Tips To Handle Employment Gaps

Being unemployed is a difficult and stressful situation. To make matters even worse, the fact that you may not currently have a job can prevent you from finding a job. It is unfair, but true. Having gaps in your employment history are often an immediate turn off for recruiters and interviewers; however, with a little bit of creativity, you can make those gaps disappear.

This month's newsletter explains the 4 steps to handling gaps in your employment history. Don't let being out of work keep you out of work.

These following four methods will be covered:

1. Find Real Gaps
2. Fill In Gaps
3. Dodge Resume Gaps
4. Mention Major Gaps


4 TIPS TO HANDLE EMPLOYMENT GAPS!
1) FIND REAL GAPS
The first mistake many people make is to assume the worst when it comes to being out of work. Not having a job does not mean you have an employment gap. There are many legitimate reasons for not working. These reasons can be addressed directly without any worry.

The most common explanations of unemployment that should NOT be considered employment gaps are:

• •   Attending school
• •   Having/taking care of children
• •   Personal health problems
• •   Serious Illness in the Family
• •   Being between jobs for a short period of time (less than 6 months)

2) FILL IN GAPS
If your bout with unemployment does not fall into one of the categories listed above, you most likely have an official gap in your employment history. Even at this point, you do not necessarily have to let a potential employer know about this gap.

By keeping busy while you are between jobs, you can turn a would-be gap into a learning experience. Consider using the following tactics to fill those gaps:

• •   Take a class related to your profession. Being in school accounts for your time off, and
      employers like to see people bettering themselves through education.
• •   Look for freelance or consulting projects. These jobs are not permanent, but they do
      ensure that you keep up-to-date with your skills. You can put this type
      of work on your resume as if it were any other kind of job.
• •   Volunteer for an organization. Getting paid would be ideal, but future employers are
      concerned with your work experience. To a recruiter, a volunteering
      position can be just as good as a paying job.
• •   Read trade journals. Though this method may not be something you put on your
      resume, it will help you stay current with the industry. Conveying the
      newest information possible in an interview shows that you have not lost your
      knowledge of the business.

3) DODGE RESUME GAPS
Not everyone will be able to find a creative way to fill the gaps in their employment history. If you find yourself in this situation, it is no longer an issue of proving your time was occupied. Instead, you should focus on the fact that you are still skilled and qualified.

However, most resumes focus on time by addressing experiences chronologically. Consider using the following suggestions to draw attention away from your time between jobs:

• •   Don't distinguish between paid and unpaid work on your resume. This way you can
      have a seemingly continuous string of jobs, even if you volunteered for
      the sake avoiding an employment gap.
• •   Use only years (not months) when listing work dates on your resume. This can
      discretely cover several months of unemployment.
• •   Summarize what you did while you did not have a job. It may seem awkward to put this
      kind of information directly on your resume, but it is more important to
      let recruiters know you used your time wisely.
• •   Use a functional resume. Unlike the traditional chronological resume, a functional
      resume puts less emphasis on the timing of work experiences.
      Instead, a functional resume emphasizes skills, which employers care more about.

4) MENTION MAJOR GAPS
The last important step in handling employment gaps is deciding when to discuss them. Unless you can completely hide the gap, a recruiter will eventually spot it. If you are prepared to address the issue, you can avoid a potential disaster.

There are basically 2 schools of thought on this issue: address an employment gap in your cover letter or address it in the interview. Neither approach is wrong; neither approach is right. It is a matter of personal taste. Just consider these points before deciding, which approach you use:

• •   In a cover letter, make your explanation very brief. A one or two-sentence long
      explanation is enough. Details are not important.
• •   If a gap occurred a long time ago, don't bother mentioning it in a cover letter. Employers
      are concerned with your recent work, not something that happened 10 years ago.
• •   In an interview, still keep your explanation brief. The only reason to go into deeper detail
      is if you gained valuable experiences during your employment gap.
• •   No matter what, END ON A POSITIVE NOTE. Whether you address the gap in a cover
      letter or an interview, state that you are ready and excited to get back to work.

CONCLUSION
Hopefully, these steps will give you ideas on how to handle your own employment gaps. It's a difficult task to do, but it is also one of the most valuable. Having employment gaps shouldn't keep you from finding a job, but only you can stop the cycle from repeating itself.

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