How to Explain an Employment Gap

Walking in for your next big interview with career gaps on your resume? You’re not alone. Sixty-two percent of professionals have taken a career break and 35% are interested in taking a break in the future. When it comes to telling the story of your resume gaps, honesty is a great start, but how will you share the rest of your story?

Examples of Employment Gap Reasons

From professional to personal, there are several reasons why you may have taken a break from work.

• Parenting
• Travel Sabbatical
• Education
• Caregiving
• Bereavement
• Illness
• Layoff or Job Termination
• Career Change
• Volunteering
• Personal Reasons

Hiring managers understand that recessions, the pandemic, and economic instability affect how long you’re on a career break. As little as three months between jobs is considered average whereas 6-12 months is acceptable. Following a layoff, recruiters understand that returning to work can take five months or longer.

Explaining Your Resume Gaps

If your resume gaps are longer—let’s say one year, for example—then it’s recommended to list this gap as a job experience on your resume. Write a description that shows how you grew your professional skills during this time, but keep the listing short so it doesn’t distract from the others on your resume. Find out how many jobs to include in your resume.

Here’s one way to write your resume gap depending on the reason you were out of the office—or the country—for that matter.

Example: Professional Applying to a Senior Software Engineer Position

Full-time Nomad, Everywhere, 2021-2022

• Explored 3 continents and 12 countries in one year alongside two business colleagues. Gleaned career inspiration from complex architecture, multi-national conversations, and read Python programming manuals while riding the bullet train in Japan.

Tips for Explaining an Employment Gap

1. Never overexplain any resume gap: only share what makes you feel comfortable and what feels relevant. Here’s how to highlight your relevant experience to employers.
2. Emphasize new skills, classes, and professional development that helped you grow during your break.
3. Group freelance jobs for different clients under one position and combine the dates. This shows you are a committed consultant vs. a job hopper.
4. Explain your career gap in your cover letter with an example of how it impacts you as a professional.
5. Match your LinkedIn profile with your resume so the employer sees you as a consistent candidate.

If you found this article helpful, check out some of our other career tips: coping with stress at work, portfolio vs. resume vs. cover letters, and adding hyperlinks to your resume.