Do you have a hole in your resume? 2 months, 6 months, 1 year, or more?

There are many reasons why you would have needed to put your professional life on hold, just as there are multiple explanations to value this period.

However, these topics are not always easy to discuss in front of a recruiter. So how do you justify a hole in your resume? How can we explain the periods of break in our professional life in a positive way during a job interview?

Here are three tips to prepare for recruiters’ questions before an interview so you don’t get thrown off.

BE ALIGNED WITH YOUR STORY

Whether you have voluntarily stopped working for a personal or family project, or whether you have suffered it, through redundancy or burnout, it is important to explain it.

All these reasons are understandable by recruiters. The objective for you will be to prepare yourself beforehand for the famous question: what were the reasons or circumstances that led you to experience such a break?

Take some time to think about your last experiences and the events that brought that break to your career, then practice formulating it in a simple way.

TAKE STOCK OF HOW YOU SPENT YOUR FREE TIME

Who says break, says apparent professional inactivity…

Nevertheless, you probably haven’t been idle all this time!

Take the time to list everything you did during this time, to show that you didn’t sit idle and occupied your time in a structured way. This will allow you to answer the question “What have you been up to since leaving your job?” without stress.

• A trip? You are an open-minded, curious person who has the desire to discover and learn. Have you taken the opportunity to perfect your English? Even better!
• A sporting challenge? You are a persevering person, who surpasses yourself, with discipline, …
• An entrepreneurial project? You have a taste for challenge, audacity, determination.

MAKE THE CONNECTION BETWEEN WHAT YOU DID DURING THIS BREAK AND THE POSITION YOU ARE AIMING FOR

Have you listed all the professional, extra-professional or even personal activities that you have carried out during your low period? Now take the time to make the connection between these activities and the position, the type of business you are targeting.

The objective is to show that you have been able to take advantage of this period and benefit from it for the rest of your professional life: new skills, more precise professional project, strong motivation, etc. Above all, it is a question of showing how active you have remained and informed about the news in your sector, in order to reassure the recruiter.

By taking stock of your professional career, you will realize that there are not so many real dead moments in your professional life, and that behind each break is a story. Taking the time to remember your career path to prepare for your interviews can allow you to regain control of these transition periods to reintegrate them in a peaceful way into the narrative of your professional project. A good way to show the recruiter that you take ownership of your story and have been able to transform difficulties into opportunities!