How best to explain parenting gaps on CV

logie101

I have been a stay at home dad looking after 3 young kids for the past 10 months. It was a choice that both my wife and I made in the best interests of the children.

However now I am wanting to return to the workforce I am wondering how best to explain my absence from the workplace from my CV?

_Brian

By telling the truth ?
Just call it as it is...

Boom_Bap

No need to explain it on your CV. But if you are asked in an interview, repsond exactly how you have explained it here.

logie101

_Brian wrote: »

By telling the truth ?
Just call it as it is...

Yes this is the most obvious and really the only real thing to do.

I suppose why I was posting was to hear from some H/R people or employers as to their thoughts on a stay at home dad having paternal leave on their CV.

It seems to me to be way more acceptable for women to have gaps on their CV from being at home with children.

Glinda

This is something I struggle with also - gaps in your CV are a real no-no, but is it really acceptable to say you took time out to raise a family, or worked part time so as to be with your kids when they were small? This seems to me to be not in the 'professional' vein of other information on the CV. Sorry, OP I don't have an answer for you, but hopefully someone on here has figured out a good way of dealing with it and we'll both get some good ideas!

Lux23

I would put in the date as follows.

March 2013 - January 2014
Parental Leave

No gap on your CV and it is pretty self explanatory. Any company that doesn't value you the work you do as a father is not a company that you want to work for.

BizzyC

+1 on "Parental Leave"

leaving the gap on your CV diminishes the likelihood you'll get called for an interview where you can explain it.

eviltwin

Being at home with your kids is work in itself, its not like you were at home doing nothing. You develop skills as a parent you might not have had previously, patience, organisation etc all improved for me when I was at home. Try and see your time at home as a plus because that's what it is and as others have said any company who can't see that aren't worth working for. Best of luck with the job hunting.

Glinda

I'm not saying the time at home isn't valuable, but there are a very large group of employers out there for whom an unexplained gap in a CV is a complete no-no. It is also true that including personal information (like I spent time raising children or I took time out to care for my elderly family member) would definitely be off-putting. It shouldn't be, but it is, especially if you are competing with people who have no family 'complications' for the company to feel they might need to accommodate in the future. It is also not really their business and I wouldn't generally share information about my family circumstances with prospective employers because it shouldn't be relevant to whether they hire me or not.

I wonder if anyone has come up with an elegant solution that sounds professional on the CV but is truthful? For lots of parents (especially mothers) they may not have taken time out altogether but they will have periods of maybe part-time work or a few years where they didn't progress or took a job that was at a low level for their qualifications because it was easy and they needed to be able to concentrate on other things for a few years.

Can employers read between the lines? I suspect not.

CatFromHue

eviltwin wrote: »

Being at home with your kids is work in itself, its not like you were at home doing nothing. You develop skills as a parent you might not have had previously, patience, organisation etc all improved for me when I was at home. Try and see your time at home as a plus because that's what it is and as others have said any company who can't see that aren't worth working for. Best of luck with the job hunting.

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Firefox11

Glinda wrote: »

I'm not saying the time at home isn't valuable, but there are a very large group of employers out there for whom an unexplained gap in a CV is a complete no-no. It is also true that including personal information (like I spent time raising children or I took time out to care for my elderly family member) would definitely be off-putting. It shouldn't be, but it is, especially if you are competing with people who have no family 'complications' for the company to feel they might need to accommodate in the future. It is also not really their business and I wouldn't generally share information about my family circumstances with prospective employers because it shouldn't be relevant to whether they hire me or not.

I wonder if anyone has come up with an elegant solution that sounds professional on the CV but is truthful? For lots of parents (especially mothers) they may not have taken time out altogether but they will have periods of maybe part-time work or a few years where they didn't progress or took a job that was at a low level for their qualifications because it was easy and they needed to be able to concentrate on other things for a few years.

Can employers read between the lines? I suspect not.

:eek: I'm glad I don't live in as cut throat and unforgiving world as you do!:eek: