How to explain employment gaps on your resume

Explaining gaps in your resume is an essential part of your career story. Let's explore how to approach this issue in a positive way.

Have a gap in your employment history? You’re not alone. There are plenty of legitimate reasons why you may have had a break from work. More to the point, they are impossible to avoid in a factually correct resume.  It is always better to explain gaps in employment directly and there are many factors to consider. Your future boss wants to understand the trajectory employment history - it is often at these moments of pause that the most momentous decisions are made. Choose to weave these employment gaps into your career story. It isn't so hard.

While the dreaded interview question "why have you been unemployed for so long?" may stump you for a while in the interview, will will explore the options in terms of your replies - for both recent and previous employment gaps.

Hopefully, we will provide some answers to this question by considering the following:

• Our five-step approach to how to explain gaps in employment
• The 8 most common employment gaps (with examples)
• Tips to make gaps in your resume sound better

Is a gap in employment detrimental? Well, it depends how well you manage to explain it.

Five-step approach for how to explain gaps in employment

Whenever you touch on a difficult topic in an interview, resume or cover letter (or any other conversation, for that matter), it always helps to devise a rough structure for your answer to explain any career gap beforehand. 

There is nothing worse than stumbling around for an answer in an interview, so have a rough answer prepared before you walk into the interview room. Be ready to adapt your answer depending on the line of questioning, though. There is nothing worse for an interviewer than feeling like they are hearing cookie-cutter responses.

So, how do you prepare for that inevitable question: “Why were you unemployed?” and how do you fix a gap in your resume? Follow these five steps for a cool, collected and impressive answer:

1. Reason why you were unemployed

There is always a reason for an employment gap. You may have actively chosen to take a break from work or the break may have been forced on you, but any explanation for a resume gap starts with a straightforward reason. Ideally it is a reason that is common enough for a hiring manager to be nodding their heads and thinking: "Okay, I get it." It is highly likely that their career will have had a couple of such moments. A break does not stop you from changing direction and going again.

2. What you were doing during this time

Let the hiring manager know how you used your time during this work gap and ideally make part of it relevant to the job that you are applying for. The key to any great job application is to show a career journey that is leading to you getting a job at their company, so try to spin your activity to be as relevant and productive as possible.  Certain if you were able to obtain any relevant gap employment, add that to your resume. 

If you used the break for non-professional pursuits, don't spend too much time on it. The hiring manager will feel that you are wasting their time if you waffle on trying to justify this time that genuinely didn't do much for your career apart from allow you to think about the next step.

3. The skills that you learned from this period

Your future employment will want people who are keen to learn. You may not have been paid by an employer for this period of your life, but what skills did you pick up and how will they benefit you in your new job? The important issue here is to show that you actually used the skills in your future activity. Just doing the qualifications and letting the knowledge sit under-utilised in your head will seem less than impressive.

4. Project confidence in your words - don't be apologetic

While addressing the career gap is important, you should not be apologetic about the episode. Listeners can tell when your tone becomes less confident and your body language shifts. If a feeling of self-doubt creeps into the interview, this risks clouding all the other great career stories to come. Be matter-of-fact in how you tell your employment gap story. These things happen and you took the break in your stride.

5. Move on as quickly as possible. Be brief.

The key with any awkward career moment is to address it openly, while at the same time moving on from your employment gap as soon as possible. Don't give the hiring manager too much detail to latch onto or they might wish to ask further questions, but make it detailed enough that they can mentally tick the "they answered that one" box in their heads.

No hiring manager is going to go to their boss to justify your selection by talking about the time that you spent outside of employment. Give them the maximum ammunition for themselves and others to make a rational hiring decision. While you might want to spend a minute or two giving an in-depth explanation that does the employment gap justice, resign yourself to the fact that there will likely always be a question mark over the period to some extent. make sure that you dazzle them with the rest of your answers to make up for it.

The 8 Most Common Employment Gaps

There are many different reasons for an employment gap, but 80% of them will likely fall under one of these reasons. These are all entirely "normal" for any career, and while the length of the gap might dictate the depth of explanation (longer gaps will need more explaining), as long as you explain the skills and benefits that you derived from the gap, most hiring managers will be understanding. So, what are good reasons for gaps in employment? In these cases, do resume gaps matter?

Here are eight reasons, with a brief 1-2 liner for your resume work experience section or cover letter:

1. Family issues

You might have been caring for a sick relative or helping a family member deal with a certain problem. You don't need to go into details of the issue as that is not relevant, but mention how it reached a conclusion and show that you were (are) ready to move on to the next step in your career. Showing that you dealt with family issues successfully can hint that you will cope when the next episode comes along in the future.

2. Redundancy

Redundancy touches all of us in our careers. While it is important to mention the circumstances of a redundancy, do not go into too much detail if it was because of underperformance. Try to talk about your key achievements in the year directly prior to redundancy and outline how you used the redundancy period to your advantage. The reasons for redundancy are often confidential when it comes to giving a reference, so hide behind the "mass redundancies" excuse if you can. Redundancies are often about performance, but if a lot of people are being let go, sometimes it is more about headcount than lack of contribution.

3. Personal sickness

Again, we all have the misfortune to become ill from time to time and there is definitely no need to go into detail about the illness, much as you may wish for a little sympathy from the hiring manager. In many countries it may not even be legal to ask about confidential medical details. Share how you got better and how you spent your time. You might justifiably be proud about how you fought the affliction, but an interview is not a time to detail your fight.

4. Traveling

Traveling is a tricky topic. There are only two truly explicable times to take an extended travel break from a hiring manager's point of view. Firstly, it is common to take a gap year after college or university. Do employers care about gap years? Well, not really. Secondly, a travel sabbatical after a period of sustained work and success is acceptable. Any other random periods of career gaps for travel may cause the hiring manager to wonder if you might not be committed to working for the longer-term.

