The career gap from when I decided to have kids first.

Gaps in employment history happen for different reasons. It could either be a challenge of balancing family and career or a break to specifically focus on motherhood. But while taking a break to nature your children is a viable reason, accounting for the career gap to your prospective employer requires some form of strategy. It’s not every day that you will fill in “mom duties” in your curriculum vitae and have your prospective boss run with it.

Any mother, who has opted for a full time mum schedule as opposed to the standard maternity leaves provided, will confirm to you that getting back to the cooperate sector takes a lot of convincing. Surprisingly, according to research done by Gallup Poll, 56% of women still prefer staying home longer after delivery despite the gap it creates in their career. That calls to show how important, and treasured motherhood is, if only employers could understand this from our perspective then the gap wouldn’t need much of explaining.

So when the children finally settles in school buses ready for takeoff, you will notice some free time which needs to be filled. That is probably the time when your career is supposed to take shape once again. It’s not enough to be in that head spaces, ready and enthusiastic to jump start your career, you should also be more concerned about how to fill in the gaps in your resume.

Here are strategies on how to explain the career gap:

1. Choose to use a functional resume format instead of a chronological resume format. Reason being the functional format will shade more light on your professional competencies unlike the chronological resume that focus on your previous workplaces, and years of service. Normally the functional resumes speak more about your accomplishments and capabilities which is what you need to sell to your prospective recruiter. Under your ‘Career Progression’ segment, it will only show lists of your previous employers, and job positions; it also offers more flexibility in case you would want to explore other irrelevant opportunities.
2. In your resume, create a section for other activities and key in volunteer work. Describe all the tasks and duties you took up during your break that may have helped you enhance your skills. List down the company names, location and positions held during this period. Do not omit any relevant detail as every single opportunity come with added skills that may be helpful.
3. In case of online applications, make sure you do a thorough review before submitting your application. Give accurate information of all the required details to the latter, if required to account for the lost time, make sure you are factual with the dates and duration. Account for every minute spent out of employment; feel free to go all brutal on this. In case of limited space on the application form, attach a cover letter explaining your absence. Let your prospective recruiter know that you took time out to nurse your baby, emphasize that the decision was purely yours and not that of your former employer. At times, it pays to be truthful, not everything can work against you.
4. Treat motherhood as an actual job, under your ‘Career Progression” add your latest sign up as motherhood. There is never going through motherhood without adopting new skills or learning a thing or two. Among many under your sleeves, choose the skills relevant to the cooperate world and include them in the ‘Skills’ section. You don’t really have to add a description to your new-found job tittle (clearly motherhood is a handful and can’t be well described), just write, ‘mum’ that completes it. Keep your highlight brief but relevant to the position you are applying for.
5. Financial situations and capabilities are different and some mothers can’t really afford longer breaks even if they want to. If you choose to take a few months break before returning to the cooperate world, do not fret about the short term gap. Simply play around with the dates and adjust to suit your preference. Make it look like there was no break at all if need be.

In your quest to cover up the lost out time, please remember that your employer is more concerned with knowing if you added any more skills to your already lucrative list. So, for this particular reason it is more than important that you key in all the activities you took part in during your time away from the corporate sector. Also make sure that every activity included involves the use of your professional skills. Otherwise, do not be shaken, motherhood is a full time job that also needs attention.