LinkedIn Add Career Break Option - yes or no?
Sue Ellson
Independent LinkedIn Specialist - Digital Mentor, Coach, Author, Educator, Consultant, Career Development Practitioner, Founder, Gigster, Keynote Speaker, Trainer, Poet, Writer, Business Social Marketing, AI??
LinkedIn Add Career Break Option - yes or no?
Are you game enough to add a Career Break to your LinkedIn Profile? It certainly sounds like a good idea - all diversity and inclusion and let's respect people where they are at - but what will human nature do with this information? Here are some of my thoughts and recommendations that LinkedIn may like to consider!
Let's start by looking at your choices:
1. Bereavement
2. Career transition
3. Caregiving
4. Full-time parenting
5. Gap year
6. Layoff/position eliminated
7. Health and well-being
8. Personal goal pursuit
9. Professional development
10. Relocation
11. Retirement
12. Travel
13. Voluntary work
1. Bereavement
Is there anything more tragic than losing a loved one? Probably not. I guess the question is, 'how long' does our society consider a reasonable time frame for 'Bereavement?' One month, six months, a year, three years? I know a person who lost their son to suicide and they were unable to work for quite some time. If it was me, I don't think I would feel comfortable disclosing this information publicly (unless I was part of an advocacy campaign). Perhaps this could be changed to 'Personal Loss' so that it is not on the top of an alphabetical list.
2. Career Transition
This is a tricky label - because are you in transition because you lost your job, are studying for a new job or you are reshaping your whole life? Where does this leave people who are 'forced' into a career transition and clearly want to move on to a new role? I would like to see another category added - Career Research - that also included a Job Title field so that a person could still appear in Recruiter and Decision-Maker searches.
3. Caregiving
In principle, this is a great option. However, I have found that more mature workers are considered to be 'out of date' in many situations and even more 'out of date' if they have been providing care. Caregiving involves a lot of project management, coordination, resilience and reliability so I would be encouraging people in this situation to talk about all of the skills they have used in this role.
4. Full-time parenting
I often joke that if a mother stays home to look after children, people assume she is 'a muffin cooker' but if a father stays home, he is a cool bloke and people go 'aawww' in praise. I am not sure that our society has really embraced the full-time parenting option, which was definitely expected back in 1995 when you were deemed a 'bad parent' if you went back to work when your children were young and put your child or children into childcare. My hope is that this option does give more value to the importance and value of full-time parenting. However, I would prefer it to be changed to 'Parenting' rather than 'Full-time parenting' as I personally completed study and voluntary work during my early parenting years and I think we all do more than just Parenting during this time of life.
5. Gap year
Originally almost ordained as a right of passage between secondary school and tertiary education, the Gap Year has probably been stifled by the pandemic, particularly for those young people looking for an overseas experience that were 'locked in' to their home country and unable to travel or got caught in a foreign location and couldn't get back home. A lot of people during this phase need to work to pay for their opportunity - so I guess this could be used as an addition to their various items listed in the 'Experience' or 'Volunteering' sections and provide an opportunity to showcase the Gap Year experience in more detail.
6. Layoff/position eliminated
I always suggest to my clients that when this happens, you do not take a break. You get back on the opportunity horse as soon as possible and then when you secure a new role, you tell the new employer that you can't start for a few weeks and then take a break before the new role starts. If you were part of an entire industry (like automotive in Australia), then most people would already know what has happened.
But a layoff or eliminated position could also be the consequence of bad performance. I don't think I would like to be given this 'label' under any circumstances. I could also mention what happened in the description of the role that has finished. It seems most recruiters and decision-makers like someone to go from a job to another job, not from unemployment to employment. There is no mention of retrenchment or redundancy which are the more widely accepted terms but also have negative connotations (who needs a reminder?). A better description could be 'Previous position ended.'
7. Health and well-being
This is another interesting option. What if an accident occurred and through no fault of your own, you are now needing to take a health break? My first thought when I read this option was 'couldn't cope in the job and needed a rest.' I asked a client who told me he had cancer 'What did you learn?' We didn't need to discuss his health crisis at all. We created an Experience item that summarised the many things he did during his treatment and recovery (like learning more about a raw food diet, learning a language, travelling etc) and we didn't need to discuss his illness at all because it didn't affect his ability to do his work in the future. I think a 'Sabbatical' would be a better option here.
8. Personal goal pursuit
I am slightly ambivalent about this option. It could be quite simple or quite grand and yet appear irrelevant to some people. Anything that anyone does that is outside their comfort zone is, in my opinion, fabulous. Whilst it may be something very 'easy' for you if you read it, it could be a huge triumph for them and I am not sure that describing this is particularly relevant in the context of an entire career. The language choice would be critical here. I guess it allows for a more elaborate description.
9. Professional development
Why isn't Education listed as an option rather than just Professional Development? There are countless people studying at a higher education level (Post Graduate, Masters and PhD) that are also parenting or caregiving. Definitely need to include Studying, Education and/or Training as an option.
10. Relocation
Relocating, especially internationally with school age children from 10 - 18 years old is nothing short of extremely hard work! It can take weeks for containers to arrive, to secure reliable housing with all utilities sorted (and get out of short stay accommodation) and find a replacement career in a different culture. This is a much needed category for the many partners in relationships who keep the home fires burning whilst their significant other adapts to the new environment. There is enormous value in a partner providing this support during the first six months of a new location and once things are settled, everyone can return to 'normal' without the stress. Great option.
