How To Turn A Career Break Into An Advantage In Job Interviews

The labor market might still be going strong, but a lot of applicants are finding the job search to be tougher than they expected.

New job openings in the U.S. hit a three and a half year low in September, and October was the slowest hiring month it’s been since late 2020. A tougher jobs landscape has left people on edge about any potential “red flags” on their resumes, and that includes long gaps between jobs.

The good news is that time away from the workforce doesn’t carry the same stigma that it used to, career and talent experts tell Fortune. 

There’s an increased awareness that professionals take time off work for all sorts of reasons, like caring for children or elderly parents, pursuing a life-long passion, or traveling the world.

But they warn that some companies are more leery of resume gaps than others. 

That’s why it’s important that candidates take some basic steps like being honest about their career interruptions, bringing them up during the interview, and making sure they highlight any new skills they picked up along the way.

“We’ve seen this shift where hiring managers realize that life happens, and sometimes you’re going to need to take time off. That doesn’t mean that you’re not employable,” Catherine Fisher, a career expert at LinkedIn, tells Fortune. “It’s what you make of it.”

Don’t lie on your resume

Experts agree that all job-seekers with a career break need to be honest about the gap on their resume. If a candidate tries to hide or ignore it, that’s a non-starter.

“If you have a gap and you have a cool story of what you did during that gap, that’s a great differentiator,” Valerie Workman, chief talent engagement officer at Handshake, tells Fortune. “Highlight that gap. I might even put that at the very top: ‘Here are the things I did, here are the things I learned, here are the skills I built.’”

People who are clear about any resume gaps should also know that they’re in good company. 

In 2022, LinkedIn introduced a new feature called “Career Break,” which gave users 13 options to explain their time away from the workforce. These ranged from caregiving duties to health and well-being. 

Over the past year there has been a 40% increase in LinkedIn users who added the feature to their profiles, according to Fisher, and more than 2 million LinkedIn users feature it in their profiles.

“It signals that people are comfortable adding this to their profile,” says Fisher.

Bring it up first in the interview and have a great explanation

Once a job candidate is selected for an interview, experts say it’s important they bring up any career breaks with the hiring manager, and make sure to discuss any relevant skills they learned from their experience away from the workforce.

One way to do this is when interviewers ask the common “tell me about yourself” question. As a candidate details their professional background, experts say this is the time to explain how the career break fits into the larger picture. But don’t hesitate if they fail to do so.

“You should not wait for the hiring manager or the recruiter to bring it up,” Maryann Abbajay, the chief revenue officer for SAP SuccessFactors, a cloud-based HCM software company, tells Fortune. “Normally there’s a little bit of an intro — you talk about your background, and then you say, ‘You’ll notice that I had a gap. Here’s exactly what I was doing during that gap, and here’s why those things I did matter to the job I’m looking for right now.’”

Think of ways to upskill even if you’re between jobs or taking a break

While negative perceptions of resume gaps have subsided in recent years, experts say they can still be seen as a red flag if the candidate didn’t grow professionally during their break.

Skills-based hiring is all the rage in corporate America right now, and time away presents an opportunity for candidates with resume gaps to highlight what they learned during their time off from the daily grind.

“I’ve talked to a lot of recruiters, and they’re looking for different things than in the old days,” says Abbajay. “They’re not necessarily looking for a college degree, they’re really more focused on what skills you have. Those skills could have come from being in the service. They could have come from raising a family.”

Workman agrees that professionals should be upskilling during their career breaks, but emphasizes learning technical skills. 

She points out that the power is now in employers’ hands — companies are no longer dealing with the fallout from the Great Resignation, and people are holding onto their jobs for longer. 

A game-changing technology has also entered the scene: AI. Having technical skills like coding, engineering, and prompting are incredibly sought after.

“Routinely do something to build skills, and it has to be something that’s quantifiable. A certification, or some sort of third-party recognition of what you’re doing. Self study is not going to cut it,” she says. “It has to be programmatic, so you’re showing that while you’re not working, you’re developing and building your skills.”

Don’t be afraid to live your life

Even though job candidates with resume gaps have shed a lot of the stigma around career breaks, workers can still be anxious about picking the right time to step away.

Doing it early in one’s career can seem scary, and could feel like a step-back upon first starting out. 

By the middle of one’s career, a professional might feel like they’re on a roll, and don’t want to lurch to a halt. The later years might not feel like the best time to do it, either, with retirement just around the corner. 

But experts say there is no right or wrong time to take a career break — people should choose to live their lives, and let the chips fall where they may land.

“Moving up your career is not a linear process anymore. There are zigzags,” Abbajay says. 

“Don’t worry about the career gap. Just take the time, enjoy the time, and then come back when you think it’s right for you,” Abbajay adds.

Written by Emma Burleigh for Fortune as “Resume gaps aren’t the job killer they used to be but applicants still need to get smart about explaining their time away from the workforce” and republished with permission.