Is a Resume Gap Ruining Your Job Search?

This week, Jeff and I are tackling one of the most stressful topics for any job seeker… gaps in your resume. It is so easy to feel like a few years, months, or even weeks away from the workforce makes you "unhirable," but we promise you that is just not the case. Whether you were caring for family, traveling, or just taking a breath to find the right fit, these periods are incredibly common and completely manageable when you have the right strategy.

In this episode we’re talking about:

• Why resume gaps are never a dealbreaker
• Using "Leave" terminology instead of "Unemployed"
• The magic of "Family Care Leave"
• How to list gaps like a regular job
• Turning volunteer roles into powerful experience
• The secret to "faking it" with consulting or freelancing
• How to explain the gap in an interview
• Upskilling during your time off

Listen in to help us, help you give yourself the best chance of landing your Next Job… NOW :)

Greg’s FREE Resume Template is available here: 

https://greglangstaff.com/resume-templates

Greg’s FREE Resume Writing Course is available here: 

https://youtu.be/z9oEbG1GhqM?si=qOCB3yLLnETzFEJY

Greg’s Resume WRITING Services can be found here: 

https://greglangstaff.com/must-hire-packages  

Greg’s Resume REVIEW Services can be found here: 

https://greglangstaff.com/resume-linkedin-reviews

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

If they ask you why you have a gap in your resume during an interview, we want to explain it, but we want to explain it very briefly. I was taking some time to reflect on what I wanted to do next to make sure the next job I dove into I was fully committed to. I searched around for a while. I was very excited to see this position become available because it's exactly what I'm looking for. This skill, this skill, this skill are the skills that I'm most looking forward to using in my next role. And I see opportunities to utilize those here. And it's just like any weird question like that where you might look bad with your answer, we want to flip it to, and that's why I'm so excited to be interviewing for this job.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Welcome to Next Job Now. The podcast where we help you get your next job right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Welcome to the podcast. I'm Greg Langstaff. I'm a certified resume strategist. I have written over 2,000 resumes, and I love helping people get new jobs.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

And I'm Jeff, and I have a lot of questions about job searching. Together, we're going to talk about everything you need to know about landing your next role. Today we are talking about gaps in your resume. Will they hurt your chances? And how do we talk about them during the interview?

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Before we dive into talking about all this gap-related stuff, we would love if you took a moment to subscribe to the podcast. Give us a like if we're on YouTube, leave a comment. We've started to integrate some user questions or some listener questions coming up. And uh yeah, we would love it. But let's let's get into talking about gaps in the experience, Jeff.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Well, I'll start with it right off the top. Having a gap on your resume makes you unhireable.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

I completely disagree. You are absolutely misinformed on that. Gaps in your experience on your resume are very common. There is no gap that is not overcomable. No gap. I've seen people get back after 10 years off. 10 years? Yep.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

Okay, we're gonna get we're gonna break down how. Let's get it throughout this episode. But does at any point a gap start to become a problem? Oh, it's hard. Like, should we be worried about a six-month gap, three-month gap, two-year gap, five-year gap, ten-year gap?

SPEAKER_01 2:38

No. Okay. Well, yes, a lot of questions there. Should you be worried about a six-month gap? No. Okay. No, everyone has had a gap like that. Like, especially between 2020 and 2023, if you had a gap in your resume, everyone knows why. You're fine. You don't even need to explain it in the resume. Now, if you were gone the entire time or multiple years, yes, we need to talk about how we would explain that in our resume.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

And how do we explain it in our resume? Are we listing it out being like unemployed?

SPEAKER_01 3:16

No. No, don't say you were unemployed in your resume. We're gonna call it a leave. So leave. Leave, yeah. So like education leave 2019 to 2021. And then maybe they see you got your master's.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Right? Or um, I mean, but that one's easy. Yeah, that one's family care leave is like my go-to. Yeah. If you've been off for any any reason, you had kids, parents were sick, um, you were unwell, your family moved, family care leave uh the covers all of that stuff, and it's like it's just so simple, it's very impolite, if not illegal, to ask what that means. So we just list it. We get in, we get out. Family care leave, start year, start date, end date. That's it. I usually advocate for putting the end date as being a few months ago, if you're unemployed. So I want people to see that and know, whatever I was doing, I'm not doing that anymore. I am now available. And sometimes we'll even write in a little bullet point. So, like family care leave, June 2024 to May 2025, and then a bullet point that says, like, temporarily departed from the workforce to care for an unwell family member now eagerly uh approaching a return to full-time work.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Oh, just like I was doing this, I'm done, I'm ready. Is that the only spot we list it? Like, do we bring it up in a cover letter or our professional statement? Like, how much attention do we bring to our leave?