11. Retirement
I love this option. If only more people who retire would keep their LinkedIn Profile!!! I know you may start retirement thinking that you want 'out' of the rat race. Fair enough. But you need a network for your whole life! Being able to reconnect to people you know is important and being able to be found by people doing genealogy research makes it much easier for you to let someone know all about good old Uncle Arthur. Don't forget, the people preparing your eulogy may also want to summarise what you have done in the past as well! I would also like to see a Semi-Retirement option!
12. Travel
Well I think most people enjoy some form of travel and many relocatees take some time out to explore their new location. If you do decide to choose this option, rather than list off a range of countries you have visited, I would suggest you dig deep and list some of your achievements and tasks, just as you would for any other role in your career.
13. Voluntary work
I am a huge fan of Voluntary Work as you will see on my LinkedIn Profile. In fact, I believe that everyone should do some form of voluntary work in an area that interests them throughout their life. I have suggested to some of my clients that they list their Voluntary Work in the 'Experience' section, particularly if it is relevant to their career (who needs to know that they weren't paid for it?) and if it helps them gain local experience in a new country. When I was completing a voluntary role for a professional association, I added it to my 'Experience' section and my 'Volunteering' section. When the role ended, because it was no longer related to my professional career direction, I removed it from the 'Experience' section but left it in the 'Volunteering' section.
I have always encouraged my clients who are not currently working to mention that their current job on LinkedIn is 'Career Research - Job Title, Keywords etc.' LinkedIn has now given you an opportunity to call it 'Career transition' although it doesn't give you the opportunity to give it a Job Title so that you can appear in recruiter and decision-maker search results.
My Recommendations for LinkedIn
1) Additional options for Career Research, Sabbatical, Studying or Education or Training, or Semi-Retirement could be added.
2) Bereavement could be changed to Personal Loss
3) Full-time parenting could be changed to Parenting
4) Layoff/position eliminated could be changed to Previous Position Ended to reduce the negative connotations of a role being removed and your own grief
5) A Title field needs to be reinstated for the Career Break choice so people can have a way to describe that time frame rather than just leave the menu choice as the Title
6) Including the options for Full Time or Part Time would also be nice - this way people could proudly list that they are doing multiple activities - ie Studying, Parenting, Career Research etc.
7) Another option for Creatives. Many people in the Arts need time away from their passion to rejuvenate. Perhaps 'Creative Refresh' could be an option?
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My Recommendations for you as an individual
At this stage, I would probably recommend that you contine to use the existing Experience option because there is more scope to provide a Title and Description that doesn't put you into a category. I am not sure if the algorithm will see you as 'working' if you are currently on a 'Career Break' which may mean that you could be excluded from a current search by a recruiter or decision-maker.
If you want to go back and list these options for previous parts of your career, all well and good. I have chosen to group certain time frames together and create a Company Profile https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/setup/new called 'Sue Ellson' so that I can list it under that name (and have a nice logo there as well). I think it provides a more comprehensive summary in a chronological order without someone having to check Education or Volunteering dates to cover any date gaps. We all know that if you have 'gaps' that people can assume you were in jail, on drugs, in hospital, sacked - you get the picture.
I haven't mentioned my parenting dates because I was able to manage parenting and various forms of work around my parenting responsibilities (and I didn't have family available to look after my children during school holidays or illness). This was a personal choice that did have a financial cost, but it is a choice I have never regretted. Some people do not have that luxury if they work in particular industries.
I never mention years of experience in any narrative. It can be calculated by looking at the dates. I also include all of my experience. If you don't want to work with me because of my age, that's okay, we are probably not a good fit. If you can see my value, then we will be a good fit. I am not going to hide my age and then wait for you to tell me after an interview that I am not the right fit for you.
Please remember that you NEED TO FILL IN YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE. The more you tell, the more you can sell - because it is just a database and if the information is not in the database, you cannot be found for the value you provide. I am proud of all of the work I have done as it has made me who I am today. Don't forget to include your achievements too! https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/how-write-add-achievements-your-linkedin-profile-sue-ellson
To answer the question of whether you should add a Career Break or not, at this stage, I would prefer to adapt the existing 'Experience' choice to say exactly what is most relevant and use either my own Company Page as the 'Employer' or use the word 'Various' but not select a Company Page called Various. I would still cover all dates of three months or more (in other words, not feel the need to mention what happened if the gap was three months or less).
I hope you have found this article helpful - if so, a quick Like or Comment would be very much appreciated! If you work for Microsoft or LinkedIn, I hope you can take on board some of these suggestions!
Other Articles of interest (Right click to open in a new tab) or see the full list?here
Enjoy the rest of your day!
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First Published:?21 March 2022
Last Update:?21 March 2022
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Sue Ellson?BBus, MIML, MPC, CDAA, ASA, WV, SPN, is an Independent LinkedIn Specialist, Business and Careers Consultant, Trainer and Author.
More information?at?https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/sueellson ?and?https://sueellson.com
Questions directly via email sueellson [at] sueellson.com
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8 个月These were super helpful insights. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.
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10 个月Hi, Sue If one has been caregiving for over 10 years, fo they put the extended dates or how would they address this issue on resume?
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2 年Thank you for the advice you wrote in this article. I'm just about to start improving my resume, after 3 years of quitting my job. Yet I don't know where to start.