Dealing With Employment Gaps on Your Resume
Many people have been struggling to find jobs. As a result, they have gaps in employment of six months or more. Despite the job losses and job search difficulties caused by the recession, job seekers are still stigmatized by gaps of employment on their resumes. One way to cope with unemployed is through volunteer work.
In her article, Overcoming the Resume Gap, Jessica Dickler shares advice from career experts about how job seekers can handle employment gaps when writing their resumes.
- Address it head on - Periods of unemployment should be explained on the resume because cover letters aren't always read or passed along.
- Turn a negative into a positive - This is where volunteering can be helpful, as well as other activities like attending industry related classes or seminars.
- Fudge but don't falsify - Instead of listing months and years of employment, only mention the years.
- Don't make excuses - Rather than trying to explain why they're unemployed, job seekers should focus on selling what they've done while trying to find another job.
- Give yourself a break - Dickler recommends that job seekers not beat themselves up about losing their jobs; it's happend to a lot of people.
With so many people out of work, there are probably many job seekers with gaps in their employment histories that have to be explained. Besides doing volunteer work or attending classes to fill the gaps and improve existing skills or learn new ones, job seekers should also be prepared to be open about their employment gaps and not try to hide them.
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