Courtesy of : AVID Technical Resources -

Employment Gaps in Resumes

As IT recruiters, we often find candidates trying to cover up gaps in employment on their resumes.  Instead of trying to cover up any gaps and potentially jeopardizing your chance at landing your next IT job, following our simple advice:  Honesty is the best policy.

Most IT recruiters will tell you that it’s pretty easy to uncover gaps in employment.  Some of the most common include:

*Not using dates whatsoever:  Employment dates are mandatory in all resumes.  If an IT recruiter finds a    resume without any dates, it’s the biggest of the red flags.  No dates means the person behind the resume is trying to cover something up. 

*Using years, instead of adding the month and year of employment: This is also typically a red flag to IT recruiting firms.  The month and year should be included with every job listed on a person’s resume.  Excluding the month ignites suspicion with an IT recruiter that the candidate may be covering up anywhere from a one to twelve month gap in their resume.  When he or she is looking through dozens of resumes, sometimes all it takes is one red flag to disqualify the candidate.  Don’t lose out on an opportunity because you failed to include the month and year of employment on your resume.

*Fabricating employment dates:  Fabricating dates of employment is inexplicable.  Lying on your resume would, and should, black list you from that IT employment agency and/or client company.  Don’t run the risk of being caught, don’t jeopardize your chance at landing that perfect technical job opening

*Fabricating a position:  This is obviously just as unprofessional and deceitful as lying about employment dates.  Resumes should be an honest overview of a person’s skills and IT job experience and is a reflection upon the integrity of the person behind the paper.

  Instead of attempting to deceive the reader, be honest.  Ultimately, the employment gap will probably not prohibit you from getting the IT job as long as you candidly and honestly explain why there was a gap and what you did during this time.

In today’s economic environment, there are thousands of people out of work and faced with employment gaps.  If you are out of work for an extended period of time, do your best to sharpen your skills.  Take classes in the information technology field.  If you can’t afford them, most states provide these services through the local unemployment office.  IT recruiting companies or the clients themselves will typically respect the fact that you went out of your way to keep up with your skills.