Handy Resume Writing Tips to Explain Gaps in Your Employment

If you have ever felt that you were particularly unlucky for having to deal with the problem of writing a resume with gaps in employment, you really should know that there are few people out there who aren't in the same situation you are in. People often get laid off, they have to take time out to take care of a new baby in the family, and sometimes they just take time out to find themselves and travel. Taking time out feels fine at the time; it isn't until you try to put it down in a resume that it begins to look a little dodgy. Here are a few resume writing tips on how to work around a gap in your work life.

In your resume and at your interview, you want to be truthful about the reason you had to stay away from having a job. But you don't want to labor the issue either. If for example, you had to stay out of work to take care of a child with a learning disability, you want to quickly mention this in a sentence and not take it up again. If for instance you were fired from a job, that of course could be a bit difficult to explain. You could try to mention quickly that you made a mistake in spite of your best intentions, and you have learned from the experience.

What does look bad on a resume is time spent away from work that a candidate completely stayed out of touch in. One of the most important resume writing tips to explain gaps in employment can have has to do with explaining adequately how you stayed in touch through your time away from employment. You need to be able to say that you attended conferences to do with your profession, that you took an online course, that you worked as a consultant or as a temporary worker, and so on. In other words, a gap in your employment history isn't as bad as you think unless it has been a gap unrelieved by periods of engagement in professional activities.

And finally in our set of resume writing tips to explain gaps in your employment, try your best to spin it positively to bring out how they were skills you learned in your time away that might still be useful yet. For instance, if you took time out to help a sick mother for three years, you can use that to show them how helping those who are elderly and sick can require a great deal of patience, a great deal of tact and a wonderful bedside manner. This can be of great use in any kind of work that requires people skills. If in that time, you helped manage a book club for your child or something, it could be particularly useful.