CV advice Career gap

thebman

Hi guys,

I googled ways around this but they say to just put down the years instead of months of employment to hide a career gap.

This kind of seems dishonest in a way and extremely obvious too. I mean if I was recruiting, its the first thing I'd be looking out for. Others say to just put a note explaining it but that seems to just be highlighting and saying look at my career gap not my experience.

Should I just be honest and put down the career gap on CV and hope to get to interview to explain it? I have it on the CV at the moment and have gotten interviews but I usually am so self-consious about it that I become nervous when discussing it and I think that comes across badly in the interview.

I'm more concerned that I'd be passed over for someone without a career gap even though I have the experience and would be better at the job I think than most other candidates as I have excellent experience and the references to back it up.

herya

What were you doing during the gap - anything that makes sense, like taking up more education, raising a family, travelling, volunteering? If yes, just leave the gap and add a one line explanation, i.e. I decided to leave company X to spend a year gaining additional skills in xy.

WexCan

I wouldn't draw attention to it but at the same time I wouldn't go to too much trouble to hide it. Make a big deal about your experience and a gap really shouldn't matter.

jeckle

I think it’s better just to include the year & a simple one-sentence explanation, that way at an interview you can concentrate on selling yourself rather than worrying about what you’ll say if asked or if you are going to be asked, or getting confused about dates.

It can sometimes come in handy if stuck or during an awkward moment in an interview that you can throw in that you have sown your wild oats travelwise & want now to concentrate on your career, or that you have experienced other cultures – stuff like that.

If you’re applying for a particular job & you feel that the gap would look bad then you can always tailor your CV to just show years, but the main thing is that you don’t include unexplained gaps.

AARRRGH

A friend of mine took a 1.5 year career gap. He was honest about it in his CV and in interviews - he simply wanted some time off to work on his house, travel and relax. He said it was never a problem; if anything, the only reaction was jealousy from the interviewers!

thebman

Hi everyone,

I decided not to go with the year thing, makes me feel deceitful and I don't think it would work anyway so I'll just explain my case at interview.

Thanks for all the advice.

jeckle

thebman wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I decided not to go with the year thing, makes me feel deceitful and I don't think it would work anyway so I'll just explain my case at interview.

Thanks for all the advice.

I think you're right. Try it that way - if it's the case that you are being given a hard time at interviews over it well then you can have a rethink. Don't worry too much about it - just be well prepared in other aspects for your interview.

Best of luck!

InReality

Try not to think/feel about any time out of the workforce as as a big deal or something "bad".

Otherwise the interviewers could pick up on this in the interview and you could end up spending a lot of time on it.

homerjk

I have a gap on my CV, it actually says 2008 and it hasnt caused me a problem. I dont mention it in the cover letter either.

I've had 4 interviews in the last month with it. I had one recently and the first question they asked was about the gap, I explained it and one of the people on the panel said "thats great, at least you have that over and done with"

miec

Hi Op

You can turn a career gap into something postive. I worded my career gap as 'career break in favour of further education' with the month and year. What I would say also is that you have a number of transferable skills from that experience, (well depending on what it is).

I would also use it as 'career break in favour of full time parenting' or 'travel' etc., I think you are right to be straight about these things.

thebman

Hi guys,

So interview went well and the career gap wasn't a problem at all once I was honest.

CEO said I ticked all the boxes and he'd confirm with the other interviewer and they'd let me know as soon as possible.

Thanks a lot for all the advice.

thebman

Just to update this, I got the job offer today and I wanted to come back and thank you all again for your advice. I appreciate it a lot especially the people that gave examples of other career gaps and how people dealt with them as it gave me the confidence to just be up front and honest with confidence which meant that it never really became the focus of the interview and we just moved on and talked about the things that mattered