Resume Gaps: How To Explain Them Positively

If you have any resume gaps, or unexplained periods in your job history, it makes listing your professional experiences on your resume a more difficult task and not only that, they may seriosly damage your job applications.

There are so many elements to consider: job titles, qualifications, time frames, key responsibilities, transferable skills and so on that any gaps in the history raise questions about you. So you must deal with them.

The process becomes even more difficult if you have gaps in your work history that stand out. 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. Check these resume templates for more ideas.

Any gaps in your employment history will need to be explained in writing; thus, don’t skip any information on purpose.

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 about apparent resume gaps, 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.

How To Explain Resume Gaps:

Its easy to insert a line to explain resume gaps like this;

Westminster Capital                    Sept. 2007 – Oct. 2007
IT Desktop Support Engineer (Contract) engaged in the IMAC department building PCs according to different specifications; installing hardware and peripherals to user requirements and Upgrading PCs (Memory, Hard Disk, Graphics Cards etc.). Carrying out desk moves and changes.

Training for following certifications                  April 2007 – Sept. 2007
Comptia A+, MCP in Windows XP, MCP in Windows 2003 Server & Cisco CCNA.

IBM Global Services                        Nov. 2000 – April 2007

IT Desktop Support Engineer: worked in a team of up to 10 support engineers. Supported up to 600 users' laptops and PCs.

Reasons For Resume Gaps

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 - and explaining any resume gaps.

Basic resume writing is quite easy if you approach the task methodically and use the information available to you here on my website.

A well-written resume will make all the difference between being stuck at your current job and getting an interview to land the job of your dreams.

These Resume Tips will get you off to a great start, but please don't forget the importance of a really well written resume cover letter.

Continue to Resume Summary

Or Go To: Job Resume or Career Change Resume Also look at Career Objective.

Check out this for resume tips: Corporate Finance Sample Resume and Sales Resume for some examples of good resume writing. This entry-level example of a Finance Resume should give you some ideas to help you get started with writing your own.

You can also get some sample resumes to download free at Sample Resumes or take a look at this Accounting Resumes page. There is also this PA sample resume you could copy and use.

If you want more details about me writing a resume for you go to Resume Writing Services

So, if you do have resume gaps, it makes listing your professional experiences on your resume a more difficult task than it needs to be. There are so many elements to consider: job titles, time frames, key responsibilities, transferable skills and so on that you must find a way to deal with any resume gaps so that your resume reads more easily and doesn't arouse any suspicions about your past.

Do your best to clarify any Resume Gaps and you will get off to a great start.

Now go on and sort out how to Quantify Your Resume

Return to Your Career Change home page.

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