Mentioning your professional experience in your resume with perfection is a difficult task. You need to keep in mind the following: job role, duration of your job, main responsibilities, transferable skills etc. It is a tough job to highlight your skills and experience if you have breaks in your career. Talent Plus Plus has seen many such candidates in the past. Your hiring manager will have no idea about the reason of your long work gap, merely by going through your resume. For example, the employer will not understand whether you held a job or just trying to hide your job in a particular timeframe because it doesn’t meet your career objective and if you were not working within that timeframe do you have a strong reason for not working during that phase. Thus each and every information about your work history is important and needs to be explained properly.

There are few rules you should care about the career breaks or employment gap:

  1. Shorter career breaks do not need an explanation. Career breaks of 2-3 months are very common so you don’t have to give a reason and many of the employers do not notice such breaks. However, any gaps extending more than 3 months should be explained in the cover letter or e-mail. If you don’t want the employer to make their own assumptions you should state it clearly whether you had personal or professional reasons for not working.
  2. Be honest with your potential employer. You need not stress about career breaks. If you are truthful you will not have to worry about your references, background check or any questions asked in the interview regarding your experience.
  3. Honesty is the best policy and same applies to your resume. Don’t hide any of your employment details just because that experience is not related to the job you are applying for. Do not cover your gaps rather explain them in a better way.
  4. List down all sorts of jobs and experiences who have, though not related to your career objective. Explain the reason of having a job outside your field in detail, to the hiring manager through a cover letter or e-mail. Don’t let them assume the reason of your career break whereas mention the reason clearly either personal or professional.
  5. Work is only a part of life and there are many reasons in life where you have to take off from work. So sound positive in mentioning your career break. There is no need to write any apologies and prove that even though you were out of work but you always had a focus towards your career.

In spite of all the unexpected turns and circumstances coming in our life, we can always be active and focused in our respective fields by keeping a few things in mind.

  1. Try to get some freelance work, consulting, help somebody in their work without any charges or do some dummy projects.
  2. Give a class to those who need to learn your subject or take a class if it is available in your locality to improve your skills and interest and create your contacts by meeting new people of your professional background.
  3. Keep yourself updated by continuously reading new things from your field, subscribe a publication or magazine. Read books to increase your knowledge about your subject.

Prove the employer that you are the best candidate for the job by highlighting your experience, education, achievements and qualification. We at Talent Plus Plus have seen many similar candidates having career breaks and employment gaps. We have successfully trained them for new skills and placed them in various companies. Remember, you cannot change the work history. The only thing you can do is to make yourself competent enough for the new skills when they interview you. So be positive and give your best.