How do I explain the gap on my CV after a career break?

‘How do I explain the gap on my CV?’ is one of the most frequent questions we get asked. It’s a good question and one that causes many of our returners considerable angst. But, not anymore... 

Victoria McLean, CEO of City CV, ran a fantastic session on this topic at our Women Returners conference last year. And, we’re delighted she’s agreed to come back this year. The session is really interactive and packed with expert tips and insider knowledge of the recruitment market – it’s definitely not to be missed.

As a taste of what’s to come, we asked Victoria to give us her top tips for writing your return to work CV and making the most of LinkedIn. Here’s what she had to say:

Top Tip #1: Never undersell yourself on your CV 

I feel a lot of people, women returners in particular, undersell themselves on their CV. It’s not about bragging, but a stand-out CV really needs to demonstrate the benefits you’ll bring to an employer. Your added-value needs to sing out from every line. Most people find that a bit daunting at first, especially after a career break when so many women forget just how great they are. My advice is – don’t panic, we’ll cover loads of ideas in the conference session.

There are several ways to turn a gap on your CV into a positive selling point - make sure to include all the relevant skills and experience you've acquired. I'll talk about this in more depth at the conference. We’ll also be looking at how to hone in on those key strengths and skills. And, how to optimise your CV with key words to get past the Applicant Tracking System (ATS). 

Top Tip #2: LinkedIn is a valuable tool

When it comes to LinkedIn, I feel very few people are really making the most of it. That’s a shame because it’s a valuable tool. Around 99% of recruiters use it to search for suitable candidates and to check you out before inviting you to interview.

It’s really worth investing in your LinkedIn profile because it’s not enough to just copy and paste your CV. LinkedIn requires a different approach; it’s less formal and more dynamic than a CV. And, as you’d expect from a search engine run by algorithms, key words play a massive role. Your LinkedIn summary is the most important part of your profile and it should set out your business case with keywords and using all of the 2,000 characters available. It's really important to get the first two or three lines just right so recruiters are motivated to click 'see more'. 

Even if you’re completely new to LinkedIn, don’t worry. The conference session will boost your confidence and get you going in the right direction. If you’ve already got a LinkedIn profile but feel you could be doing more with it, we’ve got some ideas for that too.

Thank you, Victoria. We’re looking forward to learning more at your session. 

Victoria McLean, CEO of City CV, will be running a conference session on how to write a compelling, impressive CV and Linkedin profile, including how to position your career break. She will also be running a breakout session on Interview Skills.

Where & When? 

The 2020 Women Returners London Conference is on:

Monday 12 October 2020: 9.00am to 5.30pm (rescheduled)

Venue: 10 Union Street, London Bridge, London, SE1 1SZ – just a few minutes walk from London Bridge station.

This is our fourth annual London Conference especially for professional woman interested in returning to work after a career break. It’s a highly motivational and inspiring day packed with expert speakers, panels and workshops. 

This conference is for everyone looking to return to work after a break. It doesn’t matter what your professional background is or whether your career break has been 18 months or 18 years. Join us for the opportunity to meet informally with other like-minded women and our returner employer sponsors, including Amazon Web Services, Bloomberg, Credit Suisse, FDM Group, J.P. Morgan, O2 and St. James’s Place Academy.

Early Bird offer

Our Early Bird ticket offer is available. Book your ticket now to secure your place.

Make your CV stand out: Use Action Verbs

If you’ve taken a long career break it could be many years, and possibly even decades, since you last wrote a CV. Don't just redo an old version, as CVs are now written in a very different way (see How to Write Your Post-Break CV).

One of the major changes is the shift from talking about your past responsibilities to highlighting your achievements. Gone are the days when simply describing your previous roles was enough to secure an interview. Now you need to explain what you achieved in previous jobs which made you stand out. 

We suggest you aim for 3-5 bullet points for each of your previous roles (and for your career break if you have done any work/volunteering/studying or developed skills in other ways such as relocation). 

Beginning your bullet point with an action verb is a great way to start off.


