Worried that your employment gap on your resume will make an unfavorable first impression on your employer? Well, let me tell you some ways by which you can make your employment gap less obvious to your hiring managers.
You might have taken some time off for your health or your family reasons. Or you might have been laid off by the company. Whatever may be the case, make sure not to speak of the experience in a negative light. If you seem too concerned about the off period, the recruiters will also feel that way. So, instead of feeling sorry, it is more important to emphasize how you used the time to remain up-to-date with the latest trends in the industry.
Tips to Make your Education Gap Less Obvious
Eliminating the months
When you worked at a position for more than a year, you can omit the particular month you joined with the month you left. Assume that you did a job for two years and left the company in February 2018. Let’s say you got your next job in October 2018. Then, to make your employment gap less apparent, you can skip the months. Let’s take a look at an example.
Example
Technical Lead, XYZ Company
2018 – Present
Programming Analyst, ABC Corporation
2016 – 2018
Simple, right? While it does not erase your employment gap, this simple approach makes it less obvious to your hiring manager.
Formatting the resume accordingly
Another simple method is formatting. Using different fonts for the job position and the dates will help a lot in this case. You may use a smaller font for the dates or put the other information in bold. Let us look at one such example.
Example
Technical Lead, XYZ Company
October, 2018 – Present
Programming Analyst, ABC Corporation
April, 2016 – February, 2018
See, it makes a big difference. Is it allowed? Yes, it is.
The position you held and with it, the skills you learned plus the accomplishments you have made are of far more significance than the dates.
As long as you are not lying and the dates are of acceptable font size, you can change the formatting.
Fill the gap with other activities
You might have done some independent projects, volunteer work, freelancing, or even got yourself certified during the gap. These experiences are as valuable as any other working experience. List whatever activities you took part in, along with the description and dates in a similar manner you listed your working experience, and the visible gap will hardly matter.
Leave out some of your previous jobs
If you are a veteran in your domain, you do not need to include all your previous positions. Leaving out irrelevant and unimportant job roles is an obvious thing to do. It will, in turn, make any employment gap less apparent to the recruiters.
Use a functional resume
The best strategy to follow while writing a resume is to focus on your selling points. In this case, to make a gap in your working history less noticeable, the focus of your resume should be on your skills and qualifications. Then why not use a different format altogether?
A functional resume highlights your skills followed by a summary of your qualifications. It is an absolute contrast from the conventional formats that showcase your chronological work history. Dates and job titles matter less here; instead, the main focus is on what you learned and accomplished in a particular job.
If you have long employment gaps and the previous tips do not seem to work in your case, opt for a functional resume. In other cases, stick to the conventional formats. The hiring managers tend to prefer chronological resumes over functional ones.
