What to say about extended periods of unemployment

[kalliope_us]

  I just updated my resume and there is a gap between July of 2009 to April of 2010.  I haven't exactly been working steadily since April, but it has been with the same company

Comments

[wigglewhiz]

What were you doing during that time - is there *anything* you can flesh out a bit? Studying anything or taking any classes? Travelling anywhere? Caring for someone?

In any case I think in this economy employers are going to be expecting some gaps in employment for people, and really what they're going to be looking for is just a bit of reassurance that you weren't fired for general incompetence/performance issues - and PARTICULARLY because you are currently employed (albeit not steadily), an employer isn't going to be as put off as they might be if your period of unemployment was CURRENT rather than past.

For me, I'll be explaining to future employers my 6-month unemployment gap as just that: unmployment. I'll caveat it with explaining that I relocated to a new town, and that it took some time to settle and find employment in difficult economic circumstances.

[wigglewhiz]

Oooh, PS - I don't like deviating from the chronological CV either, I have to say. Like you, I find that employers find anything else off-putting because they don't find them as easy to skim-read.

I don't put periods of unemployment on my CV, because I generally don't like drawing attention to them. I'll certainly explain it in application forms where there's a specific request to account for ALL periods of time, but other than that.... I actually don't provide it as a seperate entry or put too much energy into explaining it or drawing attention to it.

That said, I'm a UKer living and working in New Zealand where the CV/resume style is quite different - so YMMV!

[kalliope_us]

Thankfully I don't have to do a CV, I'm not really a professional. Since I got laid off from a ten year job in 2009 I have scored student test papers intermittently. I have to say I really don't have hobbies, and I haven't done volunteer work. But as you say,everyone knows about the economy and the US congress has been very generous about extending our unemployment benefits. Maybe long periods of unemployment are not perceived as as unusual in the US as they were ten years ago.

[wigglewhiz]

For sure - this is just such a mammoth global downturn, and it won't be uncommon for applicants to have gaps somewhere in their employment probably from 2008ish right through to at least the end of this year, I reckon. It's definitely going to shift employer's expectations.

Unless they're asses. ;o)

[chordoflife]

That's not unusual at all, especially with the recent downturn. You should state what you were doing. Were you freelancing at all? Maybe volunteering? Either way, you should also state that you were actively looking for work. The worst thing you can project to an employer is that you sat around doing nothing. You'll want to show that you stayed active during this time.