age, with affected Golden's, one type of hereditary cataract will appear. Even though it may not...read more
Colic in babies is actually not as serious as most think. Moms and dads who are not as experienced may not agree. The crying
not mean that you will not do anything to alleviate the problem.
Colic is characterized by a pain in the abdomen and the stomach. Until now, medical experts and physicians are still trying to pinpoint just what causes the colic. They still...read more
Finding a College Scholarship for a Single Mother
Women dream of having a happy and fulfilled family life. But sometimes reality can really hurt, and the fairy tale world ends with a snap of a finger. And very soon, you'll find yourself raising your kids alone without the help of your husband....read more
Hybrid Cars Released In 2006: Choosing From the Best
Hybrid technology is now being integrated into cars to enable consumers, such as yourself, to save money on fuel. Hybrid cars are known to cut fuel consumption by more than half. With this kind of feature, people would really want to own a hybrid...read more
Managing An Event For 10 people versus 100 !
When it comes to planning a small event and a big event, you will notice a huge change. You should be aware that it will make the entire planning process change. When you have a small event, you can plan with a breeze, but when it comes to planning...read more
Destination to Paris
Paris is one of the most fascinating cities you will travel. Like anywhere else, Paris has its downside, which sometimes the city post alerts due to pollution in the air. The problem is caused from high-volumes of travel throughout the city. In this...read more
38. Christmas Carols
originated in England when wandering musicians would go from town to town and
visit castles and other homes of the rich to give impromptu performances. But
there also is the belief that singing carols at Christmas likely came from the
group...read more