SPEAKER_01 4:53

I wouldn't like dwell on it too long. The idea is just to answer the quick question like, why aren't these years covered in your resume? So we don't want them to think there was like a typo in our dates. We don't want them to think that we left something out nefariously, like a job we got fired from, for example. Uh, we just like, but that's it. Just quickly explain what they should be focusing on is everything you have done. And the problem with people who are worried about resume gaps is that they're so focused on the gap when the employer doesn't care about the gap, the employer cares about what you have done.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

So we explain it very quickly: a single line family care leave, family relocation leave, education leave, and then we move on. Can you fake a job to hide a gap in your resume? No, kind of. Kind of, kind of. Um, this is the most common move if you have like an extended gap, is to add a consulting section. Because it's for a lot of people, it's kind of true. They maybe helped a couple of friends who had businesses during this time, or maybe you were actually doing a bit of work for your old company or a client you had, but it was just like a week here, a week there. If you did a week of consulting in 2024 and a week of consulting in 2025, and a week in 2026, you can say you were a consultant from 2024 to 2026, and it can still look like a full experience in your resume. It's just there's a bit of onus to like put some detail in there so it feels substantial.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Does that count as professional experience?

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Heck yeah, it does. Even if you're not paid, just like consulting a friend's company. Totally fine. There's no world where the employer is like, and how much did you get paid for this consulting that you did? Right. You are gonna have to be able to answer questions about how you helped this company, what value you added, probably what specifically you did for them. You might not have to share the company name because it's very easy to say, I was bound by confidentiality agreement, not to mention who the who the like client was. Right. And that kind of covers us as well. That's another reason it's easy to kind of fake consulting. Um, I wouldn't, if you sat at home and just job searched in all earnesty and did not get anything, I wouldn't fake a consulting section on your resume.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

But if you did a bit of consulting, you can definitely, with ease and without explicitly lying, make it look like you were pretty busy for that entire time.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

What about outside of the consulting? So, like we don't consult, but we're active in our community and we are on boards or we're on um trying to think of like a function.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Oh, I got I got one. I got one. Like this, because this is a common scenario you're describing for parents of young children. Yeah, there you go. Uh so they might be on the board of like their the children's school. Yeah. Because it's not weird, especially for for moms to like be off for a few years when their kids are young, especially if you had a couple of them. Like that's super common, something people bounce back from all the time. And what we might do in that situation is change the title of that section of your resume. It should not say professional experience, but experience. And now when we've been like the chair of whatever the board on the school, um, or like whatever it is, the volunteer organization, it makes sense in that place. And we can still get into it with bullet points and describe it just like we would a job with nice accomplishments, nice details, showcasing all the skills we used, and it will look just as good as a job. And when you don't have an ongoing job, that's the next best thing.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

We've talked about this in the past. Volunteering can be as powerful as a job. You can make as much impact in a volunteer role than you can in a paid position.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Yeah, in this circumstance where it's a recurring volunteer role, usually with leadership responsibilities.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Yeah, of course. Like if you can land some sort of volunteer where you you're responsible for something and there's there's some tangible like events that you're helping support or money being raised, yeah, those are great to add.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Like, remember, Relay for Life used to be a huge Relay for Life is a great example. A person who planned that probably worked on it for six months and had like a$150,000 budget and managed 50 or you know, 200 volunteers, worked with like vendors to secure the stage and the sound equipment, and all got all the food vendors there and like the sponsorship. Like that was a full-on job. Yeah. If you showed up to do face painting there, I probably wouldn't put that in your resume. But for big, like recurring commitments with leadership responsibilities can absolutely be as good as a job.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Should I be doing anything during my gap? You talked about uh consulting, but what are your thoughts on freelancing, also volunteering, professional development, networking? Like those that's the core, right? Like keep busy doing those things.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. The the freelancing, whatever, like all that can fall under your consulting umbrella.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

