Tips to Address Employment Gaps in a Resume

Tips to Address Employment Gaps in a Resume

Source: http://www.ayushveda.com/tipson/tips-to-address-employment-gaps-in-a-resume/

Resume is a paper that represents the individual for the job. It is through the resume a future employer sees you. If you have a missing year in your career history then the employer will take it as a negative mark and it may adversely affect your chance of getting a job.

There are many reasons for missing years in your resume. It can be due to pregnancy, for raising your baby, an accident, higher education, to look after your elderly parents etc and what ever the reasons you have to address it tactfully. This will help you to avoid the bad impression.

1. While writing your resume use a skill based format rather than using a chronological format. Make a heading and group relevant skills under the heading. With this you can highlight your achievements and skills instead of the highlighting the time you did it. This will help you to hide the gaps.

2. Instead of listing dates on your resume like Feb, 2005 to May 2008 you can write 2005 to 2008. This will help you to cover the gaps of months in your resume.

3. If you are a person who is working for years then you can set your experience as fifteen years in technical job and ten years in managerial job etc.

4. Make a list of the things that you did in the year when you were not employed and categorize them. This will help you to find things that can be included in your resume. You might have volunteered events, might have worked as a consultant or freelance writer, sometimes you might have taken classes for kids etc. Then you can list such things in your resume as you did with other jobs.

5. If you are not able to cover the gaps then you can keep a covering letter along with your resume which explains the reason for the gap. You can explain that you were raising twins, were writing a novel, were caring your aged parents etc. If you had a serious accident and you were in trauma then you can offer medical certificate also.

6. If you can tell the truths then it will the best. This is because the employer may cross check your information on the resume and if they find anything incorrect they may expel you from the job.