How to Explain Employment Gaps on Resume

Having an employment gap on your resume doesn't need to be a deal breaker. Your employment history will have gaps the longer you work because life happens. Whether you have a gap from a layoff, medical leave, family leave, or any other reason, you need to be proactive about filling in the gap to ensure you continue to learn new skills and achieve your career goals, so you can re-enter the workforce without too much hassle. Potential employers won't make a fuss about your resume gap if you try out some of the suggestions below.

How to Explain Employment Gaps on Resume

1. Prepare answers to hard questions

When you have employment gaps in your resume, recruiters and hiring managers will often ask about them. There are many good reasons for an employment gap, so don't look or act too nervous when answering questions to address the gap. They saw the gap in your resume and still chose to reach out to you for an interview, so it's a clear sign that they're interested in you as a candidate. Employment gaps on a resume aren't a dealbreaker in most cases. So, how you answer the questions about it in a job interview will help you. When you're explaining your career break, focus on what you needed during that period, how you got it, and what you learned. For example, if you needed a break to connect with a dying parent, share that story. Talk about the emotional care you provided. If you did any upskilling during the period, share those stories too. You can check out these interview questions about gaps in employment to help you better prepare for tough questions.

2. Be honest about what happened

If you tell an honest story of what happened to result in the layoff or leave, you'll fare better in the interview. When you don't tell a straight story or when your confidence seems to take a hit by the question, a hiring manager will ask additional questions about the gap in employment. They'll ask you if you were fired. And if you say no in a nervous way, they'll be skeptical of you. Sometimes, you're honest in an interview but you're so nervous or desperate for a job that you start stumbling over your words when answering questions about your work history and that big glaring gap. You need to rehearse your confidence. You can't be stuck in your head and having a mini panic attack thinking, "Not this question again." Otherwise, you'll self sabotage. And remember, they saw the gap and still chose to interview. They're interested in you as a candidate. It's just a quick explanation and nothing more. Don't go too deep. And use the same honest story for every interview so you get better at communicating it and maintain the same story throughout.

3. Speak confidently about your skills

When you have an employment gap, you need to go above and beyond to stand out from other applicants. Your skills and experience is what got you an interview in the first place. So, if you have some great work experience you might want to talk about it in an interview. Share how you professionally accomplished big things in your last role and how to make a big impact in your next one as well. Share how you've always invested in professional development to stay on top of the latest trends, such as enrolling in online courses, going back to school, or gaining new certification. Share your process for achieving big things in your craft. You might talk about a personal project you worked on that helped you learn something valuable that would help this new company elevate to a new height. Maybe if you work in marketing, you look into the company's data using tools like Ahrefs to help you talk about some of your ideas or new opportunities. Do things outside of what's asked of you to help someone see your skills and savviness when it comes to what you're capable of.

4. Showcase the reason in a cover letter

While the gaps might show in a resume, you might talk about gaps in your cover letter. Your resume and cover letter will sell you as a candidate. In your cover letter, you might write one sentence to name the reason why you have an employment gap. Then, afterwards share what skills you gained during that period. For example, maybe you did some volunteer work, completed some freelance work, gained some transferable skills from the work you did to care for a family member, or some other asset that would complete the gap in a way that positions you better because of it. Taking time to raise a family or to care for aging parents is sometimes too time consuming for upskilling, however, try to find something you've gained or learned because of the experience even if it's an emotional or heartfelt lesson.

5. Mention that you still have references from the company

If in an interview and a potential employer looks shaky after hearing about your employment gap, you can mention that you still have references from the company that laid you off so it wasn't that big of a deal. Job applicants will need references for their job search. But reminding a hiring manager that you still have them from a company that you might've gotten laid off from shows that you were still a great employee. If you've been out of the workforce for a while, having references available can also help you showcase that you're competent in the workplace. If you've been freelancing during your time away from the workforce, you might ask former clients for references to show that people did hire you for projects while you stayed at home to raise a family.

6. Share skills you developed during gap

Not everyone has a gap in their resume because they can't work. Some people choose to take a leave because of a toxic work environment. Others have some free time while raising a family. Some might be laid off and have more free time than planned. An employment gap is a good opportunity to build skills. Whether they're personal or professional skills you might want to share them. Make sure the skills you share are relevant to the job. For example, being a caregiver pushes you to further develop empathy and active listening. These could transfer well for a leadership role. If the job market changed and your role was made redundant because the skills are no longer of use, you might upskill new skills that could help you in your next stage. For example, a writer might learn how to work with AI and learn prompt engineering to craft and edit content. The steps you took can help explain an employment gap. If you used your break from work to build on your skill set, share that with a hiring manager as it'll make you look like a better candidate.

