A Guide to Mentioning a Career Break on Your CV
Occasionally it’s necessary to take a career break. Other times, you might choose to take an optional break to pursue important interests, such as family or travelling. But do you need to mention your career break on your CV, and if so, how do you highlight it without making problems for yourself? In this article, we’ll discuss how to handle a career break on your CV, providing tips to help improve your chances of job application success.
Do You Have to Include a Career Break in Your CV?
If you’re wondering whether you have to mention a career break in your CV, the short answer is no. It’s not essential to mention gaps in employment or breaks you’ve taken from your career, whatever the reason. However, ignoring your career gaps can raise alarms for employers when they see periods of time unaccounted for in your career timeline. Being up front and honest about your career gaps can help your chances of success by dispelling doubts about what you’re hiding from employers.
You might feel nervous about mentioning your career break because it shows idle time in your development. You may even worry that employers will think you’re less suited to the role because you’ve fallen behind with the latest technology or industry standards. Indeed, there is always a risk that employers could have these thoughts. However, there are plenty of ways to minimise its impact and even frame your career break in a positive light.
How to Mention a Career Break in Your CV
If you decide to mention your career break rather than leave gaps in your CV, there are various ways to do it. Here are some of the most suitable places to reference any breaks in your career:
Address career breaks in your work experience section
The most appropriate place to address a career break is often your work experience section. This is the best place to highlight any time you took off to care for children on your CV, or any other career breaks. If you took a substantial break between jobs, you can list your career break between those two jobs in your work experience section. If, however, you took a break and then returned to the same job (for example, a sabbatical), you could simply mention it within the relevant job’s section on your CV.
Add a separate section explaining your career break
Another suitable place to mention a career break could be in a separate section towards the end of your CV. This could come under the ‘additional information’ section, with a sub-heading ‘career breaks’. If you took a break to gain experience through training, education, voluntary work or another type of personal development, you could mention this in the relevant CV section.
Explain a career break in your cover letter
You could also highlight your career break in your cover letter. This gives you the opportunity to expand on the details of your career break, including your reasons for taking a break and any useful career development or skills you may have learned from it. Your CV might not afford you the space to add this information, but cover letter templates give you more space to expand on the details.
Discussing your career break during an interview
Hiring managers may ask you about CV gaps in a job interview. If you’ve mentioned your break already on your CV and cover letter, then you’ll be better prepared to explain it in more detail during an interview. If, however, you haven’t listed your career break in your application, and the interviewer spots a gap in your CV timeline, this might make for a more awkward interview scenario.
Examples of how to mention career break in your CV
Take inspiration from these examples of how to mention a career break in different parts of your CV and cover letter:
Work experience section
Add your career break between roles in your reverse-chronological career timeline. You can either add a brief mention, or include some details of what you did during your break and why you took it. Take a look at these work experience CV examples:
Planned career break, September 2018 - March 2019
- Took an intentional career break to undertake family care responsibilities
If you took a sabbatical from a role before returning to the same job, you can mention it as a bullet point within the entry for that role on your CV, as follows:
Office Manager, Anderson Harvey Ltd, Hexham, June 2017 – present
- Managed an office with 20 sales, marketing and administrative professionals for a reputable office supplies firm
- Organised the calendars of senior management and handled phone and email correspondence
- Took a four-month career sabbatical between April and August 2022 to travel across South America
Additional information
If you took a career break to train, volunteer or gain other useful skills, you may wish to mention it in the additional information at the end of your CV. If you’re listing it here, remember to add the dates of your break as you would in the work experience section. Here’s an example of listing a career break for voluntary work:
Volunteer Nurse, The Gemmill Trust, Bristol, February 2017 – August 2017
- Took a career break to volunteer for a local homeless charity, treating patients on a mobile community health station
Cover letter
If you need to expand upon the details of a career break mentioned on your CV, you can do so in your cover letter. Write a few sentences or a short paragraph explaining your career break and any valuable skills you gained from it. Take a look at the two examples below:
Between October 2012 and April 2013 I took a voluntary career break to project manage a renovation on our family home. During this time I managed the project finances, arranged work schedules with contractors and completed the renovation on time and within budget.
At the age of 32 I took a career break to share childcare responsibilities with my partner. Between the dates of July and December 2017 I assumed main parenting duties, and also dedicated my spare time to learning the Python programming language.
Expert Tip
Review the job description and use your career break as an opportunity to show how you’ve developed the key skills and experience the employer is looking for. You don’t need to justify taking a break from your career, but you can show how it makes you a stronger, more suitable candidate.
Valuable Experiences and Skills During Career Break
While you might be nervous about drawing attention to a career break on your CV, there are plenty of positives to highlighting it. A career break could provide a valuable opportunity to learn new skills that you wouldn’t otherwise have had the chance to develop. This might be new language skills gained while travelling, transferable skills learned through parenting or caring for family members, or specific self-development or training you chose to pursue while you were away from work.
It’s essential to frame your career break as a positive for your experience, skills and overall employability. Think about how the time off helped you develop as a person, and what skills from that time you can offer to any new role. Consider the skills and experience listed in the job description and tease out any relevant experiences or achievements from your career break that can help make you a better fit for the role.
"While you might be nervous about drawing attention to a career break on your CV, there are plenty of positives to highlighting it."
Tips for Including a Career Break on Your CV
Follow these quick tips to ensure you turn your career break into a net positive for your CV and job applications:
- List your career break clearly: don’t omit your break or to hide it somewhere the hiring manager won’t notice it. Lying on a CV is never a good idea, and can even be illegal. Be upfront about your break so there are no gaps in your CV.
- Present your professional development: explain how your career break has helped you to learn new and valuable skills. If you took part in any formal training during your break, be sure to mention this.
- Show your skills are up-to-date: prove that your career break hasn’t made you a less-qualified, less-relevant candidate by ensuring your CV shows evidence that you’re familiar with the latest industry trends and developments.
- Use your CV and cover letter: if you feel you need more space to justify your career break and explain its positive impact on your career, use your cover letter to add further detail.
Key Takeaways for Adding Career Breaks to Your CV
It’s always better to mention your career break rather than try to cover it up. Adding your career break to your CV can even be a positive, allowing you to showcase experience from your break that other candidates may not have. Jobseeker’s CV templates can help you to create a stylish, professional CV to showcase your skills and achievements in the best possible light. Sign up today to access a wealth of tools and CV articles to help your applications. You can also find help with your cover letter with our cover letter articles.
