Gap in your CV: how to explain it without apologising

What actually worries an employer

Redundancy, parental leave, illness, caring for a relative, retraining, travel: few careers run without a break. Faced with an empty stretch, an employer isn’t looking for someone to blame. They are asking two questions:

• What happened? A short, plausible answer is enough.
• Are you ready now? That’s the real question: are your skills up to date, are you available, do you want this job?

A gap left unexplained forces them to guess, and they rarely guess in your favour. A gap with a name, however brief, becomes a detail.

1. Should it show on your CV?

It depends on how long it was and where it sits in your career:

• A few months between jobs: nothing to add. That’s a normal job search, and most employers won’t dwell on it.
• A longer or recent break: name it on one line, in its place in the timeline.
• An old break followed by several years of work: it matters little; one line is enough, or nothing at all if it was long ago.

Keep the same date format throughout (month and year). Switching to years only to hide a gap is noticeable, and the question will still come up in the interview, with added suspicion.

2. Name the period in one line

One factual line, with no personal detail, in your experience section. Some wordings:

For health or family matters, “personal reasons” or “family reasons” is enough. You don’t have to say more, on your CV or in the interview.

3. Show what you did during that time

If the period includes something useful for the job, write it as experience, with what you did — as long as it’s true:

• A course you took, even a short one, and what it taught you.
• Freelance, temporary or contract work.
• Volunteering or a role in a club or charity.
• A concrete personal project: a website, a renovation, a business you started.

Don’t invent anything to fill the space: an interviewer who asks about an imaginary course will remember the lie, not the break. If you did nothing in particular during parental leave or an illness, that’s normal; just say so.

4. Talk about it in the interview, in three steps

The question often comes as “What were you doing between 2022 and 2023?” Prepare a thirty-second answer in three steps:

• The fact, in one sentence, without justifying yourself.
• What you gained or what you did during that time, if it helps for the role.
• Why you’re ready now, and what draws you to this job.

I left Fictivia in 2022 to care for a family member for a year. During that time I kept my hand in by taking an online course in management accounting. Things are settled now, I’m fully available, and this role is a chance to use what I learned about reporting dashboards.

Then stop. The calmer and shorter your answer, the less room the subject takes. Our guide on preparing for an interview helps with the other questions.

5. What you don’t have to say

Some questions, about your health, a pregnancy, your family situation or plans for children, have nothing to do with your ability to do the job, and in many countries the law protects candidates from being judged on them. You don’t owe the details.

Faced with a question that’s too personal, stay polite and bring the conversation back to the role: “That was a personal period that’s behind me now; what matters for this job is…”.

Mistakes to avoid

• Lying about dates: stretching an old job to cover the break is exposed by a reference or a background check.
• Over-explaining: a long story draws attention to the gap instead of closing it.
• Blaming a former employer to explain why you left: even when it’s fair, it worries people.
• Letting your skills go stale: a short course or a recent tool shows you’re ready.

Frequently asked questions