How to Explain Employment Gaps.

Which gaps need explaining

• Under about three months: nothing to explain. Job searches take time.
• Three to six months: usually fine without comment, especially if it was some years ago.
• More than six months, or a gap that runs up to today: add a short line so the reader isn't left guessing.

How to show the gap on the page

Add it to your work history as its own entry, with dates, in the same format as your jobs. One line is enough. An entry with a plain label reads as confident; an unexplained hole reads as something to hide.

Wording for common reasons

• Caring for a child or relative: "Career break: family care".
• Health: "Career break for health reasons, now resolved". You don't owe anyone medical details.
• Redundancy: "Position made redundant in company restructuring; job search and professional training".
• Study: list the course in Education; the dates explain themselves.
• Travel or relocation: "Sabbatical: travel in South America" or "Relocation to Canada".
• Your own business: list it as a job, with your role and what you delivered.

Show what you did in that time

If you took a course, earned a certificate, freelanced, volunteered or built something, add it under the entry or in the relevant section. It shows you stayed active and gives the interviewer something to ask about other than the gap.

What not to do

• Don't stretch the dates of the jobs on either side. Employment checks compare them with the employer's records.
• Don't switch to years only just to hide it. It looks evasive, and the question comes up anyway.
• Don't switch to a functional resume. Recruiters read it as a sign there's something to hide.
• Don't over-explain. One line on the resume, two sentences in the interview.