How To Hide Employment Gaps in a CV?

Wondering how to hide employment gaps in a CV? You probably are, unless you’ve been continuously from the day you finished school to today. And that’s highly unlikely because…well, life happens! Family situations, layoffs, you name it.

Whether it’s one employment gap or several, the approach people use to hide them is pretty much the same. Usually, what people decide to do is to “embellish” their work history by “extending” a few experiences (aka dishonesty in a CV). Regardless of our moral standpoint on dishonesty, this can bring you more trouble than it is worth. When thinking about how to hide employment gaps in a CV, we really discourage people from misrepresenting the truth.

Not only can you find yourself in an awkward position if your potential employer calls us your previous one, but some companies are really strict when it comes to this. If they at any point find out you were dishonest, it can only bring you problems. And no one needs that – you didn’t even get a chance to introduce yourself properly.

You’re probably wondering how we hide employment gaps in a CV as professional CV writers.

Well, in this article, we bring you a few tips & tricks for this particular problem, so keep on reading!

Don’t Mention “Personal Time”

One of the first rules for hiding employment gaps in a CV is simply this: don’t explicitly mention them. It is not really needed.

Some people are way too revealing, and they actually introduce their time not working as “personal time”. They do this either by mentioning them as an experience (within the work history section) or introducing them as a separate section. Even though it has nothing to do with work experience (and therefore shouldn’t be in their CV anyway).

When they mention “personal time,” they actually write out what they’ve been doing, for example:

05/06/2000 – 07/09/2002 – I have been taking care of my two babies and was unable to work during this period.

 

There is absolutely no need for you to do this – you don’t owe the reader any explanations, and you are not obliged to talk about your personal life at all. Sure, if something comes up later on, like in an interview or once you’re hired, you can share personal stuff. Only if you want to! But there is really no reason why you should reveal everything in your CV.

“Personal Time” as Experience

Just because you weren’t paid to do things doesn’t mean you weren’t gaining valuable experience! So, instead of thinking of how to hide employment gaps in a CV, focus on what you’ve learned and what you can use in the professional world. Remember, it has to be usable and you have to be able to present it properly as an experience.

For example, let’s say you took time off to take care of a sick family member. You can present it like this:

02/03/2010 – 06/04/2011     CARE ASSISTANT

– scheduled doctor’s appointments, organized transport to healthcare facilities

– provided emotional support and helped with daily hygiene

Or, if you’ve been a stay-at-home parent, you don’t have to hide it; you can also present it as an experience. Depending on how confident you are, you can name this “position” Event Coordinator, Home Activities Supervisor, or Educational Assistant, or you can stick to Stay-at-home Parent.
Whatever title you choose, make sure to present what you’ve been doing with business-appropriate vocabulary, for example:

– coordinated afterschool activities and ensured proper and regular socialization

– kept the house and yard area organized, tidy, and clean at all times

If you decide to go with this approach, be prepared to answer questions about it at the job interview. Some would say this is clever, but others fear it. At Linking Lines, we see no harm in sharing your parenting/family carer duties as long as you’re comfortable talking about it.

Use Years Only Instead of Full Dates

Here’s another useful tip if your employment gap was only for a few months. Did you know that this could easily be concealed by using years only instead of full dates? No one ever said you need to have the exact date.

Therefore, instead of this:

03/01/2017 – 04/03/2018

08/08/2019 – 03/02/2021

Simply write this:

2017 – 2018

2019 – 2021

This helps you hide the employment gap in your CV because you’re not telling the reader when you stopped working in 2018 or started working in 2019. For all they know, it was December 2018 and January 2019.

If you opt for this solution, you can hide the employment gap without being dishonest.

Just Skip The Employment Gap…

…and address it in your cover letter if you want. Remember, it is not mandatory.

You can say something like “after facing personal challenges” or “my time at home with my family made me realize”. Whatever you do, just remember to use business-appropriate language. Try to talk about your time not working in terms of how it was beneficial to you. What did you learn? What can you use in the professional world? How can you apply what you’ve learned in this company?

We at Linking Lines always try to mention the employment gap if it’s current. So, if you’ve been out of work for the past several months/years, definitely address it. Say something along the lines of “looking forward to getting back to work”, “finding new challenges”, “using energy for the benefit of the company”. It’s better to be upfront about it than confronted afterwards.

Key Takeaways

We’re all human, and if we happen to have an employment gap, this just means that we are out there living our lives! Things happen; be it parenthood, illness, or soul-searching. All of these are legitimate reasons and require your full attention, so, of course, you might not be able to work while you’re taking care of something else.

However, you need to be aware of one thing: the question of how to hide employment gaps in a CV does not have a universal answer. We’re all different, and each person requires a different approach.

The bottom line is that you don’t need to stress about how to hide employment gaps in a CV. You just need to choose your angle and present your time not working properly.

In the end, if a company rejects you because of your employment gap(s), do you even want to be a part of it? Who wants to be a part of an environment that doesn’t support you being human?

If you want to see what the other side thinks of employment gaps, check out this article. That should give you an idea. However, we’d like to invite you to take everything with a grain of salt. We’re all individuals and different people have different circumstances.

Confused?

If you are still confused about hiding employment gaps and writing a CV in general, don’t worry! You’re not alone. Not everyone is up for CV writing; it takes a lot of time and effort. However, we have made it very simple for everyone to learn how to write CVs like a pro! You can order your professional CV writing guide here. With this mighty Guide in your corner, you’ll learn all the right stuff the easy way. Apply the principles described in this book and get more replies to your job applications.

However, if this all seems too much or you haven’t got the time, contact our professional CV writers, and we will gladly take care of it.