If you’ve been unemployed long-term, this guide will help you to update your CV, and shows you how to explain gaps in your CV.

If you have been unemployed long-term, it can feel overwhelming trying to get back into work – but don’t worry, most employers understand that sometimes we can’t help but have gaps in our career. What’s important is you’re up front and honest about it, and you showcase what you’ve been doing in the meantime to develop yourself.

Whether you’ve been ill, raised a family, or have simply struggled in a tough job market, it can be difficult to know how to explain gaps in your CV. There’s no need to panic. With a well thought out and updated CV, and the knowledge of how to explain employment gaps, you’ll have a good chance of landing a new job.

In this guide, we’ll take a look at explaining your periods of unemployment, and walk you through how to update your CV in a way that will give you a good chance of impressing employers once again.

DOWNLOAD CV TEMPLATE 👉🏻 Unemployed CV Gaps Template

How to explain employment gaps

Whatever your reason for unemployment, don’t shy away or try to hide them. In a difficult job market, employers are more understanding than ever before about long periods of unemployment, so be honest and explain your reasons upfront.

At the start of your CV, you can write a short paragraph detailing your professional profile. Then you’ll want to add another paragraph outlining your objectives, and here you can outline that you’re reentering the jobs market. explaining why you’ve been away. Keep positive by highlighting what skills and experience you do have, and later in your CV you can outline any skills or experience outside of work that you’ve picked up, emphasising why this could be relevant to the role you’re applying for.

Ignore any negative experiences you may have encountered, and only focus on the positives. Even if you’ve got no work experience on your CV, you can highlight school achievements and responsibilities instead.

Tips for how to explain gaps in your CV

If faced with a direct question about your long-term unemployment or any job gap on your CV, don’t let the question throw you off – just follow this advice to ensure you answer it confidently.

• Don’t lie about it – if the hiring manager finds out about untruths during interviews that’s not going to help you down the road!
• You don’t need to go into a long story explaining your unemployment. Just explain the reasons in a couple of sentences, and explain what you did during this time.
• Be positive! There are ways to accentuate advantages of unemployment. Focus on any positive experiences or points of learning during your career gap, making sure you mention anything you did to learn or grow professionally.
• Be prepared to answer the question. Having rehearsed your answer beforehand will help you to answer confidently, briefly, and positively.

Filling out the long-term unemployed CV template

Follow our guide to writing a good CV here, as all the guidance is relevant for a CV with gaps in employment. Let’s take a look at each section, as you update your CV format to improve your chances of getting an interview.

Professional profile

In this section, you shouldn’t highlight the fact that you are currently unemployed. Instead, the professional profile is the perfect place to showcase the skills you have gained throughout your career so far – including transferable skills. This is your chance to try to sell yourself to the hiring manager, so be honest, keep it brief, and be positive.

Objective

This can be a good section to include in a long-term unemployed CV because it tells the hiring manager what your goals are and why you’re back looking for work. Use it to tell the reader exactly what you are looking for.

You can have a generic one, such as: “Looking to secure a challenging new role where skills, knowledge and previous experience can be applied.”

Or you may have a very specific one, such as: “Seeking a challenging and rewarding position as a healthcare assistant in a busy hospital setting, where I can use skills, knowledge, and experience to provide compassionate and efficient care to patients.”

You can start the objective section with a statement such as “following a return to the job market” or, if you were made redundant, “following redundancy”.

Work experience

As you are adding your dates worked, this section will show up any gaps in your CV. If you’ve been long-term unemployed, don’t worry – just fill out your previous experience here, ensuring you are using any relevant keywords that match the roles you are aiming for now. Make sure your experience is as relevant as possible for your target jobs.

Hobbies or other interests

In this section you can actually play up some of the advantages of unemployment. If you’ve been doing any activities outside of work during a career gap that are relevant to the jobs you’re looking at, talk about them here. Shout about them! This section can be vital in a long-term unemployed CV to show you’ve been developing yourself professionally despite not being in work during the recent past.

More tips on getting back into work after long-term unemployment

With a carefully updated CV, you can greatly improve your chances of getting to the next stage of an application. Here are some more tips to ensure yours is as strong as possible if you are long-term unemployed.

Keep up to date with current trends

It’s important to show employers that even though you’ve had a period of unemployment, you’ve kept up-to-date with current trends and news in their industry. Research the company before you update your CV, and mention achievements and responsibilities that highlight your knowledge of their industry.

Think you may have missed important changes to your ideal career? Or worried you might not have the latest skills? Attend training courses to get you up to speed and mention this on your CV. This lets employers know you’re willing to learn and are committed to working in that career.

Tailor your CV

You need to show employers that you don’t want any old job, you want to work specifically for them, and you have the skills to do the job too. Highlight any transferable skills, achievements or previous responsibilities that are relevant to the job you’re applying for.  Want to work in customer service?  Emphasise your approachable and friendly manner.

By tailoring your CV to suit them, the employer will get a much better idea of whether you’re capable of doing the job.

References

No matter how long you’ve been out of work, your first port of call when looking for references is always your previous employer. But if you don’t have much experience, or you’ve lost contact with your last reference, use a personal reference instead who can speak for your character and general work ethic. Steer clear of family or friends who could appear biased, and ask someone who has dealt with you in a professional environment, such as former colleagues or teachers.

Keep working on your CV

It’s never too late to add experience to your CV, so while you’re waiting for employers to get back to you about your application, start looking for work experience. Even if it’s unpaid, it’ll add to your skill set and make your CV stand out, especially if you find work in a relevant industry that matches your interests.

Whether it’s a few hours in your local charity shop, or a few weeks in an industry you’re interested in, it not only helps you work out how to fill in employment gaps on your resume, but you’ll also meet useful contacts that may offer you work in the future.