This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
SEH writes:
How do you build a ‘“good resume” if you have LOTS of gaps in your job history?
I know that in order to get in to explain to someone face to face, you need a way to get your foot in the door, and trust me, with my resume, I’m not going anywhere!
Employment gaps are always a challenge when developing a resume. Small gaps are not that unusual anymore as the employment landscape has changed over the last decade or so. If you have a large gap — or multiple gaps — however, you will need to be a bit creative in dealing with the issue.
The ideal situation is when you can show you were doing something productive during your employment gap — getting additional training, education, certifications or working part-time, freelancing, consulting, or volunteering.
If you were ill or dealing with a family emergency, or simply out of the workforce by choice, your best bet may be to develop a functional resume. A functional resume is organized around three or four skills areas (such as communications, leadership, customer service, project management, etc.). You then list key accomplishments from all your experiences within each skills cluster (such as, directed marketing campaign that doubled annual sales over a three-year period while industry growth remained stagnant).
Be forewarned that employers and recruiters look suspiciously at chrono-functional resumes. However, for some job-seekers, a chrono-functional resume is really the only choice; thus, the key is then developing a superior resume that wins over even the most diehard skeptic (and keeping your chronological resume handy in case the chrono-functional version isn’t effective).
For more tips and advice, read this article from Quintessential Careers: How to Handle a Gap in Your Job History.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.
This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
J.R. writes:
I have a 2-year employment gap on my resume. I took some personal time off for mental recuperation, but I know I can’t say this in an interview. How can I fill this gap or make it look somewhat better?
On your resume: I would suggest that you consider converting your chronological resume to a chrono-functional format. Chrono-functional resumes focus on your accomplishments in key skills areas; your employment history is summarized at the end of your resume — and gaps become less apparent. You can read more about functional resumes in Should You Consider a Functional Resume?
In the interview: It’s best to position this employment gap as time well-spent on improving or challenging yourself. If you took some educational courses (or even just read a lot), you should focus on the attainment of new skills and knowledge; if you volunteered your services, you should focus on your accomplishments; and if you did some consulting, you should focus on the gap as a time to spread your wings and try to make it on your own.
As you can tell from these examples, you need to position the gap as having some redeeming value — besides improving your mental health.
Finally, remember that while you are self-conscious about the gap, some interviewers may never even notice it … so don’t volunteer potentially negative information; wait for the employer to raise the issue before offering an explanation.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.
This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Anonymous writes:
I am a 27-year-old female student, currently unenrolled, and looking for work. The problem is that I haven’t held a job in quite a long time, since I was 17, and I really don’t know what to say when I’m asked what I’ve been doing, because I had some trouble and had a brief hospital stay. What do you say and how to respond without letting on my disability?
I think you really have two very tough issues to deal with, but I think the tougher one is your lack of experience, not your disability.
When you were a student during these last 10 years, what were you doing? You need to review all these years of school and see if you can develop a list of experiences — they do not need to be work experiences — where you have used, developed, honed skills. For example, have you done any class projects or major research studies or reports?
You will probably need to develop a chrono-functional resume. Please read Should You Consider a Functional Resume? to get more tips and advice.
As for your disability, I would suggest reading a great new article on our site, Job-Seeking Strategy for Differently-abled Candidates. You also need to know your rights. Wikipedia provides a good overview of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.
This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Rajan writes:
I have a resume that has large employment gaps. This may be OK for females, but for males, it is a no-no. I have tried different types of resume styles. Nothing.
I don’t get interviews. Is there any way to increase the number of interviews?
How should I explain my resume? At one time I stopped looking for work for about 1.5 years, the biggest gap to explain.
Then I did telemarketing and took a course in it. Telemarketing is not for me. I have stopped again for about 10 months. I don’t want to sit around. Right now I am looking for work as a network administrator. I have a background in hardware and software development, but I can’t move. In this area there is not much call for tech work.
