Career Coach Reveals How To Professionally Explain Any Gaps In Your Resume

There are plenty of reasons why you might have a gap in your job history, from time out traveling to health issues.

But how do you address these gaps when you're searching for a new job? Some employers can see a gap in employment as a red flag when hiring and may even discount potential employees altogether because of an unexplained period without work.

If you're looking for a new job but have a gap in your resume, career coach Greg Langstaff told Newsweek how best to handle it.

Certified resume strategist and former recruiter Langstaff has more than 600,000 followers on TikTok, where he shares everything from interview tips to resume support.

In a video with 1.3 million views, he shared how to handle employment gaps in your resume.

"I talk to people who are leaving their job every day and most have some kind of gap in their resume," Langstaff told Newsweek. "I'd say nearly half of the 1,000 or so people I've worked with have some gap—whether its two months or two years. It has been particularly common in the last three years since COVID, too."

While there are many reasons that you might have a gap in your job history, there are right and wrong ways to list them on your resume.

"Employers do tend to understand that gaps happen, and recruiters are usually more concerned if they see a pattern of gaps," said Langstaff. "For example, if you work somewhere and take six months off, then work somewhere else for eight months and take a few months off, then they're going to be worried about your staying power."

"They're trying to identify you as someone who is reliable," he added.

In the viral video, Langstaff explained that any gaps that were more than five years ago should simply be omitted from your resume. Similarly, if your gap was under a year ago, don't mention it.

For maternity leave, listing as "parental leave" on your resume is a better option. If you took time out for school, Langstaff recommends listing it as "educational leave."

For those laid off, you can list the time between roles as "post-layoff job search" and if you couldn't find a job, leaving you with a space in your employment, it can be listed as a "personal sabbatical."

"Most of the time we're battling in our resume. We don't know who is reading it and there's a whole host of possible biases that hiring managers might have, both conscious and unconscious," said Langstaff. "This is one of the reasons I advise people to think about how they explain gaps."

For family issues, Langstaff recommends listing your employment gap as "family care leave," a term he also advises if you've had a period of medical leave or personal health leave.

If you moved and had a gap in your employment while finding a role in a new place, he suggests using "relocation leave."

"In most places you're not allowed to discriminate against someone for having a health issue, but it's so hard to enforce that, so we can protect ourselves from that bias if we think about how we share that information," he explained.

When it comes to deciding how you word your employment gaps though, Langstaff said it is really about personal preference.

"The only thing I would say to absolutely never say is a flat out lie. If you're caught in a lie, it can cost you the job," he said. "The rest of it is really a matter of your personal comfort."

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