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Fast Company
24-06-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Don't hide that career gap on your résumé. Own it
Career gaps have become commonplace in people's work history, yet job seekers still feel the need to hide them—a strategy experts warn is likely to backfire. According to a recent survey conducted by MyPerfectResume, 47% of American workers have taken a break from work. Despite how common those breaks have become, 38% are 'highly concerned' about how it will affect their future job prospects, and 30% believe employers will consider it a 'major red flag.' 'During the pandemic, there was so much shifting in the workplace—lots of people getting laid off or stepping out of work to manage caregiving responsibilities—and you might have thought this need for a linear career path would have maybe diminished,' says MyPerfectResume career expert Jasmine Escalera. 'What the data tells us is that there is an enduring stigma. It still affects how employees see their career prospects.' That stigma, according to Escalera, is adopted from a bygone era when most workers remained at the same employer for the majority or entirety of their careers, and when a break from that pattern signaled a performance or loyalty issue. 'It's so old-school and comes from the way corporate America was set up in the past. But it doesn't fit the times we're actually in,' she says. Not all career gaps, however, are received the same. According to the survey, respondents are most sympathetic to medical or caregiving leaves, followed by a return to school. However, the most common career gaps were the result of layoffs or company restructuring, career transitioning, mental health needs, or termination. Hiding a career gap is worse than having a career gap Ironically, according to the MyPerfectResume survey, a career gap itself can often be less damaging to a candidate's prospects than any attempts made to hide it. In the survey, nearly two-thirds of those with career gaps said they keep that information off their application and only discuss it if the hiring manager asks about it directly, while 4 percent admit to lying about it outright. Only one in five people say they address the gap directly. 'Earlier in my career, it was common when an employee had a gap in their résumé, and to try to cover that by stretching the date they left and the date they started another job. Don't do that,' says Jim Link, chief human resources officer for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). 'The first thing the employer is going to do is verify backgrounds and employment dates, and call your references. And even if it's a month or two off, that's going to raise red flags.' No matter the reason for the career break, Link emphasizes that it is always better to be transparent instead of trying to hide the truth and risking getting caught. No matter the reason, he says, employers would rather know than be left guessing, or worse, feeling deceived. 'We will look at someone who has a criminal history for employment in our organization, and I know hundreds of other employers like that,' he says. 'Even in those circumstances, I believe that the truth is the absolute right thing to present, because employers who believe in second chances just want that candidate to say what happened, what they were convicted of, and why they are worthy of a second chance.' Shift the narrative from past to future When it comes to career gaps, honesty is always the best policy, though candidates are advised to be tactful in how they present it. 'A gap isn't a red flag; it's a story to be told—the problem is that most people don't know how to tell that story,' says career coach, author, and podcast host Marlo Lyons. 'You have to own the narrative about the gap.' Key to owning that narrative, Lyons says, is offering an explanation that focuses on what was learned or accomplished during the time away from work. 'For example, if you took time away to be a caregiver, you would say, 'I took time away to care for a family member, and now I'm energized to return to work,'' she says. 'Or 'I took a pause in my career to figure out exactly what I want. And after taking that time, I know this job is exactly what I want.' So, it's all about positioning, and being future oriented.' According to data provided by LinkedIn, 2.7 million professionals have added a career break to their profiles, and 67% say they gained valuable skills during the absence. Whether that time was spent traveling, caring for a loved one, overcoming a medical challenge, going back to school, or simply job searching, Lyons says there are almost always employable skills to draw from those experiences. 'If you've taken time off to travel, highlight cultural fluency, adaptability, and language skills,' she says. 'Same with volunteering. You do not have to get paid to put it on your résumé.' Address it early Employment gaps left unexplained can leave recruiters guessing, and for more competitive positions, some might not give candidates the chance to explain. As opposed to hiding gaps, addressing them with a sense of embarrassment, or waiting to be asked, Lyons encourages job seekers to share their story proactively. 'It's critical, both on the résumé and when you're asked to walk them through your résumé [in interviews], that you address the gap very confidently and clearly,' she says. Those who spent some of their time away from work volunteering, taking courses, consulting, or networking are encouraged to add those points to their résumé directly. Those that left work to travel, pivot their careers, manage a medical need, or be a caregiver can also offer a brief explanation in their cover letters, emphasizing the lessons learned from those experiences. 'The simpler it is, the more authentic it will be received, and the recruiter can then move on to the next question,' Lyons says. 'It's when you don't fill in the gap, or when you stumble, or when you try to talk around what happened in that situation—that's where the red flag comes in.'
Wall Street Journal
18-06-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
The Biggest Companies Across America Are Cutting Their Workforces
Corporate America is convinced: Fewer employees means faster growth. U.S. public companies have reduced their white-collar workforces by a collective 3.5% over the past three years, according to employment data-provider Live Data Technologies. Over the past decade, one in five companies in the S&P 500 have shrunk.
