Job Search
Answering Questions About Employment Gaps in Job Interviews
- by Holly Burton
I know that one of the biggest sources of anxiety for my clients going through a job search after some time away from ye olde day job is how to answer questions about the employment gap in their resume.
SO, I thought I’d share a couple of tips that’ll help you craft a great answer to this anxiety-inducing question.
Here are 3 ingredients you can mix-and-match to build an answer to those tricky “what were you doing for the last 2 years” questions:
Ingredient #1 - Minimize The Issue
No, no. I don’t mean stick your head in the sand like a silly ostrich and try to pretend the gap on your resume doesn’t exist! I just mean talk about it in a way that makes it seem teeny tiny, not A GIANT PROBLEM.
Most of us think job interviewing is about finding the best candidate, but for a lot of hiring managers, it’s actually more about finding the least risky candidate. Think about it – sure, they’ll get a few pats on the back for hiring someone amazing, but they’ll get a never ending nightmare if they hire someone terrible. So a lot of interviewers are laser-focused on spotting anything that even remotely looks like a red flag.
That means your job in an interview is to minimize any of your liabilities (What red flag? That’s some beautiful magenta bunting my former employers put up to celebrate my accomplishments!) and carry yourself with a nothing to see here, everything’s cool confidence so you don’t set off their risk-o-meters.
With that in mind, when it comes to interviewing after a break, it’s essential that you talk about the gap in your resume like it’s decidedly not a big deal. That means not apologizing. That means no cringey faces. That means no long, drawn out explanations. That means no implying you might take more time off. And it especially means no telling them that your gap is a bad sign or a liability!
I’ve seen too many folks answer this question like this (red flag-raising phrases in red):
😰Well, um, for the last several years, unfortunately, I’ve had to take time away to care for my mum, who was sick. She went through [15 details about her illness], and so I had to leave my job suddenly and stop learning and growing so I could be there for her because [insert more details here]. Fingers crossed I don’t have to do it again for my dad – he’s no spring chicken either. Hopefully my skills aren’t too rusty now. 😖
Ack! It physically hurt to type that one out. Does any part of it sound familiar? The problem here is that the language and tone we’re using (awkwardly conveyed here by emojis) are all negative. Everything about this messaging says this is a problem you shouldn’t ignore to a risk-averse hiring manager. Even if they weren’t concerned about our time away from work before, they definitely are now!
Here’s what I’d do instead (red flag-reducing phrases in green):
🙂 I spent the last little bit of my career caring for my mum, who was sick. It meant some time away from my design work, but managing her care team helped me fine-tune my project management skills. I’m looking forward to putting my newly sharpened influencing skills to work dealing with construction crews again! 😀
In the second version, the language and tone we’re using are light and positive. We’re signalling to them through our verbal and non-verbal challenges that this gap isn’t something they should lose any sleep over. In the best case scenario, they’ll follow our lead and not worry too much about the career break. Worst case scenario, they’ll still worry, but we won’t have added any fuel to that fire.
You have a ton of power to set the emotional tone in a job interview – so make sure you choose your (positive!) words and tone thoughtfully when you’re talking about your time away from work. It might help get the interviewer on your side!
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Ingredient #2 - Make Your Situation Seem Normal & Relatable
You know who no one wants to hire? An incomprehensible weirdo with completely unpredictable actions!
As they interview you, hiring managers are building a mental model of who you are and how you work. And they’re really trying to answer the questions, do I understand this person? and, can I trust this person?
So it’s helpful if you can talk about your time away as the kind of thing a normal, relatable person with great skills and even better judgement would do – that way you can manage the subtext your interviewer reads into your response.
It’s the difference between:
“I took 6 months off and hung out in Italy”
[subtext: like a flake who won’t work hard and only cares about vacation]
and
“As I got into my 30s and stopped having the spry joints of a 20-something, I realized that these knees were only going to let me go backpacking in Europe for a few more years, so it was now or never for me to take a sabbatical”
[subtext: like every person on the planet who is no longer an invincible youth running out of time for once-in-a-lifetime experiences]
It’s also the difference between
“My company laid me off”
[subtext: like an unskilled loser my boss couldn’t wait to get rid of]
and
“It’s probably a story you’ve heard too often in these interviews, but, like a ton of my contemporaries, I was part of the spate of layoffs the tech industry’s had these past few years.”
[subtext: like an amazing employee who was unlucky enough to work for one of the many companies that had to conserve runway after their investors freaked out about profitability]
Ingredient #3 - Show Them What They're Getting
Lots of times, our career breaks feel like we’re letting our skills atrophy and becoming less employable by the day. But we often forget to consider the things we learn while we’re away from our day jobs.
Some examples of skills you might gain during your career break:
Folks on parental leave often perfect their ability to:
- manage crises
- maintain patience while training junior employees
- mediate conflict between irrational, emotionally-driven toddlers (aka: most men I’ve worked with!)
Folks who have taken a sabbatical to get a second degree learn how to:
- ruthlessly prioritize their work
- relate to junior Gen Z employees who call everyone bruh at work
- …you know, deploy a bunch of technical skills their new degree taught them to do
Imagine framing your answers about your resume gap around adding these new skills, rather than subtracting time away from practicing your regular duties. It makes for a much more compelling profile, doesn’t it?
Now, I know that not every career gap is filled with learning opportunities. I’ve taken significant time away from work for health reasons over the years and I know that sometimes your big accomplishment on any given day is your continued survival (and if you’re lucky, showering and eating). So if you don’t have a way to spin your time away as some amazing, career-enhancing growth period, that’s totally cool. It’s just an ingredient to add into the mix if you have it on hand.
Wrapping It Up
Ok, WIMDIs, there are three easy ingredients you can use to help navigate questions about what you’ve been up to while you’ve been away. Feel free to use just one, two, or all three ingredients – whatever fits your situation and feels authentic and do-able to you!
And if you need some help perfecting your interview skills after a career break, know that we can help you with that.
Need Some Interview Prep & Practice?
Not sure how to sell your skills in a concise and compelling way? We've got you! Book a call with Holly and get the support you need.
