Career gap is a common issue among job seekers in the healthcare industry. You may find it hard to bridge these gaps, but never be afraid to state what they are. Whether you pursued your education further, became a stay-at-home parent, resolved medical issues, or failed in gaining a new job; state and explain the reasons for this employment gap to gain your hiring manager’s trust.
Explaining any career gap on your resume will depend on the reasons you have. Though some employment gap reasons are much easier to explain than others, you must still make it sound as optimistic as possible.
Ways to Bridge Your Medical Resume Career Gap
Here are five tips you may follow when writing (or updating) your resume after having a long career gap.
1. List only years (not months) when writing dates for your work history.
By doing this tip, hiring managers will find it easy to estimate the time you stayed for each job. It will also hide the gaps that happened within two calendar years.
2. Explain only the period of unemployment that spans two calendar years or more.
Consider everything you did during your hiatus. State whether it is for a volunteer work, training, practicum, or personal matters. If possible, present them in a way that they’re relevant to your work goal.
3. Clarify your reasons for hiatus.
If the career gap in your work history is not relevant to your job objective, explain it with pure honesty and dignity. Write about something you were doing during that time, even if it’s not related to your job objective.
Here are some recommended “job titles” for such gaps:
- Independent study
- Full-time student
- Family financial or estate management
- Family or home management
- Full-time parent
- Personal travel
4. Label the section accordingly.
Call the section Work History or simply History if you include those unpaid job titles in your work history. You don’t want to use a title like Employment History or Professional Experience because “employment” and “professional” both suggest that you earned money during this period.
5. Prefer functional resume layout to chronological format.
The former will focus more on your skills and work experience instead of your job title or tenure. This means you don’t need to include employment dates.
It pays to be honest with your resume. Whether you took a vacation or dealt with medical issues, among others, maintain your positive attitude during the interview and prove to the recruiter that you’re ready to return to work. Follow these medical resume writing tips and see how you can bridge your career gap. Need professional help in writing your medical resume? Contact us now!