The first rule of job-hunting is never expose a weakness to the employer — and never do it before you’ve had a chance to have an interview and build a case for yourself. Yes, employers do worry about employment gaps — for both genders — but you can do some things to make the gaps less obvious and to project yourself in a better light.
First, I would recommend you experiment with a chrono-functional resume that focuses on your technical achievements and skills. If you already have one, then I suggest you ask a professional colleague, mentor, or resume professional to evaluate and critique it for you. My guess is that you are so focused on these gaps that this weakness comes through on your resume.
Second, plan a strategy for explaining these gaps. Were you doing volunteer work? Were you taking classes? Were you working part-time or as a consultant? You will need to fill these gaps with something so that it doesn’t seem as though you were just sitting home all that time (even if you were).
Third, are your technical skills current? If not, you might want to take a course or two to make you more marketable.
Fourth, once you have a professional resume and feel more confident about yourself, you need to go back into the job market. And don’t worry so much about location, as there are definitely high-tech jobs where people work from home at least some of the time. Use all the tools available to you to find a job — your network, the Internet, etc.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.
This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Jim writes:
I was wondering if you could advise me on how best to prepare a resume when you have gaps in employment so as not to magnify the gaps and disadvantage yourself.
Let me start by saying you are wise to think about this issue. A resume is basically a marketing tool whose purpose is to help get you an interview. Thus, given this focus as a marketing tool, your goal in writing a resume is to make it a positive and informative selling tool.
There are two basic formats for resumes: chronological and functional.
The typical resume is a chronological one, which shows your employment history starting with the most current and working backward. This type of resume works best when you have a specific career path and each of your jobs shows progression along that career path.
The functional resume is often used when you have employment gaps or when you are trying to make a change from one field to another and you want to emphasize your transferable skills, not your old career path.
Consider trying a functional resume, or better yet, a chrono-functional resume organized around skills clusters but including a bare-bones job history. Sit down and analyze the key skills you have developed and honed from your previous employment and use these skills sets for the bulk of your resume. Toward the end of your resume show an employment history, but you can do it in such a way as to de-emphasize the gaps. Note that even chrono-functional resumes carry some risk as many employers and recruiters don’t like them and suspect the job-seeker is hiding something. It’s best to experiment with a chrono-functional version, but be prepared to return to the chronological format if the chrono-functional doesn’t seem to be working for you.
And please be prepared to answer the question at the interview. Employers will want to know why there were gaps.
Finally, to get more information, links, and books about resumes, please visit Quintessential Careers: Resume Resources.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.
This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
SEH writes:
How do you build a ‘“good resume” if you have LOTS of gaps in your job history?
I know that in order to get in to explain to someone face to face, you need a way to get your foot in the door, and trust me, with my resume, I’m not going anywhere!
Employment gaps are always a challenge when developing a resume. Small gaps are not that unusual anymore as the employment landscape has changed over the last decade or so. If you have a large gap — or multiple gaps — however, you will need to be a bit creative in dealing with the issue.
The ideal situation is when you can show you were doing something productive during your employment gap — getting additional training, education, certifications or working part-time, freelancing, consulting, or volunteering.
If you were ill or dealing with a family emergency, or simply out of the workforce by choice, your best bet may be to develop a functional resume. A functional resume is organized around three or four skills areas (such as communications, leadership, customer service, project management, etc.). You then list key accomplishments from all your experiences within each skills cluster (such as, directed marketing campaign that doubled annual sales over a three-year period while industry growth remained stagnant).
Be forewarned that employers and recruiters look suspiciously at chrono-functional resumes. However, for some job-seekers, a chrono-functional resume is really the only choice; thus, the key is then developing a superior resume that wins over even the most diehard skeptic (and keeping your chronological resume handy in case the chrono-functional version isn’t effective).
For more tips and advice, read this article from Quintessential Careers: How to Handle a Gap in Your Job History.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.
This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
J.R. writes:
I have a 2-year employment gap on my resume. I took some personal time off for mental recuperation, but I know I can’t say this in an interview. How can I fill this gap or make it look somewhat better?
