Dealing with time gaps on your resume

If there's one thing that puzzles job seekers, it's dealing with "blemishes" on their resume. In this recession, people are increasingly worried about the time gaps between positions, which I'll address in this email.

As you may know, Jobfox is also one of the largest resume writing companies on the Internet. In fact, we write more resumes per month than our next five competitors combined. This gives us a unique vantage point, to both see and repair thousands of resumes per week. I recently asked the manager of our resume writing service to pass along her wisdom on how to deal with the time gaps issue, which I've included in this email.

It might be helpful to know our perspective: Resumes, not candidates, get chosen for the "to be interviewed" list. In a perfect world candidates would be selected based on their strengths and experiences. In reality, this isn't how the process works. A recruiter chooses the short list of candidates from a pile of resumes. Said another way, your resume will determine a employer's course of action long before you get a chance to explain the time gaps on your resume.

Here are a few ways to address gaps on your resume:

* Short Time Gaps (2-6 months): Most often time gaps like this are related to periods of unemployment. Many candidates attempt to "fix" this through deception, either through stretching their previous employment period, or making up a fictitious consulting arrangement. We're not fans of this approach. While it might get your resume an extra look, it will almost always result in you being eliminated when you are found out by the employer, either in the interview or the reference check.

Honesty is the better approach. In most instances we recommend a resume entry that states why you left the previous company (e.g. Company experienced financial hardship which resulted in the marketing department being reduced by 80%) and how you spent your time during the gap (e.g. During my extended job search I volunteered at a local homeless shelter and took online courses in Web marketing). These tactics can help you overcome the biases that you were terminated for performance, or that you weren't a motivated job seeker.


* Long Time Gaps (6+ months): These come in two flavors, either because you've had significant difficulty in finding a job, or perhaps you are reentering the workforce after a sabbatical. Again, we recommend detailing the reasons for your sabbatical, as well as what you were doing during your time off.

The bias you are trying to overcome is one where the employer imagines that you've interviewed at a large number of employers, and you're been consistently rejected (thus, why should I bother?). There's nothing wrong with saying you were taking care of your kids, volunteering at your church, or getting additional education - all are better than allowing a recruiter to draw her own conclusions based on bias. I once saw a resume that had an entry that said:

May 2001-April 2002: Prosperity Break
After 15 years in the workforce I decided to pursue my dream of traveling the world. My wife and I purchased a used sail boat and traveled throughout the southern hemisphere while home schooling our children.

Not only did this entry catch my attention, it made me want to interview this courageous and motivated person who seemed to have a good perspective on life balance.

I hope this information will reduce your anxiety and help you refine your job search. If you'd like to learn more about our resume writing services you can click here.

Best Regards,