How To Address Career Gaps During Job Search
In today’s economy, many people will have stretches of time on their resume where they haven’t worked for various reasons – perhaps as a result of a layoff, to take time to care for an ailing family member or maybe even because of a choice to take a break.
Employers can be wary of these career gaps where they don’t see a clear explanation. In this blog, we provide resources for these situations in the links below. As well, we look at another common situation for a lot of people in the workforce – several workplaces in a short time frame.
It’s important to be proactive in addressing these scenarios so that potential employers don’t overlook your resume or for you find yourself in an interview, stumbling to explain your work history.
Staff at The Work Place in Grande Prairie can guide eligible unemployed or underemployed clients (visit www.gpworkplace.ca for details) on how to manage any challenging resume content.
They can also assist you with your other job search tools and ensure you’re using all the resources available to you, including accessing potential training opportunities (see contact details below). Your strategies may include updating or acquiring new skills.
Our first resource regarding career gaps is a video produced by Kamara Toffolo, an Ottawa-based resume writer, LinkedIn consultant, job search strategist and speaker: https://bit.ly/2JbOm4k
Kamara creates videos directed at job seekers and shares them every Tuesday on LinkedIn. Consider following her or subscribing to her videos.
Check out these links for more valuable tips and ideas:
https://careerprocanada.ca/dealing-employment-gaps-resumes/
https://www.jvstoronto.org/blog/strategies-for-overcoming-gaps-in-your-resume/
In a LinkedIn post this week, Kamara explored the topic of frequent job changes:
“Worried about how job hopping looks in your job search?
You’re not alone. Short term gigs aren’t ideal but are a reality of our economy with more and more employers being a bit, commitment phobic let’s say? ?
Here are 10 tips to deal with job hopping in your job search:
- Accept your career for what it was
- Consolidate similar gigs on your resume where it makes sense
- Use career gap tactics to deal with short term roles in between longer term roles (noted in video above)
- Disclose layoffs if needed
- Don’t delete recent gigs if it creates a gap
- Leverage accomplishments and results
- Consider cherry picking the best stuff and create a career highlights section
- Anticipate and address employer concerns on your cover letter and put their minds at ease
- Prepare interview stories that put a positive spin on your job hopping
- Never disparage your former employers when explaining short term gigs.”
If you want more help with your job search at no cost, contact us at 780-539-5477. You can send enquiries to info@gpworkplace.ca. Our office is located at #105, 9840-97th Ave., Grande Prairie.
We also help employers find qualified candidates.
Learn more about our programs and services at www.gpworkplace.ca