What are action verbs?

These are some examples:

achieved     completed     conducted     implemented    improved     negotiated

produced     secured        created         established       launched     developed

organised    revitalised     evaluated      restructured     simplified    drove

Why are action verbs important in your CV?

• Action verbs describe your past achievements in a compelling way that highlights your strengths and suitability for the role you’re applying for. 
• Action verbs keep bullet points short - particularly important if you have lots of past experience and are trying to keep your CV to the recommended maximum two sides of A4. For example, ‘Delivered XYZ project on time and within budget’, reads better than ‘I was responsible for delivering XYZ project on time and within budget.’
• Action verbs have more impact. They are specific, strong and powerful. If a recruiter has lots of CVs to sift through, action verbs make your achievements stand out. They also help if employers use applicant tracking software programmed to look for specific words to describe the experience needed for a role. 
• Action verbs help you to be specific in describing what the results of your actions were and how you achieved them.
• Action verbs can highlight your relevant skills/competencies (see below)

Which action verbs should you use? 

• Scan the job advert and job description, similar job ads in the same industry, and the company's website to see which verbs they use. Describing your past experiences using these words will give you the best chance of making your CV fit the bill. 
• Look at this action verb list which groups action words by skills group. Think about which skills you want to demonstrate - again, matching this back to the skills/competencies asked for on the job advert
• Don't use the same action verb more than twice. Use an online thesaurus or the action verb list to avoid repetition and keep the recruiter's interest.

Do read our other blogs How to Write Your Post-Break CV and Return to Work CV Tips for other advice on writing your back-to-work CV.


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How to Write your Post-Break CV

When you're launching yourself back into the job market after a long career break, updating your CV can feel daunting. However, this is your chance to convince a prospective employer that you would be a good investment for their company and so it's worth taking the time and effort to get it right. Bear in mind that employers can receive hundreds of CVs for every advertised job, so you need to make sure that yours stands out (for all the right reasons!)

Some returners think that a skills-based CV would be a good idea to try to 'hide' the career break. However, we wouldn’t advise this approach as we find that recruiters usually find it irritating to have to piece together your work history. It’s also worth noting that if you’re applying to a returner programmes, your application may be passed over if you cover up your career break.

We recommend sticking with a clear structure, such as this:

• Heading: personal & contact details 
• Profile 
• Key skills (optional) 
• Career history 
• Education / training
• Languages (if fluent) 
• Interests (optional) 

Heading

• Don’t use the heading “Curriculum Vitae”, as the sifting software typically used in recruitment these days may think that this is your name!
• Instead put your name as the central heading, with your contact details (email/phone) underneath. 
• Don’t include a photo or your date of birth, age, gender, marital status or details about your children as these have become inappropriate on CVs following discrimination legislation.

Profile

• Open with a profile statement, describing in 2-3 sentences the highlights from your background and qualifications, adapting this to the job opportunity as much as possible. 
• State you are returning to work after a career break. 
• If you are shifting sector/role, you can also state that you are looking for opportunities in [target sector]. Otherwise you don't need an objective. 

Key Skills (optional)

• For each job application, tailor your skills to fit the requirements set out in the job description. Try to use their key criteria words, as the first CV screen may be performed automatically by keyword sifting software. It also means that the recruiter does not have to work as hard to understand why you would be right for the role. 
• Avoid a laundry list of generic skills (strong team player, highly-motivated, etc.) as this won't impress anyone! Use specific skills such as strategic planning & implementation, procurement, digital media marketing, etc.

Career History

• In this section, list your experience in reverse date order
• For each job, give 3-5 bullet points for specific achievements and contributions, not just your responsibilities. Quantify achievements if possible.
• If you have a long career history, it's fine just to list early career role titles.
• Include your "Career Break" as a section with dates. You can include a reason for your break (e.g. parental career break; career break for caring responsibilities) but you don't have to. 
• Include any work you have done during your career break, including running a business (no matter how small!) and freelance projects. Also include any skilled volunteering roles you held during that time (e.g. School Governor, Charity Treasurer). A LinkedIn study from 2011 found that 41% of hiring managers consider volunteer work to be equally as valuable as paid work, so don’t hide this experience in a voluntary work section at the end.

