Show and Explain Gaps in Work Experience on CV or Resume

Edited by Hotelier, priya, Eng

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Video: Show and Explain Gaps in Work Experience on CV or Resume
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Hello, and thank you for watching VisiHow. In today's tutorial, we will be discussing how to deal with gaps in professional experience that we may have throughout our career. When we do decide to re-enter the workforce, it's important to know how we can present and discuss these gaps.

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Steps

  1. 1
    One thing that we need to remember is when the gap was
    .
    If the gap was more recent or more frequent in our experience, it is more likely to be noticed. However, if we have a gap in our experience from several years ago, and that was followed up by a period of relatively stable and consistent employment, a hiring manager may not be as concerned about that. If we have frequent gaps in our experience of several months, and they are more recent, then there will likely be some questions raised about that.
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  2. 2
    Where can we present the reasons for these gaps, in case we do need to address it
    ?
    We can place that information in the cover letter. If we have a gap in our experience on our CV, the CV or resume will not address why that gap occurred. We can place that information in a cover letter just to address any major concern. The explanation does not have to be long. It can be very brief, and more information can be provided in the interview. The goal of sending a CV and cover letter is to get the interview. If there are a lot of questions about gaps in employment, it may be more difficult to get called back for an interview, so we should try to briefly explain any large or frequent gaps that we have.
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  3. 3
    When we go to an interview, we'll be expected to explain the reason for departure from our last employer
    .
    This is especially true if we had a gap there. The best policy is honesty, to a point. Obviously, if the reason for leaving was problems with the management or personality conflicts, those are not good reasons to provide. From personal experience, I have one instance where in a job, I mutually agreed to resign. It simply was not working out for me in non-profits. When I left my job, I had a four month gap in employment, and I had to explain that. I took the four months to really consider what it was I wanted to do, and I also did some things that I was able to say helped me get my next job. I did inform my next employer that it was a mutually agreed upon resignation, and that non-profit was simply not right for me as an industry. That's why I was sitting in the Human Resources office of a hotel trying to get a hotel job and not another non-profit job. This is okay. It's entirely fair.
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  4. 4
    After we have provided our honest explanation, we need to be able to be able to explain what we did
    .
    Maybe we took time off to raise children or travel. Maybe we simply got fired, and we have been looking for a job for several months. Anything is possible, but how did we use our time?
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  5. 5
    Did we learn something new
    ?
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  6. 6
    Did we travel
    ?
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  7. 7
    Did we take a course
    ?
    We need to be able to explain how we used that time in our gap in experience, especially if it lasted several months. In my case, when I left my non-profit job, and before I decided to get into hospitality, I spent 4 months as a tourist in Chicago.
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  8. 8
    We can then tell them how our break helped, or how it will help
    .
    Going into the hotel industry in Chicago, I could tell them, "I just spent four months being a tourist in Chicago, and I know all of the sites. I know everywhere to go, and I want to help people enjoy their time here". It was a good enough explanation, and it absolutely helped me land the job that I wanted.
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  9. 9
    This concludes today's tutorial on how we may be able to explain some gaps in our professional experience
    .
    If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please leave them in the space below.
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Video: Show and Explain Gaps in Work Experience on CV or Resume

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Categories : Communications & Education

Recent edits by: priya, Hotelier

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