How to Deal with Gaps in Your CV
As a headhunting firm looking to attract suitable jobseekers, we advertise available positions on our company’s official website. CVs that come in through the web are incredibly varied.
I’ve run into a few candidates who openly and truthfully display gap periods in their personal CVs. Although employers always ask about the causes of CV gap periods, candidates who provide honest and clear explanations usually win their approval.
There can be numerous reasons for the appearance of a gap period: family, further education, personal health, voluntary resignation, being unlucky enough to run into downsizing, or just plain quitting on impulse.
Headhunters want to deal with honest candidates. Voluntarily bringing up these issues is definitely better than waiting for them to come up during a background check. At the beginning of the conversation, proactively bring up any gap periods. At the same time, explain in detail how you kept your skills and knowledge in top form during the gap, as well as what exactly you were up to during the time in question.
Executive career counselor and author of Get the Job You Want, Even When No One’s Hiring, Ford R. Meyers, agrees that the best approach is to face the problem head on, not to place your hopes on the employer not noticing. He says: “Bring it up directly. Explain your decision to quit to the interviewer in a professional and non-regretful manner.”
