What are the best ways to highlight your career achievements despite gaps in your employment history?

Life can happen to anybody & it’s absolutely ok to have a career sabbatical. Address your career gap proactively. Be honest & give concise explanation. Highlight any learning or growth experience. Focus on transferable skills.

1. Focus on transferable skills: Even if you have gaps in your employment history, you may have developed skills that are transferable to other jobs or industries. Highlight these skills on your resume and explain how they can be applied to the job you are applying for. 2. Use a functional resume format: Instead of a chronological resume format, consider using a functional resume format. This format focuses on your skills and achievements rather than your employment history. This can be helpful if you have gaps in your employment history or if you are changing careers. 3. Emphasize volunteer work or freelance projects: Even if you were not employed during a gap in your employment history, you may have involved in work or freelance projects.

The key here is to write in a positive way. Do not only mention the reason for the gap but also what you have learned during this period. When you were sick, what opened up and did you become aware of? While travelling, what new insights emerged from the cultural differences? And so on. Do some soul-searching, and for sure you find value.

Mention if there was a personal challenge that needed your attention. How this challenge helped you evolve, and now you have more "tools under your belt" for the job at hand... or how you took the time to learn something new and how that can be applied to the present.

Whatever you choose, create a compelling storyline that relates to the job you're applying for. Think from the interviewer's perspective, instead of you wanting to tell and share everything. Be concise instead of complete.

Choose the format that helps you illiterate your journey... Every journey has its twist and turns, show what can be drawn from them and that through them you are here today.

One of the best ways to highlight your career achievements and stand out from the crowd, is to let your associates, direct reports, bosses, and even customers highlight your career achievements for you. LinkedIn has the perfect platform to do this with its easy-to-use recommendation tools. Anyone can write an excellent resume, but the specifics and accolades shared in your recommendations can be ten times more powerful and persuasive to someone reviewing your credentials, than anything you could write yourself. Of the executives that I coach to advance their leadership capacity and career, when they ask associates if they would be willing to write them a recommendation, almost everyone says, “ Yes” See continuation above.

You might use the STAR formula tho first think about the story, and then translate it into a text for your resume. STAR = Situation, Task, Achievements, Results.

Make sure to do some background research on the company's website. What kind of words are they using, and what are their values and beliefs? Include their keywords in your resume.

The key word here is relevant. I have a 30 year old client with a fabulous academic profile who is still including exams she got at the age of 16 and still in secondary school. (We're working on that one!) And it depends where you are in your career journey what you want to include. Detailed descriptions of a holiday job you did 20 years ago generally look tired, unless you are aiming for a career change and that holiday job is the one that first spiked your interest in your new career direction.

While doing so, don't be too shy. Be proud of your achievements and your valuable contribution. Speak up your truth in an honest way!

Whatever you put in a career summary or personal statement or covering letter needs to be clearly supported by the rest of the CV. If you say you are well-motivated ask yourself which part of your previous experience in and out of work demonstrates this. Evidence-based CV writing! And prepare yourself for questions about this too. The focus on what your learned or achieved during gaps is important. How can you make that sound attractive to a potential employer?