Unemployed and worried about job gaps or career gaps on your CV? Use this guide to get back to work, with a free career break CV example.

Are you unemployed and looking for a job? Don’t get disheartened, this is a position millions of people find themselves in at various points in their lifetimes. It’s important to remember that employers won’t reject you because you’re unemployed – but it’s how you market yourself that counts. You can do that, and explain any job gap or career gap, with your CV.

If you are currently unemployed it can be difficult to know what to write, how to write it, and whether to tell a potential boss that you’re currently not working. You can use our unemployed CV template – or career break CV template – to help you, and follow the rest of the information in this guide to help you to explain gaps in employment.

DOWNLOAD CV TEMPLATE 👉🏻 Unemployed CV Template

How do I go about explaining gaps in employment?

There are many reasons for employment gaps. You may have taken a career break due to family reasons, or there may be an employment gap due to other personal reasons. Whatever it is, employers won’t refuse your application just because you’re unemployed, so don’t feel you have to hide it; you can actually use it to your advantage.

When you begin your cover letter, you need to tell the employer why they should hire you, and it’s in these opening sentences that you can mention your unemployment. If there are valid reasons for your unemployment (for example a redundancy, or if you are looking for a career change), certainly don’t be afraid to mention it.

If you’ve been proactive during your unemployment, don’t forget to mention that too. So if you’ve been doing work experience, learning new skills or you’ve taken up voluntary work, write it early on your cover letter. It’s bound to impress the hiring manager and will show employers you haven’t just been sitting in front of the television.

Of course, you don’t have to tell employers that you’re unemployed; you can just mention your skills and accomplishments from previous jobs. You will however need to be prepared to talk about any CV gaps during the interview.

Filling out the 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.

Professional profile

You don’t want to draw attention here to the fact that you are currently unemployed or have been unemployed in the past. The professional profile is the perfect place to showcase the skills you have gained throughout other roles – including transferable skills. This is your chance to try to sell yourself to the hiring manager, so be honest, keep it brief, and crucially, be positive!

Objective

You may want to use this section if your CV has gaps in employment history. 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 a specific one such as “looking for a rewarding new position within retail management, where skills, knowledge and expertise gained throughout experience to date can be applied and further professional development achieved.”

If you have been unemployed, you should start the objective with, “following a return to the job market” or, if you have been made redundant, “following redundancy”.

Work experience

This is where you’ll for sure be revealing any employment gaps, meaning you need to ensure your experience you do have is as relevant as possible for the jobs you are applying for.

Hobbies or other interests

Have you been doing any activities outside of work during a career gap that are relevant to the jobs you’re looking at? If so, this section can be included to show you’ve been developing yourself professionally despite any gaps in employment.

Tips for explaining your career gap

If faced with a direct question about 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 gaps in your employment. Just explain the reason in a couple of sentences, and explain what you did in this time.
• Be positive! 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. It might not come up, but if it does, having rehearsed your answer beforehand will help you to answer confidently, briefly, and positively.

Further advice for applying following a career gap

So you’ve got your unemployed CV ready, and you’re good to start applying for jobs once again. If you’re still worried about explaining the gaps in your CV, we’ve got some further advice to help you along.

How do I convince employers I don’t just want the job because I’m unemployed?

This is a common worry, but you just need to make sure they know you aren’t just after any job, you want a job at their company. To do this you’re going to need to do some research before you start writing your application.

Find out about their company, go on their website, check out their competitors and make sure you understand what they do and who their customers are. Talk about why you want to work for their company in particular, what you like about them, and what you could bring to their working environment. This isn’t just useful for your cover letter, but also for your interview.

What if I don’t have much work experience?

If you haven’t had many jobs, don’t worry. Focus on transferable skills and accomplishments you’ve achieved from hobbies and education instead. Talk about your personality and work ethos to show that despite not having much work experience, you’re still prepared to work hard and learn new things.

Of course some companies will want to see previous experience and particular qualifications before they consider you for an interview, especially if it’s a senior or specialist role, so make sure you read the job specifications before you apply.

If you think your cover letter is looking a little bare, why not take up some extra training or look for work experience or volunteering opportunities in your area?

How do I show I’m employable when I’m unemployed?

Write about any successes or skills learnt in previous jobs (or hobbies), and back them up with examples. Explaining your main achievements and the effect it had shows you’ve made a difference or accomplished something by working hard.

Mention any existing skills that would be useful in the role, even if it’s from a hobby, and back it up with why it would be an asset to their company.