How To Make Employment Gaps Less Obvious On Your CV

Many of us take time off, for one reason or another, from working. Sometimes, it’s by choice—maybe you were raising a child, traveling, taking care of a sick relative, or went back to school. In other cases, your time off from work may occur because you were laid off or fired and it took time to find a new job.

What is the best way to explain an employment gap on your CV and during a job interview? It depends on the situation and what you did while you weren’t employed.

Should you mention a gap in your CV?

If you haven’t taken a break yet, you can plan it carefully to ensure a smooth return to the workforce. If the gap was in the past, and you’ve been employed since it occurred, you don’t need to call it out on your CV.

How to Make Employment Gaps Less Obvious on your CV

1. Consulting and Temporary Assignments

During the period you are out of work; you may work as a consultant. Mainly consulting and temporary assignments are offered in short-term projects.

You may indicate on your CV “Consultant” and specify the full length of time you were in the role. Underneath this section, highlight the companies and/or specific experiences and accomplishments in the role.

An employer will view all the individual experiences and temporary assignments – and its significance in furthering your career experiences – as a whole.

If that doesn’t fit your situation, just make sure to indicate that it was a contract position next to the dates so people will see right away that the short tenure was planned.

2. Use only Years

Reformat Dates of Employment: Rather than listing the specific month and year you were employed with an employer, indicate only the year. It can appear less obvious that you were only on the job for 16 months, and appear more like two years. Therefore, if the gap is small it will help cover it.

You are going to present exact dates of employment in an application later on. The aim of your CV is to get an interview where you will be able to explain the reasons for the gap in employment and show why you are the right candidate for the job.

3. Omit One or More Jobs

If you have a lengthy work history there is no need to include all of your experiences on the CV. It’s reasonable to put jobs that extend beyond 15 years in a previous experience section and point out the company name and title.

4. Use a Cover Letter

When compensating for a gap in your employment a cover letter is exactly what you need. You can explain the gap to the potential employer: if it is some life event you can simply tell about it (e.g. caring for your new born baby). 

If not you should show what you weren’t just unemployed but did some job skills training courses, learned something work related or contributed something positive to a society, did any volunteer activities, show that your gap was a valuable and helpful time for you which developed your skills and made you an ideal candidate.

5. Use a Combination CV

A combination CV is much more effective than a chronological one because it lists your skills and accomplishments before the experience with actual dates.

When writing a CV objective or profile section, use memorable and effective words to help with the key-word search and hook the reader into your CV.

After that, include a “Highlights of Accomplishments” section which shows your outstanding accomplishments and results and quickly communicates why you are a good fit for the position.

You can write it as a list of five or six sentences in bold type to make it stand out.

Are you unsure of how to make the most of the employment gaps on your CV? Get the help of a professional CV writer and be on your way to your next job!

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