The Top Resume Tip To Overcome Employment Gaps

This originally appeared on Forbes on January 6, 2023.

Looking for a new job in the new year? After a career break — whether voluntary or not, short-term or long-term — explaining resume gaps to hiring managers and recruiters is a common concern. It's also a valid concern. Many workers face employment discrimination when re-entering the workforce, largely because career breaks deviate from the "ideal worker" pattern of continuous employment.

But a recent study in Nature Human Behavior found one resume writing technique that increases the chances of securing an interview for those with resume gaps by 15%. The secret is simple: don't call attention to any gaps by displaying work experience in a different format. Instead of providing the traditional start and stop date of the job (for example, May 2020 — May 2022), researchers listed the number of years the applicant worked in each job. This technique effectively obscured the work gap.

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