CEO Shares The Most Impressive Way To Explain A Resume Gap During A Job Interview
It's all about turning it into an impressive growth opportunity, no matter the reason.
PeopleImages.com - Yuri A | Shutterstock The dreaded "resume gap" — not only does it often foil applicant-tracking software, but it can arouse immediate suspicion in employers and recruiters, causing job seekers to lose out on positions.
Yet one business owner said it's all in how you spin it. What employers are actually looking for in candidates, he insisted, is evidence that their career gap was actually all about growth.
The CEO shared the most impressive way to explain a resume gap in a job interview.
"Whether you took time out of your career for family, travel, or other personal reasons, how you answer this question can impact job chances,” said Yassin Aberra, founder and CEO of Social Market Way, a Baltimore/DC-based digital marketing agency.
That can understandably have you sweating bullets. However, Aberra said the question about a resume gap is actually an opportunity. "There are great ways to handle this question that will likely impress your interviewer."
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He shared five crucial ways to approach this question that will allow you to manage perceptions of the gap on your resume and maybe even spin it into a developmental asset you have that many other candidates don't.
1. Be honest about your career gap.
Aberra said the first step is to just come clean. Trying to hide your resume gap is unlikely to work in today's age, where the internet and especially apps like LinkedIn provide access to so much information about you — not just from your own online presence but from your connections as well. Get caught fibbing and you've already blown your first impression.
2. Explain the gap or break.
Aberra recommended that when you're inevitably asked about it, just plainly state the "principal reason" you took time away, whether it was a layoff, a family situation that needed tending to, an illness, or a trip around the world.
"Whatever the reason, discuss it completely openly in the Interview," he advised. "Your openness will be seen as a winning attribute by your interviewer."
And if it isn't? Well, you've just dodged a major bullet, because an employer who judges you for these things is sure to be problematic to work for eventually.
3. Spotlight the takeaways of the gap.
Even if they're not necessarily hard and fast on-the-job skills, Aberra said to highlight any and all takeaways you gleaned during your time away from the workplace. Life experiences and fresh perspectives from a year traveling the world are just as valuable as, say, the accounting skills you learned from taking over your elderly parent's finances while caring for them.
"These experiences can be portrayed as character assets that an employer may want to invest in by investing in an enriched you," Aberra said.
4. Showcase your involvement while you were away from the workplace.
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Many of the things we do during resume gaps are valuable in-office experiences, from volunteer work to continuing education or online certifications we took on to fill the time. Even personal projects can bring valuable development that applies to a job.
Aberra said to think long and hard about any aspects of your time away that can be spun this way, and then highlight them in the interview. Not only does it show you kept those professional muscles flexing, but it "can showcase your involvement in and commitment to life, [and] these are virtues that most employees will appreciate."
5. Communicate your passion for working again.
Before I began my current job, I'd been traveling around the American West and parts of Europe for about two years, freelancing here and there to keep gas in my car and money in all those little campground payment envelopes. (So, so many campground payment envelopes.)
Naturally, my boss had one major question, which she asked five different times in five different ways, just to be sure: Do you even actually WANT a job? Of course, I didn't — who does?! But I wasn't going to tell her that. Instead, we talked about precisely the things Aberra recommended talking about.
He said to make it obvious you're looking forward to being a part of a great team, being valued for your skills and contributions again, and getting back to honing and enhancing your skills. Make it sound like as much as you loved your time away, parts of you miss the ol' office — just be careful about "overselling yourself," he added.
In the end, your resume gap is all in how you spin it.
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.