7. Make your resume more extraordinary

When you have an employment gap on your resume, you need to make your resume pop a bit more. Sharing your personal data and track record performance can help you look more competent. What targets did you hit in your role? How many features did you ship? What was the overall impact of a project you worked on? While working at a company, it's important to track your accomplishments so you can use them on your resume at a later time. Adding relevant skills and keywords will help you pass ATS filters. As long as you're honest about your accomplishments, there are no red flags even if there is a gap on your resume as it shows you did have a high impact while in the workforce. Your work history section needs to sell what you've done and what more you could do. Whether your employment gap is big or small doesn't matter, the quality of the work you've done, ability to adapt and learn, and your readiness to return to the workforce will show that you can be an excellent addition to a team.

8. Try a different resume format

A chronological resume might not be the best fit for you if you have a long employment gap. Don't worry, the functional resume does a better job at masking employment gaps, which can help highlight you as a great fit for a team. The functional resume format puts the emphasis on your skills instead of your work history. It helps better position career changers or those with big employment gaps to easily re-enter the workforce. You can read more about the different resume format types.

9. Be prepared for weird responses

A potential employer is looking to hire the best candidate. They'll ask trick questions to weed people out. When you tell someone about your employment gap, layoff, or reason for why you temporarily left the workforce, expect to get weird responses. By preparing for unhinged responses from recruiters or hiring managers, you won't be startled when they respond in unprofessional ways. Inappropriate things to expect include:

"So, are you sure you weren't fired? What did you do to get laid off? You must've done something wrong.""Are you planning to have any more kids? How old are they? Do you need to pick them up from school because we have team meetings at 3 o'clock.""When my parents died, I still had to work. Why couldn't you manage both?"

"Aren't you a little too old to change career paths? This is an entry level position for new graduates.""If you owned a business and it failed, why would we want someone with a failed business to work here?""Are you sure you're a good fit to work in a corporate environment if you've been freelancing? I worry about your commitment here if you prefer working in entrepreneurial roles."

Some of these questions may make you uncomfortable. And some hiring managers should know better than to ask any of the questions above or any variant of them. However, if you prepare for people to ask these off-putting questions that dig into your exact insecurities, you'll be able to answer them easily without being defensive. Or better yet, if they reject you, you won't take it personally because it's probably a toxic environment anyway. Just don't let questions like these throw off your confidence. 

10. Add things in your gap if possible

You probably don't have something to hide, but it's not a bad idea to add things into the employment gap to make it look less noticeable. Job seekers with gaps can pad out their experience section with volunteer work, contract work, or entrepreneurial projects. You can also add personal and professional skills developed in your skills section to help you create an ATS resume. Briefly mention updated education, courses, or credentials on your resume as well to show more recent years. Make a resume look more full and complete and most job seekers will be able to minimize the gap in their employment. Adding more sections to your resume can also help beef up your resume to look like it has more content. But remember, a one page resume can still land you a job.

Reasons for resume gaps

1. Standard layoff

Companies do seasonal layoffs each year or on an ongoing basis. Sometimes, the employment gap is outside of your control. In the event of a layoff, do not take a break as it'll make the gap widen. Look for a job right away to help you find your next position with ease.

2. Illnesses

Sometimes, illnesses happen that cause someone to take an extended leave. Whether your illness is related to mental health or cancer shouldn't matter to a recruiter. You don't need to share the reason. Simply share that you took a leave to manage an illness.

3. Taking care of family

In mid-life the responsibilities of caring for an aging parent and raising kids can be one of the most common reasons behind having a resume gap. Women are most likely to take on these roles.

4. Career change

Sometimes, an employment gap is caused by career changes. You might've decided an industry wasn't the right fit for you and joined a bootcamp to learn a new skill in a new field. Share the skills and credentials you've earned during the period and if you have any projects you might want to share those too.

5. Self-employment

Many people have the entrepreneurial bug within them. Sometimes, you work on your own thing and either you sold it or it failed and you need to find a new job again. While you can apply to work anywhere, you might find better luck by applying to startups than corporate roles.

Conclusion

Some of the resume tips in this post will help you briefly explain a gap in employment. Whether you took time off to raise kids or used the time to learn something new, highlight any new skills you've developed because of your time off. You could add more content to your resume to better mask the history of employment on your resume. A professional resume will help you land an interview. And if you get an interview, even with a gap in your resume, it's a good sign that they thought you could be a great fit. Don't second guess your abilities in your job search and practice the resume tips above. To start building your resume, you can sign up for Huntr today.