Education / training

• In addition to your highest-level qualifications, include any relevant training you have completed during your career break, even where this was a short and/or online course.
• If you don't have recent work experience, but your break has included significant further education or professional qualifications, you may like to put this section before your career history.
• There is no need to include your A-Levels, GCSEs (or O-levels) or school (unless specifically requested to do so)

Interests

• Don’t list bland interests (e.g. reading, cinema, etc.). Only include those that are relevant, unusual or impressive (e.g. society memberships, triathlons, etc.), otherwise there’s no need to include an interests section at all.

Final words of advice

• Appearance: Use font size 10-12 and write in the third person with no pronouns, for example: “Reduced the month-end accounting timetable by 3 days”.
• Length: Keep your CV to 2 sides and aim for about 1,000 words. This means you need to include only the most important pieces of information, so prioritise and leave the rest out.
• Format: Make sure the CV looks good on the page and that the formatting is perfect. When emailing your CV, it is best practice to send it as a pdf to avoid any ‘format jumps’ that can result from viewing an editable document (such as a Word document) on a different device.
• References: It’s no longer necessary to give details of references or to say "references available on request", so leave this out.
• Grammar / spelling: Check that there are no spelling or grammatical mistakes and that you have been consistent in tense with all your verbs. When you are happy, ask a friend to look over it for you with a fresh pair of eyes for any errors you may have missed.

Once you’ve perfected your CV, it’s time to think about your cover letter. Read our how-to guide to get started!

For further advice and support in your return-to-work journey, you can sign up to our free network here. 

Note: Original post from 2014; updated in May 2018

How to Write a "Back to Work" Cover Letter

We find that returners often struggle with cover letters, which can raise a lot of questions:

• How do I introduce myself when I've been out of the workforce for so long?
• Do I mention my time away from my career and how do I explain it?
• Is my previous work experience relevant when it was so long ago?
• How do I avoid just repeating my CV?

We’ll give you our top tips and help to answer these specific questions below.

General Principles

• It’s essential to create a new cover letter for every application. Employers sometimes receive hundreds of applications for each job role, and will be quick to disregard generic applications. It’s your job to make it as easy as possible for the hiring manager to understand how you would fit into their organisation. 
• Length: No longer than a single A4 page. Your cover letter shouldn’t rehash your CV, but is the opportunity for you to pick out the most salient points for the role and put them across to the hiring manager in the most succinct way possible.
• Address your cover letter to the hiring manager if you can find his/her name.
• Your email address: As you’re likely to be emailing your cover letter, make sure that you have a professional email address that ties in with your CV. Don’t use your husband’s or family’s email address, or an email based on your married name if you’re applying using your maiden name. We would recommend creating your own personal email address for job applications, based clearly on the name in which you are applying.
• Check for grammar and spelling mistakes – it’s easy to miss these, so try to get someone else to proof your letter too.

Suggested Structure

Start with a clear introduction

• Start with your background and your target role, not your career break (e.g. "I am a marketing professional with 10 years of international experience and am writing to apply for the position of Senior Marketing Manager advertised on your website").
• Then mention your career break. Keep mention of your career break short, simple and factual (e.g. “Following a 5-year parental career break...” is sufficient) and emphasise that you are now motivated and enthusiastic to return to work in the relevant field.
• Briefly mention anything you've done during your career break that is relevant to the role (such as further study, refresher courses, volunteer or paid activities and projects), stating how it has kept your knowledge/skills up-to-date and/or allowed you to develop new skills.

