Gaps in the résumé attract the attention of recruiters. Whether voluntary time-out, termination, and unemployment, delayed entry into the profession, or a mental illness: If you have been unemployed for a long time, you have to sell it in your application. Glossing over, hiding, lying – these are bad strategies. Experienced personnel decision-makers see through this. They know most of the scams. There are better methods to ensure that gaps in the résumé do not become a problem when looking for a job or leave room for speculation. Examples of how you can professionally present the career break in your career.
What are gaps in the resume?
HR managers are trained to track down inconsistencies in the application documents. Gaps in the résumé, i.e., periods of non-employment, raise questions:
- Has the employee been fired?
- Why – underperformance, fraud, theft?
- Is the applicant a rather inconsistent candidate?
- Will he/she throw the gun at us again soon?
Long gaps in your CV raise doubts about the suitability and quality of a future employee. They invite you to speculate. And that is not good. It undermines the credibility, authenticity, and meaningfulness of your resume. It is all the more important to either – sensibly – close these gaps. Or to explain it convincingly.
When do you speak of a gap?
But after two months it needs to be explained and is critically questioned by HR staff. Gaps are longer professional breaks that you cannot fill or justify with continuous employment, vocational training/study, further education, or an internship.
Rule of thumb: Everything that goes beyond the period of two months and is not explained is considered a gap in the résumé. Four weeks – that can be an extended vacation that lies between two jobs or between graduation and starting a career. For example, to clear your mind. A longer phase in which you reorient yourself professionally is also legitimate. This can take six to eight weeks.
Gaps in the résumé are not bad
Which résumé is perfect? However, if they are covered up, the suspicion arises: The applicant was unemployed at the time – and for good reason. HR managers must react in this way in the interests of the company. Lots of job changes, inconsistencies, and various dropouts lead to the fear that the applicant will throw everything here again at the next opportunity. Or look for a better-paying job. Such candidates become expensive misconduct.
This is how HR-staff can recognize gaps in the CV
Indication: years instead of months
Normally, the professional stations in the résumé are given according to the pattern “MM / YYYY – MM / YYYY”, where “MM” stands for the month and “YYYY” for the respective year. This makes it possible to see exactly whether the individual jobs have merged “seamlessly” into one another. In the case of pure years, this is concealed.
Indication: experience profile instead of career
In this maneuver, only qualifications are listed in the chronological curriculum vitae without classifying them in time.
HR professionals have long known all of these tricks. Accordingly, they sense an attempt at deception and at least ask if the applicant is invited to an interview at all. We therefore strongly advise against this type of CV cosmetics.
Closing-gaps-in-the-résumé: Tips and tricks
Ultimately, you have only two alternatives to deal with breaks and gaps in your CV: You fill in the gaps with credible facts. Or you can be honest and come up with a convincing explanation. We’ll show you how this works below. It is funny, but not recommendable, to answer the question about a gap in the résumé with flippant phrases like “Was cool!” Or “Envious?”. This only reads well as an internet meme.
Courage to open gaps: explain gaps that are not
In fact, some loopholes are not at all and therefore arouse understanding in every reader. You can close this with a brief and plausible explanation:
Change of studies
You made a mistake in your choice, of course, the subject is not yours. Now orientate yourself again, but you have to wait for the next free space. Everything is not broken and can be explained by university formalities. Only if you change your subject every couple of semesters does that cast a bad light on you. If possible, use the waiting time for internships or work in a student organization. Dropping out of your studies is therefore not a gap if you then reorient yourself and actively seek alternatives. Example:
Wrong: Studies, then dropping out
Right: Studying Arabic, at the same time being involved in refugee aid
Career start
Even if starting a job takes longer than planned, very few HR managers take that offense. Young professionals in particular enjoy an extended grace period of up to six months, which they should fill with a few days of practical experience or internships. You are picky about your first job – but please never idle! Example:
Incorrect: Jobseeker
Correct: Further training to become a specialist in education
Illness
Anyone who is ill for a long time or has to care for a seriously ill family member does not need to camouflage or gloss over it. You don’t even have to name the disease itself (for example cancer) – it’s a private matter! It is enough if you limit the time period exactly and write down what happened, for example, “Time out for health reasons”. You can underline your motivation by the fact that you are now fully operational again. Example:
Wrong: Time out due to illness
Right: Time out for health reasons, now full recovery and readiness for action
Care
The care of sick relatives should also appear on the résumé if you have had to cut back on your job. It would be good if you can prove during this time that you have at least kept yourself up to date professionally. Example:
Wrong: Time out for private reasons
Right: Caring for the seriously ill father
(Brief) unemployment
Temporary unemployment in the past does not have to be concealed either. After all, you found a job again afterward. Such phases occur. But then please also describe what you have done during this time to find a new job. This not only proves commitment but also determination. Example:
Wrong: Unemployed
Right: Professional reorientation, advanced training in programming languages (Java, Python)
Explain real-gaps in the curriculum vitae
Some loopholes are not so easy to explain. To be honest, they contain their own weaknesses and mistakes. Nobody is perfect, of course. But how can you sell such gaps in your résumé?
