How do you address resume gaps after a career change?

There can be so much insecurity around career gaps, yet these gaps can be expansive growth periods! It's all about how you communicate them and the growth you experienced. Showcase what you did during that time and how you evolved. Did you take space to get clear on your new career direction? Take a course/upskill? Volunteer? Travel and learn from diverse cultures and experiences? Explore personal projects or entrepreneurship? Whatever the reason for the gap, own it!! Communicate the skills acquired, lessons learned and growth gained during this time. This shows your commitment to your holistic growth and development. It also shows more of who you are outside of the job and could be a great add for culture fit :).

From my perspective, career gaps can make you a well-rounded and adaptable professional. So, rather than hide them, explain the reason behind the gap but focus on framing them positively as valuable growth opportunities. How? By emphasizing on how the experiences has helped you acquire new perspectives, develop resilience, or cultivate valuable soft skills. Ultimately, it's about showcasing how your unique path, including the gap has prepared you for the role you're applying for. So, own your story, reframe your gaps, and focus on the value you bring!

First of all, never shy away from talking about your career gap! Employers are keen to understand what happened; if you confidently talk about it, that's really all they will remember. You can put a positive spin on any gap! For instance, if you decided to do something non-work related (e.g. maternity leave, traveling, volunteering) you can say that the time you spent focusing on yourself allowed you to truly realize your passion and understand what skills you missed using. This, in turn, leads you to the new career you are now pursuing. The other type of gap, a more work-related one, is even easier to justify: You can simply state that you've decided to upskill in your area of passion.

Always mention the gaps on the CV. Mention why there is a gap, for example: caring for someone, studying etc. What soft skills have you added during the gap? Resume gaps should sound like a conversation, don't lie or hide it on your CV.

Uma mudança de carreira não significa que você está começando do zero, você tem habilidades e características que são transferíveis e vale destacá-las no seu currículo. Identifique essas habilidades que você possui e que são valiosas em ambas as carreiras, e mostre como você utiliza em diferentes contextos.

On the CV, explain the resume gap, don't leave it blank. If you have overcome different situations, explain the skills you used to overcome it, for example: resilience. If your previous work experience is related, do read up the news/developments/attend webinars in the industry. There are many quality content writers on LinkedIn, follow them and keep yourself updated. 'You do you'

Oh no. A hard no on the functional resume. I can’t think of one recruiter I know who would take a functional résumé seriously. The only reason to have one is to obfuscate and if you’re planning to do a career change, no one‘s going to be fooled by obfuscation. It’s better to gain credentials for your new chosen career and feature what you’ve done to earn those credentials in the résumé, but by all means, a traditional linear résumé as the way to go.

Very helpful. I was actually thinking about creating a functional resume. Guess I will not go down that road. As always thank you Lynda!

I respectfully disagree, a functional or hybrid resume is not to obfuscate, but to focus on on the relevant background and skills. A linear format does not always work best fir that, particularly when changing fields.

This is where cover letters can be hugely beneficial! So many candidates treat them as a throwaway, and let's be honest - they can be a time suck that doesn't have a great ROI. Career changes are an exception. Cover letters provide white space to add commentary that we can't build into the resume, so you're able to provide context into why you want to make the shift and what you have been doing to build skills during a gap. It can be hard to flesh this out in a summary without creeping into "objective" territory (DANGER ZONE), so I would recommend highlighting it in-depth in a cover letter while using a little language in the summary that speaks to how "x, y, z, experience provides a unique perspective to industry goal."

Concise and confident is the key! Decision makers tell me that the biggest mistake interviewees make is over-explaining, i.e. talking too much. You don't have to explain yourself. You do have to be honest. YES "After a caretaking break, I got certified to update my skills and I'm ready to go back to work full time." NO "I have 3 kids and I wanted to stay home with them while they were young. My youngest just started high school. I know it's been a long time since I worked as a director of project management, but my kids are all independent now and I really want to get back to my career. I thought it might help to get PM certified and that's what I've been doing the past year..." Nothing wrong with sharing you have kids. Just too soon.

Keep it succinct and to the point, there are strong chances on deviating on this question, so rehearse it as well. Keep it as a two way conversation. Prepare questions well in advance to ask the recruiter and convince them that you are interested to apply for jobs/roles.

Lidar com lacunas no currículo após uma mudança de carreira envolve explicar claramente essas pausas e destacar o aprendizado adquirido, mesmo que tenha sido fruto de um erro. É importante ser transparente sobre as razões das lacunas, mostrando como esse período foi usado para desenvolver novas habilidades, refletir sobre a carreira e buscar crescimento pessoal. Demonstrar que você utilizou esse tempo de forma construtiva, aprendendo lições valiosas e se preparando para novas oportunidades, reforça sua resiliência e compromisso com o desenvolvimento contínuo. Enfatize as competências e insights adquiridos durante essas pausas, transformando possíveis dúvidas em pontos fortes.