The worst thing that you can do during an interview is put doubt into the hiring manager's mind in terms of your potential longevity in the role. Finding the right person to hire is tough, so they won't want to be forced to repeat the process any time soon. If any retention warning signs flash up, they will likely run a mile.

5. Further education

This is always an acceptable reason for a resume gap, and maybe should not be considered a gap at all, as education is an integral part of someone's career journey. Try to demonstrate how the education made a difference to your future career, but even if it didn't on a superficial level, you never know where certain learnings may come in useful. Don't feel that you have to demonstrate a linear progression of your career an education - it is often education that can trigger a fruitful career shift.

6. Failed business

At a time when social media has made potential customers so accessible, while economic conditions have become so challenging for many, it is understandable that many people have experienced a failed attempt at starting their own business. There are great lessons to be learned when things go wrong and, while it might seem heart-breaking at the time, the resilience that you will acquire will pay dividends along the line. Failure is just the next step towards success.

If you are going back into employment, you will, however, need to demonstrate that you have put your entrepreneurial dreams behind you. There is nothing worse than working with someone who wants to work for themselves.

7. Parental leave

This reason for a gap in employment doesn't need any further explanation. Whether your parental leave was for six weeks or three years, you needn't say any more. Looking after very young children is a sacred right. 

If you stayed at home for a significant amount of years with your children, you will have to demonstrate how you kept the skills for your role fresh, but the main thing on your return to work is the right attitude and a solid childcare plan. Your employer will want to understand these details, so be ready to share some personal information if the topic comes up. In theory, you shouldn't be required to talk about this, but in practice it will put a potential employer's mind at rest if you are confident in your arrangements.

8. Selective job search

Now, this is a controversial one, but for a high-flying professional it can take time to find the right next role. This could last up to a year for a senior director and a good few months for any middle manager, so while you should definitely not put " job search" as a period on your resume, if you have had a stellar career until your career gap, explaining the gap in this way is perfectly reasonable. Making the right next move is so important, after all. If you are such a fantastic candidate, this is perfectly understandable.

Tips to make gaps in your resume sound better

Having explored the general five-step approach for how to explain a resume gap and outlined eight of the most common reasons for employment gaps, here are a few more tips to ponder as you work out how to position the gap on your resume and how to mention it at interview:

1. Show employers you are up-to-date on industry knowledge

You want your potential employer to think you are reliable, committed, and up-to-date on industry knowledge. If you have a large gap in your work history, you want to show your employer how you have kept up-to-date on industry knowledge and trends. Perhaps you attended conferences or professional development seminars, took a class, or conducted extensive research. Whatever the case is, your job application should show how you stayed in the loop. 

If you did not do anything industry-specific, perhaps you did something that has transferable skills. Many soft skills easily transfer as do some hard skills. Maybe you provided consultation services to other industry members or continued writing your own book. If you can show how you kept current, you will be better off.

2. Create an entry for freelance or contract work

If you quit your job to try your hand at the gig economy and decided it wasn’t for you, there’s no shame in that. Be honest. Maybe you just don’t like the uncertainty of contract work, or you didn’t realize how much marketing of yourself was involved. Working in the gig economy can be like a full-time job search every day. Explain to the hiring manager that you learned you prefer full-time employment and that you plan to stick with this new job.

If you lost your job during an economic downturn but you were able to get freelance or contract work, especially if it was in your field, that experience counts even if it didn’t keep you busy enough or wasn’t directly related to your career. Aggregate the work you did get and it will explain what you were doing in the time after you left your last employer. Listing these small jobs as self-employed contract work smooths over the gap.

3. Include unpaid work

Not all valuable experience occurs through full-time employment. If you filled your periods of unemployment doing volunteer work, that counts! In fact, many prospective employers believe that a job seeker who cares about the community is an asset to the company. Maybe you got an opportunity you couldn’t refuse or decided you needed a break from your career to focus on an organization that holds meaning for you. 

Sometimes, the road to a career change begins with volunteer work. You may have turned unemployment into an opportunity by doing volunteer work that added a new skill to your toolbox. 

Maybe you spent time building your professional social media presence. Many recruiters look for candidates with social media skills, so do include your social media work if it enhances your professional image. Just be sure you don’t exaggerate your role when you start looking for a new position.

4. Eliminate short employment gaps with different formatting

Job seekers know that your resume format plays an important role in whether you get a second look as a candidate. But your format can also minimize the attention hiring managers pay to your employment gap. How do I hide a career gap on my resume?

If your gaps between jobs are relatively short, you may be able to eliminate drawing attention to them by not listing months in your employment history section. Only listing the years you worked may hide these short-term gaps and avoid your need to explain them completely. 

You can also de-emphasize the dates by changing them from a bold font to a regular font so when recruiters are scanning, they are less likely to focus on them. Instead, turn the focus to your job titles and skills by using a layout that draws attention to your accomplishments.

5. Don't be afraid to tell the truth

If you took time away from the workforce to care for a family member or recover from an illness, there is no shame in telling the truth. Hiring managers are human beings too, so they might appreciate your transparency when dealing with matters like this. You should avoid emotional description or anything that affects the mood of your resume. Be brief and to the point, then move on. 

If you took time to travel the world and do poetry readings, then don't shy away from disclosing this impressive information. Part of creating a winning resume is showing that you are a well-rounded person with desirable traits. Someone with the ability to bike across the country and read poetry in front of a packed amphitheater clearly has determination, self-confidence, and an impressive work ethic.

Also remember that sabbaticals are a benefit of your work so feel free to put it on your resume with a brief description of what you did, even if it did not include direct professional development.