Explain your suitability for the role

• Show how you fit the top 4-6 requirements of the role (in the job advert), using evidence from your previous work experience and relevant activities from your break. Resist the temptation to list other skills that are not specifically mentioned in the job ad.
• Avoid stuffing your cover letter with meaningless buzzwords, such as ‘team player’ or ‘good eye for detail’ and instead, give concrete examples of your accomplishments that match the role requirements.
• Remember that, however long ago it was, you did lead a department, manage projects, produce reports, negotiate contracts or whatever your former role required. You still have these skills, even if you haven't used them for a while.
• Your former experience includes both what you did and how you got it done, i.e. both your technical abilities and your soft skills. Even if your technical knowledge feels a bit rusty, you have the same capacity to learn as you always did and you will get back up-to-speed. Your soft skills don’t go away, and many will have grown during your break. For example, although we don’t recommend using parenting as a direct example in your cover letter, if your break was to bring up your children, you will have enhanced skills such as time management, empathy and negotiation!
• You might be having trouble remembering some of the details of your earlier career. If so, dig out your old performance reviews and any other reports you might have kept. Re-reading these can also remind you of what others valued about your contribution in the past: these will be the qualities that you offer a new employer too. You could also contact old colleagues, who will have a more objective view of your achievements and could provide you with a much-needed reminder of what you did.
• If you are applying for a role where you are overqualified, address this in your cover letter. Put yourself in the shoes of the hiring manager, consider the possible concerns from the company's side, e.g. that you may be too expensive, that you might get bored, etc. and explain why you are applying for a less senior role than you previously held.
• For returnship programme applications:
• Make sure you mention that you have been on a career break, including the length of your break at the time the programme starts. This is a key criterion for candidates and you risk being excluded from these opportunities if you try to cover up your break!
• There may not be specific role requirements, beyond ‘significant experience in one or more relevant areas’. If this is the case, use this space to list out 3-6 bullet points explaining the experience you have in the relevant area(s).

Finish with your motivation

• Explain why you are interested in the role and why you would like to work for the organisation. Make this specific to show your interest and understanding. Base your comments on your research into the company and the job/department, using social media such as the company LinkedIn page, Twitter account and Facebook page alongside the website.
• For returnships and/or flexible/remote working roles, it’s very important to show that you're motivated by the organisation (and the specific job role if relevant), and not just the opportunity to get back into the workforce and/or work flexibly/remotely. Show how you can benefit the company, not the other way around!

Good luck!

For further advice and support in your return-to-work journey, you can sign up to our free network here.


Note: This is one of our most popular posts from 2015; updated in April 2018.

The 'CV gap' barrier: Evidence it exists & how to get over it

One of the reasons that Katerina & I set up this blog was because we were feeling frustrated by continual media reports equating a career break with career suicide. We wanted to offer a more positive voice of encouragement and advice. So I was a bit reluctant to start this post with some dispiriting news, but have decided that it's better to accept the reality of the practical barriers faced by returners - then we can work out how to tackle them.



Research into CV Gaps - The Bad News

As a psychologist, I'm always checking for evidence to test my beliefs. I have heard many stories from highly experienced career break women of sending out scores of job applications and never even getting an interview. And conversely I also know a few women with 5+ years out who have found top positions through applying to job ads. So I'm always looking for research to check whether the 'CV gap' really is such a major block to being hired. 

That's why I was interested to read about a recent study into the barriers faced by the long term unemployed. Rand Ghayad sent out 4,800 job applications to 600 job ads, changing only experience and length of unemployment. He found there was an “unemployment cliff” at 6 months of unemployment: an applicant with relevant experience who had been out of work for over 6 months was 3 times less likely to get an interview than someone with no relevant experience who had been out of work for a shorter time. Ghayad hypothesises that employers believe that "individuals with long nonemployment spells may have their skills atrophy and as a result become relatively less productive." So employers think that skills deteriorate after 6 months out of work ...

Clearly involuntary unemployment is not the same as a voluntary career gap, but it's not too much of a leap to see how this finding might be relevant to women whose work experience dates back a lot longer than 6 months. So we're not imagining things ... if you send out a job application for an advertised role, a lack of recent experience can lead to your CV being ignored by prospective hiring managers, regardless of the level and relevance of your previous roles. 