On your resume: I would suggest that you consider converting your chronological resume to a chrono-functional format. Chrono-functional resumes focus on your accomplishments in key skills areas; your employment history is summarized at the end of your resume — and gaps become less apparent. You can read more about functional resumes in Should You Consider a Functional Resume?
In the interview: It’s best to position this employment gap as time well-spent on improving or challenging yourself. If you took some educational courses (or even just read a lot), you should focus on the attainment of new skills and knowledge; if you volunteered your services, you should focus on your accomplishments; and if you did some consulting, you should focus on the gap as a time to spread your wings and try to make it on your own.
As you can tell from these examples, you need to position the gap as having some redeeming value — besides improving your mental health.
Finally, remember that while you are self-conscious about the gap, some interviewers may never even notice it … so don’t volunteer potentially negative information; wait for the employer to raise the issue before offering an explanation.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.
This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Anonymous writes:
I am a 27-year-old female student, currently unenrolled, and looking for work. The problem is that I haven’t held a job in quite a long time, since I was 17, and I really don’t know what to say when I’m asked what I’ve been doing, because I had some trouble and had a brief hospital stay. What do you say and how to respond without letting on my disability?
I think you really have two very tough issues to deal with, but I think the tougher one is your lack of experience, not your disability.
When you were a student during these last 10 years, what were you doing? You need to review all these years of school and see if you can develop a list of experiences — they do not need to be work experiences — where you have used, developed, honed skills. For example, have you done any class projects or major research studies or reports?
You will probably need to develop a chrono-functional resume. Please read Should You Consider a Functional Resume? to get more tips and advice.
As for your disability, I would suggest reading a great new article on our site, Job-Seeking Strategy for Differently-abled Candidates. You also need to know your rights. Wikipedia provides a good overview of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.
This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Rajan writes:
I have a resume that has large employment gaps. This may be OK for females, but for males, it is a no-no. I have tried different types of resume styles. Nothing.
I don’t get interviews. Is there any way to increase the number of interviews?
How should I explain my resume? At one time I stopped looking for work for about 1.5 years, the biggest gap to explain.
Then I did telemarketing and took a course in it. Telemarketing is not for me. I have stopped again for about 10 months. I don’t want to sit around. Right now I am looking for work as a network administrator. I have a background in hardware and software development, but I can’t move. In this area there is not much call for tech work.
The first rule of job-hunting is never expose a weakness to the employer — and never do it before you’ve had a chance to have an interview and build a case for yourself. Yes, employers do worry about employment gaps — for both genders — but you can do some things to make the gaps less obvious and to project yourself in a better light.
First, I would recommend you experiment with a chrono-functional resume that focuses on your technical achievements and skills. If you already have one, then I suggest you ask a professional colleague, mentor, or resume professional to evaluate and critique it for you. My guess is that you are so focused on these gaps that this weakness comes through on your resume.
Second, plan a strategy for explaining these gaps. Were you doing volunteer work? Were you taking classes? Were you working part-time or as a consultant? You will need to fill these gaps with something so that it doesn’t seem as though you were just sitting home all that time (even if you were).
Third, are your technical skills current? If not, you might want to take a course or two to make you more marketable.
Fourth, once you have a professional resume and feel more confident about yourself, you need to go back into the job market. And don’t worry so much about location, as there are definitely high-tech jobs where people work from home at least some of the time. Use all the tools available to you to find a job — your network, the Internet, etc.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.
This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Jim writes:
I was wondering if you could advise me on how best to prepare a resume when you have gaps in employment so as not to magnify the gaps and disadvantage yourself.
Let me start by saying you are wise to think about this issue. A resume is basically a marketing tool whose purpose is to help get you an interview. Thus, given this focus as a marketing tool, your goal in writing a resume is to make it a positive and informative selling tool.
There are two basic formats for resumes: chronological and functional.
The typical resume is a chronological one, which shows your employment history starting with the most current and working backward. This type of resume works best when you have a specific career path and each of your jobs shows progression along that career path.
The functional resume is often used when you have employment gaps or when you are trying to make a change from one field to another and you want to emphasize your transferable skills, not your old career path.
