[Sticky] 5 Impactful Ways to Mention COVID-19 Career Gap in Your Resume

Summary : Did the pandemic put a break in your career? Wondering how to justify that work gap in your next interview? The article gives you fruitful tips for rebuilding your resume.

Introduction

They say — “Health is wealth”.

The effect of this proverb can be seen clearly in the pandemic stricken era of today. 

With its contagious nature, COVID-19 has forced people to stay at home. Though good for containing the disease’s spread, this condition hit a serious blow to the global economy. Many businesses witnessed a sharp decline in the number of customers. Consequently, the revenue of these trades came down considerably. This in turn, resulted in a situation where a huge chunk of the working population lost their jobs.

The next obvious step for these folks was to apply to other openings. But because of the not-so-good market scenarios, one usually faced challenges in bagging their desired job. And this led to unemployment till the next job, which is also known as the career gap. 

These gaps then become a topic of interest in the interviews. Employers do evaluate the skills of the candidates on the basis of these breaks. Hence, people put great efforts into justifying these professional gaps.

If you too are going through a similar phase, then it would be wise to rebuild your existing CV. To help you, here is a list of five proven tips that will give you an edge to crack your next interview:

1. Highlight your layoff on your resume

One of the prime questions that interviewers ask the experienced applicants is the cause of leaving their last job.

Hence, it becomes necessary to mention that your smooth career was interrupted by the pandemic downsizing. The ideal spot on your resume to do this will be the cover letter. Thus sharing this crucial information will clear the employer’s hesitations while considering you for the job.

Besides, to tackle this crisis, many platforms have stepped forward to connect the employers and the job seekers. Thus acknowledging the layoff will also be your key to scoring more interviews.

2. Mention genuine career gap details

Traditionally, work gaps have proven to be rough bumps in the path of the next jobs. Hence, many people try to whitewash the facts of their career break.

But this time, the merciless pandemic stands as a genuine cause. Employers are aware of the unfortunate layoffs by various businesses and organizations.

So unlike the usual cases, this work pause will not be the parameter of your job performance. Besides, your valuable skills and experience will speak louder than these tough circumstances. For these reasons, your work gap details need no further refinement on your resume.

3. Make your work gap productive 

While talking of the work gap, interviewers get curious about how you utilized the duration.

Hence adding new skills and experiences on your CV will leverage your chances in the interviews. For this purpose, you can update yourself with the knowledge of the latest developments of your work domain. Besides, you can also mention any volunteering work that you have recently done. Another option can be to offer your services for a temporary duration in the form of a freelancer..

All of these points will showcase your proactive attitude and dedication towards your profession.

4. Pick a different format for your resume

In most cases, applicants are encouraged to shape their CV in chronological format. That is, the latest work experience will be mentioned first in the list of your job roles.

However such a resume style will make your work gap look huge. So, a smart alternative will be to restructure your CV as a skill-centric one.

With this pattern, you can show your work under the headline of individual skills. As for the name of the organizations and the duration of the assignment, you can place them at last. Something like this:

Outstanding communication skills

• Attended daily stand up calls with international clients
• Prepared explanatory documents for the product

Leadership

• Trained the freshers on ticketing tool

Experience

• Solution Inc, 2018-2020             

5. Mask the months of your work duration

Another way for tackling the employment gap on the CV is to drop the month names from the experience. This hack will give a crisp look to your resume without emphasizing much on the break.      

For example: 

• Solution Inc, 23rd August, 2018 –  8th May, 2020

This work experience should be tailored as:

• Solution Inc, 2018-2020

Conclusion

Your CV is the face of your career. Interviewers contact you after going through your resume.

So, if you’re scoring interviews, then it’s a great breakthrough in your post-break job seeking plan. That is, the recruiters know of the career gap but they believe in your skills.

For this reason, it becomes important to work on the foundation of your efforts– your resume.

And now when you are sitting with your potential employer, the next step is to crack that interview. This victory will be acquired when you are confident. This confidence, in turn, will be the reflection of your valuable learnings and true experiences.

But if you are still unclear of the skills to add to your resume, then visit https://digital-writopreneurs-hub.teachable.com/courses

What other doubts did you face while framing your resume? Please tell us in the comments below.

Written by: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisha-ahmad-70b71a1aa /” target=”true”> Alisha Ahmad, Digital Writopreneur and Content Writer

Edited by : Rajinder Soni, Coach and CEO of Digital Writopreneurs Hub