Man writing a résumé and CV on his laptop dealing with an employment gap.
I started working with a new Baby Boomer client who needed help creating a résumé and also wanted interview coaching because she had a significant gap in her employment history. Monica, 62, went on to say that her dad had gotten ill and needed her help in a different state. She said, “I took family leave while my dad spent five weeks in the hospital recovering. He then needed to go to rehab, so I had to find a place that would take him. Then the social worker told us that he would no longer be able to live in his home anymore as my Mom just wasn’t strong enough or healthy enough to care for him alone anymore. I needed to find assisted living for him and my mother. I was overwhelmed in a new state that I didn’t know the system and hospitals. I asked the hospital social worker for direction, and she told me there was a list of assisted living centers online. I should start with those. It took me months to get through the situation, and when my family leave had run out, I still needed to stay and help my parents. My boss wouldn’t give me any more leave, so I was forced to quit my job.”
“Robin, caring for my parents, became a full-time thing. They couldn’t afford assisted living, so I moved in and did all the caregiving. It was four years until both my parents had passed away. I don’t know how to handle this long work gap on the resume. Should I tell them that I was a caregiver to my parents? Or do I leave it off? What should I do?”
Dealing with the Résumé
There are many reasons why you might have a gap in your résumé. Like Monica, you may have had to be a caregiver to your parents or take care of a sick child. You may have gotten ill yourself and had to take time off to deal with your illness and recovery. You may have lost your job, and it took quite a while to find a new one. When it comes to the résumé gap, clients are often anxious about what the employer is going to think about them.
The best way to handle this gap situation is to not mention it at all. Unless you are doing some professional work volunteering or attending college and taking classes to improve your skills, leave anything else off the résumé. Believe me, the recruiter will ask you what was going on when you get to the interview phase.
Handling the tricky Interview
Monica was able to put a few new skills on her résumé because of classes she recently had taken. Her background was in the accounting field, and she had been continuing her necessary education to keep up her license.
One of the first questions the recruiter asked her was why she hadn’t been working. We had rehearsed the answer, and she was prepared to deal with it positively so that the recruiter realized the situation has resolved, and she was able to return to work full-time. Here’s what she said. “When my father got seriously ill, I was the only child that could deal with the situation. I eventually had to move out of state to help my parents through the last years of their life. So I spent a great deal of time being a caregiver. Both my parents have passed on now, and I’m ready to return to work. I always took continuing education classes to keep my license up, and I made sure that I was reading the accounting journals so that I knew what was going on in the industry. I did take a refresher class from the state Association so that I could be up to date on any new changes that might be happening in the field. Also, I improved my computer skills. I am now an expert user of Excel and also capable of doing some statistical programs like R.”
Monica had thought out and prepared herself for what she needed to do to return to work. Some of you may have had an employment gap, and it was in the middle of your résumé or for a job that you had before your current one. You must be prepared to say what you were doing during that time. Keep it brief. For example, my client Mike described a 14-month search for new work by saying, “I was looking for employment, but I also was volunteering at the local Habitat for Humanity. At first, I was doing some labor work, but when they realized I was a great manager, they asked me if I could help supervise people. So I continued in that role during my job search. It was gratifying to know that we were helping people who were homeless be able to have a new house to live in that they would be able to afford and keep.” In this case, Mike not only told the employer he was job hunting, but he also mentioned the volunteer work that he did.
Employers want to know what else you were doing during your work gap. They like community service. They most definitely don’t want somebody who was just depressed and a couch potato. Be sure to write out an effective answer to this question. Knowing what you’re going to say is critical. Prepare by role-playing your answer with another person so that you’re comfortable with the response, and you come across confident that you can do the new job that the employer is trying to hire for.
