Anonymous asked: What is the best way to address gaps in employment? Should time not not related to employment be mentioned? What is the best way to note this information?

There are several ways to handle gaps in employment. Depending on how many “gaps” and when they occurred, you can address them directly in a cover letter, on an interview and in a specific type of resume style known as a functional resume. Gaps shouldn’t be something necessarily that you want to hide, providing they are addressed in such a way that you benefited, learned something, or helped someone else.Even if due to layoffs, clarify that they were company-wide—but most importantly—you always bounced back quickly! For example, taking a year off after graduation to tour Europe: you may have learned more there about history and how cultures developed in response to economic and war eras, or perhaps you took time off to raise a family and learned much about delegating tasks, multi-tasking, running an operation and managing everything, while being psychologist and so forth to children. Or perhaps you did volunteer work (“During that time, I was treasurer of my PTA) that directly impacts on the job you want now and shows your trustworthiness. Accentuate the positive in your own background at all times. A functional resume is one in which your strengths, accomplishments and skills are categorized (ie: administrative; customer service; office management) and occupy two thirds of the resume. Your professional experience is listed at bottom with just the company name, city and state and years duration (no months). Then, of course, comes Education and special training, if any, under “Continuing Professional Development.” Community Affiliations and Professional Associations, if applicable, can then follow. There are sample resumes for all styles, including functional, on most job search sites. You can google them and find resume sites as well to take a look and fashion your own in a particular style. The shift and emphasis is off the place and duration of employment and onto your offerings as a professional. It is different from the usual chronological resume where you list the last employer first and the rest in descending order as long as those are relevant and not too far back passed 10 or 15 years, tops. In your accompanying cover letter, you can then Briefly mention what the gaps were for and how they benefited you—so you “cover” yourself (no pun intended). You always want to be positive and just as in a radio show if you’re a deejay, you want to avoid dead space, you don’t want to give the impression that you lack a work ethic. Employers try to find out all they can about you to paint a picture in their minds and judge you as fit or unfit for their job. They are afraid too that you would leave them abruptly in the lurch, so you want to prevent that suspicion and present yourself as skillfully as possible at all times, whether you worked or not. Your cover letter and resume are your marketing tools. Treat them as such! Best of luck.

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