But then your networking, absolutely. We talked about it uh in the episode last week, of like, and we even have scripts in there. So go back and listen to last week's episode, like when you've been laid off or you're just unemployed, uh, it'll work either way, to reach out to like the inner circle of colleagues you've worked with in the past to let them know you're available. Um, and then like, yeah, constantly upskilling yourself is also critical. Uh, edx.org, that's a website I was obsessed with when I was unemployed 10 years prior uh to today. And yeah, I like couldn't get enough of that. That also kept me sane during that time because like you're missing purpose, but at least you're learning. Because edX has like that's edx.org has all these free courses you can take from like Harvard, MIT. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

This episode is not sponsored, but it can be. It could be edX. Reach out, yeah. Okay, so we've we've addressed it on our resume, we've built a strong resume, we've taken our consulting work, our freelance work, we've volunteered, we've upskilled, we've done all the things. We get the interview and they say, explain this employment gap on your resume. One, is that gonna happen? And two, why do they care? And three, what do I say?

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Okay, one, are they gonna ask you about your employment gap in your resume? Yes, they might. Why did they care? Because they want to make sure that you weren't just kicking it out, you know, out on vacation or that you didn't like have some sort of problem during a previous job that made it hard for you to get your next job.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

And what was the third part of the question?

SPEAKER_00 12:16

What do I do? What do I say?

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Okay. If they ask you why you have a gap in your resume during an interview, we want to explain it, but we want to explain it very briefly. I was taking some time to reflect on what I wanted to do next to make sure the next job I dove into I was fully committed to. I searched around for a while. I was very excited to see this position become available because it's exactly what I'm looking for. This skill, this skill, this skill are the skills that I'm most looking forward to using in my next role. And I see opportunities to utilize those here. And it's just like any weird question like that where you might look bad with your answer, we want to flip it to, and that's why I'm so excited to be interviewing for this job. Nice.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

So let's not be too worried about our employment gap.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

No, people are so obsessed with their gaps, and like employers just want to know, like, is everything okay here? And you're like, Yeah, my my parents were unwell, so I had to go take care of them. Oh, okay. Like and not that we would say that, but saying like family care leave can kind of imply that. Um, and yeah, they just want to know you're you're good to go now.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Amazing. All right, well, now it's time for our unusual interview where we ask each other questions that we hope you never get asked in an interview. If you had to take a year off from working, you were not allowed to work anymore, Greg. How would you volunteer your time?

SPEAKER_01 13:53

You know what? My first instinct is to keep doing exactly what I'm doing, but like to support like people who are who are kind of like struggling with job search. Yeah. Like my dad used to volunteer to help like newcomers to the country to like uh adapt and like um get a new job and like get settled in and everything. And I think like a career expert would be really helpful for something like that.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

Uh I would love to also teach like local small businesses how to use social media to build out their business, all stuff I already really like doing. And then don't work a day in your life if you love what you're doing. I still feel like I work because I would be golfing more if I probably would be golfing more.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

You'd be golfing more.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Nice. So you'd keep doing what you're doing, golf a little bit more. Yeah, I guess so.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Nice. Okay, Jeff. Um, I have a like a really hard-hitting, tough question.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Ask me anything. I'm an open book.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

What is the best coffee?

SPEAKER_00 15:01

The best coffee?

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Not drip. I'll tell you that. Stop using that drip machine. Well, I know you're not talking to me. No. I mean, they say sorry, I say drip. There's like uh pour over is a a lovely coffee. Just not your machine drip coffee.

unknown 15:21

All right.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

What are you asking me right now? Are you asking me what bean is good? Do I like a an espresso versus a cappuccino? Are you asking me? I just in over my head. Craig's in over his head. I like coffee. I've gotten into coffee, and he's asked me what is the best coffee. I love to drink all coffee except for major chain coffees that don't make good coffee. I think coffee is something to slow down and enjoy. And your cup of coffee should bring you peace. And it should bring you conversation. And it should help you relax.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

I feel relaxed just listening to you talk about this.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Coffee is a calming drink. Sit down at the cafe on a rainy day, pull up on your laptop, plan a podcast episode, doze off, fall asleep, and then in 15 minutes when the caffeine kicks in, you're wired and ready to go.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Hey! Anyway, okay. Bottom line. My friends, don't worry too much about the gap in your experience. People get way too caught up in it. If you explain it nicely, or just leave it out, both tend to usually work well. As long as you are dead focused on making your actual work experience look as good as possible. For help with that, check out my website, GregLangstaff.com. Check out my YouTube page, Greg Langstaff Career Coach. I've got tons of resources to help you get your resume to a zillion out of ten and make sure that you're landing tons of interviews and getting a great job that you love.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

Alright, thanks for joining everyone.