A gap in the CV is no longer an exclusion criterion in the application process. Instead, LinkedIn wants to encourage members of the platform to explain their time off with a new feature.
The CV is your figurehead when you are looking for a new job. It shows your previous stations and experiences. On the other hand, what causes uncertainty for many employees is a gap in their CV. This can arise for a variety of reasons. Many take a career break when a child is born, a professional reorientation is pending or a family member needs to be cared for. For a long time, gaps in the CV were considered a flaw. However, a shift is now taking place in this area. Finally, employers and the employees themselves recognize that even during a career break, a lot of skills can be learned and strengthened that are beneficial for the next job. LinkedIn now introduces a new functionto fill in and explain pauses in the resume.
Resume gap with comment
Women in particular have suffered greatly from the effects of the corona pandemic. Lost worldwide between 2019 and 2020 4.2 percent of female workers their job; by contrast, three percent of male employees were affected. LinkedIn users can now access the “Career Breaks” function so that these gaps or those caused by care work are not left uncommented in the CV.
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According to LinkedIn, 68 percent of the users surveyed gave a study indicate that they would like a way to present said breaks positively on their CV. Talent Scouts hiring through LinkedIn Recruiters will soon see these pauses when searching for candidates. By specifying skills that they learned during their time off, recruiters will play them out as a potential match in the appropriate searches. The new Career Break feature is now available on LinkedIn. When editing their previous stations, users can add explanations about their breaks and select from a list of ready-made information about the reason for their break such as “Health and Wellbeing”, “Gap Year”, “Travel”, “Voluntary Work” etc. and insert them.
Career break as a career boost?
Ultimately, it’s not just about creating a context for any gaps, but also making it clear that important skills can also be learned during career breaks. Of course, these learned skills and knowledge vary from person to person, but it is important to recognize that skills that are important for a job cannot only be learned in a professional context. This is what LinkedIn says:
Over half (56%) of employees say they acquired new skills or improved existing ones — such as problem-solving, communication, and budgeting — during their career break. And over half (54%) of women say they are better at their job than they were before.
51 percent of employers told LinkedIn that they were more likely to give candidates a chance to explain career breaks on their resume rather than just leave them uncommented.
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