Resume Work History – How to Deal With Gaps in Your Professional Work Experience

“If you’d like to get the job you want — quickly, before having to sell your firstborn child to survive, then this information may be critical to your job-searching success.” Is your potential employer telepathic? No! — then he or she will most likely battle trying to understand why you have a two and a half year gap in your resume work history?

The conclusions that will be drawn by your potential employer as a result of this, are scary to say the least.

They might think you skipped over a job because it did not suit your career objective, or that you never worked at all during the unaccounted period on your resume. All gaps in your resume work history need to be explained in writing, so don’t make things more difficult by purposefully leaving gaps.

Apply these 6 general rules to gaps in your professional work history.

1. Unaccounted time less than 3 months needs no explanation. Anything more than 3 months need to be explained in either a cover letter or via e-mail.

2. Never leave it up to your prospective employer to assume your reasons.

3. Be completely honest. This way you will have no concern about them cross checking your background and references or being caught off guard with surprise questions during your interview.

4. It is far better to explain any gaps in your resume work history than being deceptive and getting caught.

5. Even if some of the jobs you have held don’t relate to your objective statement, be sure to list them anyway. Explain the reason for these jobs on your cover letter or in an email to your prospective employer

6. It’s imperative to keep a positive and upbeat tone when giving reasons for your professional work history gaps. Never sound apologetic — There is a thing called ‘Life,’ — and it happens to all of us at some time or other. A positive and energetic attitude will show your prospective employer your ability to remain focused on your career.

Use these 3 proactive steps to remaining competitive, should you find yourself in a period of unemployment:

1. Volunteer your time and experience to community projects, consulting and freelance work.
2. Stay in touch with people who have similar background and experience by
3. joining community classes at a college or community center in order to keep your work skills sharp.
4. Stay abreast of new developments in your field by subscribing to a magazine or get newly published books focusing on latest developments and changes in your field.

At the end of the day – honesty and integrity go a long way…so stay positive and always be honest. Show your prospective employer that you are the ideal candidate for the job by focusing on your qualifications, experience, achievements and education.

Find out all you can on how to handle gaps in your resume work history. This is really important.

By: Jerry Pohn

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