Gap in curriculum vitae due to termination
You have been fired, lost your job, and have been looking for a new job for several months. Vain. In that case, it is important to first distinguish why you were terminated:
Not at fault
Has your department been shut down, for example as a result of a company merger, restructuring, or corporate crisis? Did the company cut jobs on a large scale, for example, because it got into financial difficulties? Has your ex-employer even gone bankrupt? Unlucky luck: In this case, you can mention your dismissal with your head held high and possibly even enclose a press release with the application. In the curriculum vitae, the phrase: “Head of the department at Flop AG, termination due to insolvency” is sufficient. After all, it wasn’t your fault that you lost your job.
Self-inflicted
Whether out of antipathy, stupidity, or poor performance does not matter: You were fired because of your own failure. Point. A résumé is limited to the facts. Even the most convoluted affirmation or justification only proves: You have a guilty conscience (probably even rightly). Then stick to the facts. In the latter case, you can limit the damage – with the following tips:
- Wording
Don’t mention the termination, anything more. Beware of explanations or attempts at justification. They have no place in the résumé and always have a negative effect. Especially when you try to blame a lousy boss, bullying colleagues, or general antipathy. Even if it’s true – don’t say a word about it. You can only lose and look like a whimper who doesn’t want to take responsibility. Your employment relationship ended then and then. Period. - Layout
There are two variants of how CVs are structured today: “chronologically” – or “American” with the current position first. Since both are allowed, you should choose the order in such a way that your previous (good) performance appears there first and the matter of the termination, if possible, only on the second page.
Gap through persistent-unemployment
In that case, you need to get creative. But even more actively counteract the suspicion that you are lazy on the couch at home and hope that a suitable job will open up. That is why you must pursue a two-pronged approach: You continue to apply for jobs, but you also receive further training – through qualifying (!) Trips, language courses, advanced training, internships, and observations. In this way, the gaps have no chance of becoming such according to the above definition. For the résumé this means specifically:
- Choice of words
If your unemployment is still current, then please do not describe yourself as “unemployed”, but rather as “looking for work” – that sounds more active. It is even better if you turn your personal dilemma into a positive one, for example: “Professional reorientation, goal: positioning in the area of sales management”. That seems more self-confident, more committed, and shows your goal orientation. - Measures
Mention all qualifying measures on your part: a kind of self-study in which you have taught yourself blogging as well as HTML and social media marketing; social commitment to honing your knowledge of human nature for sales; Internships (even unpaid) that have helped you sharpen your professional reorientation and become more aware of your core competencies and passions. In particular, further training on your own initiative is worthwhile. They increase the prospect of a raise. That is the result of a representative TNS Infratest study. 87 percent of HR managers said that further training on their own initiative promotes professional advancement, for 78 percent it was the reason for an increase in the employees’ salaries. When it comes to hiring new employees, even 77 percent look to this initiative.
Gaps are rarely an exclusion criterion
It is clear to every HR manager that the job search can sometimes not work. In that case, he or she wants to see how committed and courageous you are in countering the situation. Any gaps in the résumé are rarely an exclusion criterion.
You must play with open cards and provide good explanations. Most specialists and managers today have one or two breaks in their vita. OK then! Such detours signal: the person had courage, does not shy away from changes, was able to gain experience, and is also not afraid of failure.
Gaps are ok, lies are not
To put it bluntly: of all the variations that are supposed to spruce up breaks in a résumé, lying is the worst choice. The shot almost always backfires: Anyone who invents activities or further training for this purpose and is then asked about it in the job interview not only finds himself in need of explanation but loses his reputation for good. Incorrect information in the curriculum vitae is a reason for termination – without notice, even afterward. In the job interview, they mean the immediate end.
The “makeup” of parts of life is also a bad disguise. Some consultants seriously recommend pimping the extended trip to Australia as an “intercultural educational trip” or brushing over the period of unemployment with all sorts of word bells of the type “phase of intensive potential analysis”. Seriously: how stupid do you think the reader of your application is? And if you actually assume that he has an IQ of toast to make him believe it, why do you still want to work for such a company? Exactly.