You're facing a career gap in your cover letter. How can you make it work in a competitive industry?

Career gaps can be addressed in your resume rather than a cover letter (not many will read that). After each role, add your reason for leaving and if there is a gap add it in your resume like this:- Reason for leaving previous job - layoff due to department closing (try to add the reason for the layoff) Jan 2022 - July 2022 - Job searching - Completed X and Y courses (3 months online) - Attended X event And leave it at that!

People think that it's only work experience that belongs on a resume - but your volunteering, learning and other activities have an important place as well and can fill a gap in a resume very well. Remember this when you're job hunting and add it to your resume.

Make sure that you know how to tell a story share how it affect you and why you made that choice and then move along. don’t allow the interviewer to keep you talking about it for longer than you are interested in discussing it.

A lot of the time people are worried about anything you might be hiding, ie. some jail time ?? So your time out of work in a difficult job market isn't so bad. Don't be too hard on yourself and take the time to work on yourself personally and professionally. This can all help when it comes to your next role. It shows strength of character and resilience. ??

A lot of times job seekers may try to justify what may think is a red flag, when the employer might not have noticed or even think it’s a red flag to begin with. So why draw attention or make an attempt to explain in a cover letter?! The interview is where you should be prepared to answer IF asked, be honest, address the question and pivot towards what you can contribute. Not to mention, if you land an interview with a gap on your resume and don’t explain this in a cover letter the employer likely didn’t see it as a deal breaker. Don’t avoid every cover letter as some applications won’t let you submit without one, use this to talk about the positives rather than highlight something that can be negative.

Few unknowns 1?? how many gap(s)? 2?? how long are gap(s)? But, a few points... ?? cover letters rarely read ?? why mention on a cover letter? Consider.... Address gap on resume (minimise) Deflect reader to critical info Resume must be ?? to excite reader Best of luck ??

I understand but this is honestly part of life!! Things happen, I pray my management is understanding if I had a gap in employment. Who wants to be unemployed? All I can say is USE YOUR TIME WISELY! Before you know it 6 months to 1 year has gone by and you haven’t increased or learned any new skills !

It's critical to recognize and mitigate the two major risks that can make career gaps unattractive to employers: 1) Risk that you've let your career go stale, and are only watching Netflix. You're competing with those who are currently working. 2) Risk that your career gap represents jail time.