How to make your resume more interesting
You haven’t worked for two years and you’ve found your dream job. But: How do you want to explain the gaps in your CV to your future employer? No problem! We explain how you can sell your time off from working life to your advantage.
“Make sure you don’t have any gaps in your resume. Employers don’t like that at all and then your application will very quickly end up on the rejection pile”: These were the words that my parents gave me when I started my professional life.
Accordingly, I was always careful to get through my professional life relatively smoothly – and so far I have been extremely successful. But it is also clear to me: parental leave, children or caring for family members are just a few examples of situations that you cannot prepare for.
Accordingly, as a young person of 20, 30 or 40, it would be very presumptuous to claim that there could never be gaps in your own CV. That is why the judgment of gaps in applicants’ CVs from the perspective of HR managers is outdated and arrogant.
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What are CV gaps?
But basically, many applicants ask themselves the question: What is officially a gap in the CV? HR expert Vanessa Weber says in one column:
According to the definition, there is a gap in your CV if you have not been employed for more than two months and have not completed any further training during this time.
Accordingly, the parent who stayed at home with their child for three, four or five months to accompany and shape the development has a gap in their CV, as does the person who used the time after leaving school to do so by three months to explore the world with a backpack.
3 examples of gaps in your CV – and suitable explanations for your application
1. The World Tour
Explore the world after school. Many employers immediately create images of party-mad graduates who get uninhibitedly drunk. So that it doesn’t get that far in the first place, it is essential to explain the background and insights of your trip.
Have you possibly learned a foreign language or gained social qualifications by working as an au pair? Then you should mention it accordingly and also list these skills accordingly.
2. Parental leave and family time
Unfortunately, despite all social developments, the idea that the man works and the woman stays at home and takes care of the children’s education is still very widespread.
As soon as men want to stay with their offspring for a longer period of time and sometimes stop working for half a year or a longer period of time, condescending words are often spoken.
It is therefore important that you explain the gap in your CV in your application. On the other hand, your commitment to the family shows that you are an empathetic person who takes responsibility and is also committed to equality.
There are quite a few professional fields and positions that involve private cuts. Anyone who works up to 60 or 70 hours a week as a manager, doctor or pastor simply has no time to get involved in society.
It is therefore not surprising that sooner or later these people in particular reach the point of wanting to give something back to society. They take a break and get involved in the community, refugee aid or otherwise for several months.
You can then list newly acquired social skills as an explanation for your application. You also emphasize in this way that you are actively committed to change and change and do not blame other people for this.
Gaps in the CV: Honesty is the decisive factor
This list can of course be continued. However, all downtime, breaks and commitments have one thing in common: You should be open, honest and transparent with them throughout the application process.
Anyone who tries to cover up or conceal any gaps in their CV and is caught doing so will be branded a liar. And that in turn reduces the chances of getting the dream job much more than any gap in your CV.
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