Pregnancy Week by Week

Pregnancy and Lapse in Employment History

Sometimes you might be requested to present a complete work/ employment history to your new or old employer for an in depth knowledge of your experience or when the company desires to offer a raise in salary.

If you have some considerable gaps between your work places that might not look good for the employer, they will start asking questions. And you need to be prepared to answer them in a cool, natural and confident way so that you don't seem suspicious. A period of time in which you did not work, especially with the economic problems the world had to deal with in the recent years, is not all that uncommon. Maybe you wanted to take time off to complete your studies or develop new skills. The employers want to know that you spent your time off work doing something and not just sitting around on your sofa, which only shows a person lacks motivation.

Step number one- Change your resume appearance. If all of your jobs were listed chronologically, the missing period will be more obvious, and this is something you are trying to avoid. Instead, focus on the skills you obtain through your experience and list the whole experience at the bottom.

Step number 2- Even without being employed, it does not mean you spent your time doing nothing. All of the classes taken, any new relevant skills and volunteering should be mentioned here. If you took time to raise your kids, do not be embarrassed of your family values. Even as a stay at home mom you will still have good management skills! Talk about how you dealt with emergencies at home, or how you prioritized your day.

If you lost your job because of a mistake you did, you should be honest about this. Past mistakes come back to haunt you eventually, and it is better to be found out sooner rather than later. So if you had problems with the law and you've been in prison for the missing period, you cannot lie about that or try to hide the truth.

One can justify the gap by:

Traveling - If you had the resources to travel to new places and discover new things, this presents you as a person with a free mind that likes to take chances. An exhausting previous work place can easily lead to a well deserved break to recharge yourself and your energies before going back to the work field.

More time dedicated to a new or old hobby- If it's in the least relevant to the job you are applying for, it could help you. Let's say you are applying for something involving art, and you just took an interest in painting recently.

As previously stated, a resume is just a way of presenting your ability to make something of your free time, your qualities like, honesty and motivation skills. Thus, the way you present yourself to the interviewer will be the ultimate deciding factors in you getting the job you applied for..