Returning to Work? Here's How to Address Your Career Break
Career breaks happen. Whether you stepped away from work for six weeks, six months, or six years, you're not alone, and you're not unemployable. The key is knowing how to position your time away as part of your professional story, not a liability.
Common Reasons for Employment Gaps
Life doesn't follow a linear career path, and that's perfectly normal. Here are some of the most common reasons professionals take time away from traditional employment:
Family caregiving – raising children or supporting aging parents
Personal health – recovering from illness, injury, or prioritizing mental health
Layoffs and company restructuring – navigating an unexpected job loss
Education and professional development – earning degrees, certifications, or new skills
Travel and sabbaticals – pursuing personal growth and global experiences
Caregiving for loved ones – supporting a partner, family member, or friend through crisis
Entrepreneurial ventures – launching or exploring a business idea
Relocation – moving cities or countries for family or lifestyle reasons
Whatever your reason, the question isn't why you have a gap—it's how you present what you did during that time.
The Reality About Resume Gaps in 2025
Here's what's changed: employers are more understanding about career breaks than ever before. The pandemic normalized gaps. Remote work normalized flexibility. And the Great Resignation normalized prioritizing life over work.
What hasn't changed? Employers still want to see continuous growth, relevant skills, and genuine enthusiasm. Your job is to show them you bring all three.
Reframing Your Gap: Unpaid Work Is Still Work
The most powerful way to address a resume gap is to fill it with meaningful activity that demonstrates transferable skills. Here's how to think about common scenarios:
Volunteer Work and Community Involvement
If you volunteered during your career break, that's employment. Period.
Whether you served on a nonprofit board, organized community events, wrote grant proposals, managed social media for a cause, or coordinated voter registration drives—these are real responsibilities with real outcomes.
How to list it: Create a position entry just like any other job, with a title, organization name, dates, and bullet points highlighting your accomplishments and the skills you used.
Example: Volunteer Coordinator | Local Food Bank | June 2023 - Present
Recruited and managed team of 15+ volunteers for weekly food distribution events
Streamlined donation tracking system, improving efficiency by 30%
Coordinated with corporate sponsors to secure $50K in annual funding
Full-Time Parenting
Raising children is one of the most complex operations management roles that exists. You're simultaneously a project manager, conflict mediator, budget analyst, educator, and crisis response specialist—often within the same hour.
The challenge isn't that parenting lacks valuable skills. It's that we've been conditioned to downplay it. Don't.
How to position it: You have two options. You can create a formal position entry (especially effective for longer gaps) or address it briefly in your cover letter and interview, focusing on the skills you maintained and developed.
If you list it formally, consider: Household Manager | Smith Family | 2020 - 2024
Managed all household operations, including budgeting, scheduling, vendor relationships, and long-term planning
Coordinated educational activities and extracurricular logistics for three children
Maintained professional skills through online coursework in [relevant field]
Key transferable skills from parenting:
Organization and time management
Multi-tasking and prioritization under pressure
Negotiation and conflict resolution
Budget management
Strategic planning and problem-solving
Teaching and mentoring
Family or Friend Caregiving
Taking time to care for someone you love isn't a career detour—it's a demonstration of character, responsibility, and often, sophisticated care coordination skills.
If you managed medical appointments, coordinated with healthcare providers, handled insurance claims, researched treatment options, or oversaw a care team, you were performing complex project management under emotionally challenging circumstances.
How to list it: Family Care Coordinator | 2022 - 2023
Managed comprehensive care for family member, including medical appointments, treatment protocols, and care team coordination
Researched and evaluated treatment options, collaborating with multiple healthcare specialists
Maintained detailed medical records and managed insurance documentation
Oversaw budget for medical expenses and coordinated with insurance providers
Any employer who doesn't respect this experience isn't an employer you want. Caregiving is something most of us will face in our lifetimes. The skills it requires—compassion, organization, advocacy, resilience—are exactly what strong teams need.
Personal Health and Wellness
Maybe you needed surgery and recovery time. Maybe you addressed a mental health challenge or overcame addiction. Maybe you left a toxic work environment and needed time to heal. This is human, it's valid, and it's nothing to apologize for.
How to handle it: You have options depending on the length and recency of your gap:
Brief explanation in cover letter or interview: "I took time in 2023 to address a health matter, which is now fully resolved. I'm energized and ready to bring my [X years] of experience in [field] to a new challenge."