Consider trying a functional resume, or better yet, a chrono-functional resume organized around skills clusters but including a bare-bones job history. Sit down and analyze the key skills you have developed and honed from your previous employment and use these skills sets for the bulk of your resume. Toward the end of your resume show an employment history, but you can do it in such a way as to de-emphasize the gaps. Note that even chrono-functional resumes carry some risk as many employers and recruiters don’t like them and suspect the job-seeker is hiding something. It’s best to experiment with a chrono-functional version, but be prepared to return to the chronological format if the chrono-functional doesn’t seem to be working for you.
And please be prepared to answer the question at the interview. Employers will want to know why there were gaps.
Finally, to get more information, links, and books about resumes, please visit Quintessential Careers: Resume Resources.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.
This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Bonnie writes:
I just read Getting Fired: An Opportunity for Change and Growth. You say that If you are fired in a job within 3 months you should not list that on your resume. Can you tell me why I should not list that employer?
The Career Doctor responds:
A resume is a critical marketing document that you construct to convince a prospective employer to invite you for an interview and then, ideally, offer you a job. It is not meant to be an all-inclusive document of your entire life, nor your entire work history.
A resume should ONLY contain the relevant information that is going to get your foot in the door.
If you were fired from your last job after only three months, but you had some amazing accomplishments and the work you performed is extremely relevant to the job you are seeking, then you can certainly consider including it on your resume.
That said, anytime an employer sees a short tenure on a resume it begs the question — why is this person looking for a new job after only such a short time on the job? And that means if you actually get the interview, you’ll need to be prepared to explain why you were fired.
Thus, unless the job is extremely relevant to the position you are seeking, it’s better to have an employment gap on your resume than have to explain why you were fired.
Get lots more resume tips, tools, and samples in the Resume Resources section of Quintessential Careers.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.
Today’s posting is a guest entry from the “Career Doctor,” Randall S. Hansen, PhD
Jeff writes:
Recently I was terminated from a sales position after two months. I am considering whether or not to include the employment on my resume. My employment gap will only be two months if I exclude the position.
Would it be better to list the position and use the term downsized? Or should I use terminated?
Any advice or tips will be greatly appreciated.
The Career Doctor responds:
Let me reiterate a critical point about resumes that all job-seekers should tuck into the back of your heads: A resume is not an all-inclusive job history. Your resume is a marketing document. You tailor the facts in your resume to fit each job with each employer. Notice I did say facts. I am not advocating lying on a resume; I am advocating making your resume a unique document for each opportunity you seek.
And here is a second point about resumes. Never provide unnecessary information. You do not need to make any mention on your resume why you left a particular job — simply put the start and end dates. You should also NOT put your supervisor’s name, your salary information, or phone numbers. For each job you have held that you wish to include, you should list your job title, the organization’s name and location (city, state), dates of employment, and your key accomplishments.
You don’t say why you were terminated so quickly, but two months is such a short stint that I would never recommend including it on your resume. And you’re right, two months is not much of a gap, especially in the current job market.
Regardless of how you handle this job on your resume, however, you will need to have some sort of story to tell in the job interview — either about why you only lasted two months on the job or why you have a two-month gap on your resume. In terms of lingo, downsized usually results from budget cuts and does not reflect on the quality of your work while terminated says your work was no longer needed (or was bad, ineffective, etc.).
If you are working on your resume, visit this section of Quintessential Careers for much more resume advice, tips, and samples: Resume and CV Resources for Job-Seekers.
Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.
Have health goals in 2010, but no time to exercise and eat right?
Propose a flexible work arrangement and you'll have the margin of time to prepare healthier meals, work out more often and lose weight as a result. Learn more.
|
Job Search: |
Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, a subsidiary of
EmpoweringSites.com -- DeLand, FL 32720
Home Page: http://www.quintcareers.com/
Email: randall@quintcareers.com
Copyright © Quintessential Careers. All Rights Reserved
Serviced by Movable Type Solutions Company