7 Ways to Tackle the CV Gap Barrier

Acknowledging this is a real practical barrier, doesn't mean it is insurmountable. What are some solutions if you want to get back into paid employment?

CV-based solutions

DON'T use a skills-based CV to try to 'hide' your break - recruiters usually find these irritating as they have to piece together your work history. 

DO clearly state the years of your 'Parental career break' to avoid confusion  
DO remember to include ALL work-related activities during your time out:

1. Include 'professional' voluntary and community work alongside your old employed roles under work experience, not in a separate section. A 2012 study found that relevant voluntary work can be valued just as highly as paid work by recruiters. A City recruitment director told me last week how impressed she was by an applicant's career break position as Governor of a high-performing school. For other examples see our previous post on managing a CV gap

2. Don't undersell any business ventures you have undertaken. One of my clients didn't include a jewellery business she had set up in her break as she felt it was too small scale to interest a corporate recruiter. In fact this was clear evidence of entrepreneurial and business development skills.

3. If you have undertaken any project or freelance work, however minor, include this as 'self-employed work' in your work experience.

4. If you don't have recent work experience but your break has included further education or professional qualifications, put your Education & Qualifications upfront. Look out for skills update or refresher courses in your area to boost this section.

5. Make sure that you have a Linked In profile and that it is consistent with your CV - don't start it with the role you left x years ago!

Alternative strategies to applying to job ads

Nothing new here, but worth reiterating that sending your CV out for advertised jobs is the least likely way to get back into the workforce.

6. Use your contacts to find your next role and avoid getting lost in the demoralising recruitment black hole

7. Find a returnship or create your own. One of the reasons we're so enthusiastic about returnships is that they provide recent and relevant CV experience, as well as potentially leading to permanent employment.

Do you have any other ideas?

Posted by Julianne

What about the gap in my CV?

Susan* a former accountancy firm partner who stopped working when her family relocated for her husband’s job, consulted me when preparing for her first job interview in 14 years.  She feared that she had been out of the workforce for too long to be of interest and we talked through the kinds of questions she might encounter.  A few days later, Susan emailed me ‘…. he did ask "why now?" and when I started with "I have been a stay at home mum for 14 years..."  he cut me off and said, "And I think that is wonderful!  My wife is a doctor and she made the same decision when our children came along and you can see it in the quality of our children".   It was such an unexpected vote of support -- not what we read will likely occur when interviewers see the CV gap -- that I thought I should share it with you.  It might help others to realise that there are interviewers who understand the choices we have made because they share the same values.’

It is so easy to believe, looking at the world of employment from the outside, that we are the only person who has a significant gap in our CV.  We tend to focus on all the things that we haven’t done to build our career while we were not working: we forget about all the skills and experience we built up before our break and those we might have acquired since we left employment.  While some employers will still be most interested in what you did before your career break and might not even ask about the gap, recent research has shown that unpaid work can improve your employment prospects.  The study, (Wilkin, C., & Connelly, C. (2012). Do I Look Like Someone Who Cares? Recruiters’ Ratings of Applicants’ Paid and Volunteer Experience International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 20 (3), 308-318) concluded that voluntary work is valued by recruiters where it is relevant to the application and that even if it is less relevant, it can complement relevant paid experience by demonstrating altruism, co-operation and a work ethic. 

Think about all the activities you've engaged in as part of your communitiy responsibilities or volunteering and consider how they have provided opportunities to refresh, enhance and add to your experience and skills.  These endeavours are equally as relevant to your CV as roles for which you were paid - and can adequately fill the apparent gap.  One client, researched, created and managed a home education programme for her severely disabled child, co-ordinating nine different professional advisers while on a break from marketing and selling technology.  Another contirbuted her previous media experience and her organisational skills to an election campaign.  I filled my gap by becoming a trustee of an international humanitarian aid charity and Treasurer of a school PTA.  Whether we get involved in local politics, a religious community or a charity role, we are doing something of value, for ourselves, the cause, and for any future employer.

Posted by Katerina