Leave it off entirely if it was short (under 3 months), We suggest using a hybrid resume format
List it simply: "Personal Sabbatical | 2023 - 2024" with no additional detail required
Keep any explanation brief, professional, and forward-focused. The message you want to convey: it's behind you, you're healthy and ready, and you're excited about what's next.
Strategic Resume Approaches for Employment Gaps
Beyond how you describe your activities, consider these formatting strategies:
Use Years Instead of Months
If your gap is relatively short or falls between calendar years, listing only years can minimize its visibility:
Less obvious: "ABC Company | 2022 - 2024"
More obvious: "ABC Company | June 2022 - February 2024"
Lead With a Strong Summary
Your resume summary should immediately establish your value. Open with your accomplishments, strongest qualifications, years of experience, key skills, and what you're seeking. This creates context before anyone reaches your employment dates.
Fill Gaps With Continuous Learning
Did you take online courses? Earn certifications? Attend workshops or conferences? Complete professional development? List these under an "Education & Professional Development" section with dates. It shows you stayed current and invested in your growth.
The Cover Letter Is Your Secret Weapon
Your resume lists the facts. Your cover letter tells the story.
Use your cover letter to briefly acknowledge your career break while pivoting immediately to enthusiasm and fit. WOW the reader with an accomplishment in the first sentence about the value you’ll bring. Here's a framework:
" My [X years] of experience in [relevant areas] combined with [recent skills or perspective gained], position me to contribute immediately to your team by [specific value you'll add]." After taking time in 2023-2024 to [care for aging parent/complete graduate studies/address health priorities], I'm excited to return to [industry/field] and specifically drawn to [Company Name] because [specific reasons].
Keep it confident, specific, and forward-looking. Spend 90% of your cover letter on why you're perfect for this job at this company, not on explaining your gap.
Preparing for Interview Questions
Interviewers will likely ask about your gap. Prepare a 30-second explanation that's honest, professional, and positions you positively:
Framework:
Brief factual explanation (one sentence)
What you learned or gained (if applicable)
Why you're ready and excited now
Example: "I took time in 2023 to care for my mother during her illness. It reinforced my ability to manage complex situations and stay organized under pressure. Now that she's recovered, I'm eager to bring my 10 years of marketing experience to a dynamic team like yours."
Practice saying it out loud until it feels natural. Then move the conversation forward to what you can do for them.
The Non-Negotiables
Always be honest. Never lie on your resume. Fabricating employment dates, titles, or credentials can cost you the job—even if it's discovered years later. It's not worth the risk, and it's not necessary. You have real value to offer.
Focus on what you bring. Employers care about one thing: can you do the job? Everything in your resume and cover letter should answer that question with a resounding yes. Fill your application materials with relevant accomplishments, keywords from the job description, and specific examples of how you'll add value.
Project confidence. The energy you bring to your job search matters as much as what's on paper. If you're apologetic about your gap, hiring managers will sense uncertainty. If you're matter-of-fact and enthusiastic about what's next, they'll focus on your qualifications.
Moving Forward With Confidence
Career breaks are a normal part of professional life in 2025. What matters isn't that you have a gap—it's what you did during that time and how you position yourself moving forward.
Whether you volunteered, raised a family, cared for others, invested in education, or prioritized your health, you developed skills. Identify them. Own them. Put them on your resume in language that resonates with employers.
Then write a compelling cover letter, tailor everything to each specific job, and show up to interviews ready to talk about the value you bring.
The right employer will see your career break for what it is: one chapter in a larger story of a capable professional who's ready for what's next.
Ready to craft a resume that positions your career break as a strength? At Life Working®, we help professionals at every career stage tell their story effectively and land roles they're excited about. Contact us to learn more about our resume writing and career coaching services.
At Life Working®, we help professionals navigate uncertainty and develop job search strategies that actually work. Whether you need help crafting your career story, structuring your presentation, preparing for tough questions, or understanding job search in the AI era, we'll give you the tools and confidence to land the offers you deserve.
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A Look Ahead to Our Next Newsletter…
In Our Next Blog Post: Are you being ghosted by employers? We’ll dive into what it is, why it’s happening so frequently, and what you can do to retake control of your job search.
Change is good.
It can also be confusing if you’re not sure where to start.
Feel free to reach out with any questions.
We're here to support you every step of the way on your journey to a fulfilling career!
The Life Working® Writing Services and Career Coaching Team