RNZ News
13-06-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Jobs New Zealanders are no longer doing
Over the past 25 years 77 percent of service station attendant roles have gone, with people now filling up with petrol themselves. Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook When was the last time you encountered someone working on the forecourt of a service station? Although we're all used to sorting our own fuel now, there was a time when it wasn't uncommon to have an attendant offer to help. Data compiled by Infometrics looked at the types of jobs that have disappeared over the past 25 years, and service station attendants are near the top of the list, with 77 percent of their roles, or 5557 individuals, gone. Telephone betting clerks were also significantly reduced, down 86 percent, although only 114 people. Footwear production machine operators were lost at a rate of 82 percent, postal sorting officers at 76 percent and mail clerks at 71 percent. In absolute terms, some of the biggest job losses were among people calling themselves secretaries, "general clerks", and sewing machinists. Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan, who produced the data for RNZ, said there were a number of major changes that showed up, reflecting the moving makeup of the New Zealand workforce. There had been a reduction in personal assistant and information entry roles. "Across a grouping of personal assistant, secretary (general), legal secretary, general clerk, data entry operator, machine shorthand operator, and word processing operator, total employment numbers have fallen from 98,700 to 41,861 since 2000. "However, many of those roles have evolved into the following nearby grouping covering contract administrator, program or project administrator, office manager, health practice manager, and practice managers - up from 25,543 to 74,634 over the same period." Professor Sholeh Maani, of the University of Auckland, said roles such as typists used to be a staple in offices but had been absorbed into general administrative duties because everyone would do their own typing. She said switchboard operators were also no longer a requirement in businesses where automated systems had taken over. Some of the jobs that disappeared were in manufacturing that does not happen in New Zealand any more. "Across sewing machinist, footwear production machine operator, hide and skin processing machine operator, knitting machine operator, textile dyeing and finishing machine operator, weaving machine operator, yarn carding and spinning machine operator, and textile and footwear production machine operators, employment has fallen from 14,472 to 5608 since 2000," Kiernan said. "Across paper and pulp mill worker, sawmill or timber yard worker, and wood and wood products factory worker, employment has fallen from 6408 to 2864 since 2000 - reflecting that we send most of our wood to China as unprocessed logs - although the fall in forestry workers, from 4967 to 3900, is interesting as well, perhaps reflecting greater mechanisation in the industry." He said farming, too, had become a lot less labour intensive. There was a notable drop in sheep farmers. University of Otago associate professor Paula O'Kane said the loss of the roles was not always a bad thing, depending on what work people found instead. "You have that group [that was] highly involved in manufacturing - some will have moved into much more interesting roles in terms of the design or what sits behind the machinery that's used in automation. You'll get a chunk who have actually got much more challenging and meaningful roles. "And then there's another chunk who've come down to something more menial and potentially less valued." Massey University professor Jarrod Haar said the evolution of technology changed the workforce. Machinery had become cheaper and more useful, reducing the number of humans needed in some roles. Sometimes, it had also allowed roles to be spread more thinly, he said. Someone who might previously have employed an assistant, for example, might now use a virtual assistant who was also working for a range of other people. There has also been a drop in the number of people calling themselves sewing machinists. Photo: 123RF AI was expected to be the next big driver of workforce change. Haar said it was already disrupting data entry roles, where it could do work previously only handled by humans. He said there would probably be job losses as the changes were worked through but the market would realign. "We might see new businesses starting or new jobs that don't exist. I think we'll see lots of what used to be done, plus an AI component to it." Haar said the best advice for employees was to add value wherever they could. Kiernan said there could be transitional costs as people trained or upskilled. But he said the fact there had been so much change in the past 25 years and unemployment was still only 5 percent at what was likely to be the peak showed the market could adapt. O'Kane said there was a generational shift, too. Younger people might not want to work 60 hours a week as older generations had. "I think younger people are looking for different things out of work and those things are often around more intrinsic motivations. The idea of fulfilment and doing good." She said younger people were not as interested in middle-level administration jobs, which would probably be taken over by technology. "I don't think it's a bad thing. I think it's a good thing in the sense that it will make jobs richer and give people more meaningful work, and work that potentially challenges them more." But she said if some of the "middle" was lost to AI and other automation, there was a risk that the gap between the "haves and have nots" widened. "You're going to see the lower level jobs that are still going to be there, the caring roles that are often very undervalued, and then the potentially higher level jobs. "I think we need to constantly enable people to be upskilled and keep up with technology and keep up with the skill sets that are needed in the modern workplace. "I think we're looking at a lot more communication skills. That's interpersonal communication, negotiation and really knowing how to work well with people and be innovative and creative as well. And I think we can work with people to support some of those people who potentially maybe weren't moving into those more high-quality jobs to give them the skill sets to enable them to. "And then, you're still going to have those lower level jobs… those need to be valued." She said it would be important to look after workers in vulnerable roles, including valuing work done by carers, to ensure they earned enough to live fulfilling lives and were not left behind as the "working poor". Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why It Pays to Switch Jobs in HK
Recruitment agency Michael Page's latest survey shows low or stagnant salaries remain the top driver for resignations among Hong Kong professionals. The agency's managing director, Olga Yung, says employees who switch companies have seen bigger pay increases than those who choose to stay with their current employers that offer regular - if marginal - adjustments. She discuses that and other hiring trends in Hong Kong's finance sector on "Bloomberg: the China Show". Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
