As we are all aware, there are more people stressing job loss and experiencing employment gaps than we have seen in the past several years. If you fit this profile, and as the majority of candidates will experience this in-between space within their professional careers, we’re here to help teach you a few ways in which you can utilize your time to optimize strategies that will assist you in landing your next opportunity. Keep reading below to find the ways that we think will help you maintain your professional status as a wonderful candidate…

Capitalizing During an Employment Gap…

Resume Upkeep: In the midst of a workday, we’re sure that the last thing on your mind would be to update your resume to fit your most recent experiences! However, if you’ve got some extra time on your hands, a little resume upkeep is a great way to stay “trendy” with layout, organization, and style, as well as create a resource to rely on and have on hand if any opportunity comes your way.
1. Extra tip: Tailor different versions of your resume to a variety of industry standards! While financial and several business roles correlate with standard layouts and mainly black and white fonts, journalism focused roles (like creative marketing, graphic design, PR, etc.), are home to a variety of color and organizational formats! So, having a few different types of resumes on hand will help you “customize” your applications in the future without the need for any additional work.
Skill Upkeep and New Endeavors: As you’ve experienced at any point throughout your academic career, sometimes it’s not about the content of the course, but the value is found in training your brain to learn on a constant basis! Exploring new online certifications through companies like LinkedIn or Google, increasing your data competency or exploring introductory coding, or otherwise building any new skillset is a great way to create leverage against other candidates as you compete for positions.
Network: Although we may sound like a broken record…network! You deserve to utilize the connections you’ve worked hard to build throughout your career to secure a foot in the door at a variety of companies prior to interviewing. Who knows if the person you reach out to may coincidentally have a new spot open on their team? Every conversation is worth your time!
Dedication to Each Application: Remember that while you may be able to simply click a button or two and submit a resume to an online job, taking the extra step to tailor your documents (including your cover letter) to the specific job requirements and company values if your key to success!

If you are in the middle of an employment gap, check out our open jobs list here!

Click here to learn more about finding success in interviews!