If you are a stay-at-home mom, you know how difficult it can be trying to apply for jobs with gaps in your employment. Even if you are not a stay-at-home mom, you may have employment gaps from being a caregiver to someone, or even due to traveling for some time, which is AWESOME by the way.
LIFE HAPPENS! But it doesn’t mean that you can’t chase your dreams of applying for your DREAM job and landing an interview.
I started out just like you. I was just a regular gal, who loved to travel, and I was working in my corporate American job– not hating it, but also not quite loving it either.
Sitting in my cubicle, I couldn’t help but think, “Is this it? Is this all there is to life now until we retire? Work long hours and maybe be allowed to take a two-week vacation?”
I knew there just had to be more to life than this.
So, I quit.
Now, for the last decade, I have helped thousands of people just like YOU to achieve their dreams of successfully working from home as a virtual assistant with my course 90 Day VA, all while being able to travel the world with my family.
With that being said, I want to share some solid tips with you that can help you deal with those employment gaps on your remote resume so that if you DO have lots of relevant experience for the remote jobs you are applying to but have some employment gaps, you’ll still be able to land it.
All right, let’s dive right in! With having my own experience in being a hiring manager for my virtual assistant internship company, these are the things that I like to look for:
1. Tweak Your Resume for Every Single Job That You Apply For
You really need to be researching what that job is specifically looking for and making sure that your resume is using the keywords that the job description’s tasks have outlined.
Just because they are looking for a “marketing director” and your resume says “marketing director” does NOT mean that’s enough. Your resume really needs to match what they are specifically looking for.
BONUS TIP: have a resume for each type of job that you are applying to (e.g. having a resume or two for virtual assistant jobs and a separate resume for project management jobs). This way you have way less tweaking to do to your resume for each job that you are applying to.
BONUS BONUS TIP: if you have experience on your resume that is not relevant to the jobs that you are applying to, TAKE IT OUT! No one wants to hear about your two years of customer service at Target unless you are applying for a customer service job. Just take it out. Reorder your resume to highlight the skills that jobs are actually looking to hire you for.
2. Bridge the Gap
If you do have really long employment gaps AND relevant experience, NEVER EVER put on your resume “stay at home mom.” It is unprofessional and not relevant.
What you CAN do is bridge the gap somehow with maybe some volunteer work, travel (this is actually a fine option), running the parent-teacher program at your child’s school, freelance side projects for your family’s business, running the social media account for your friend’s store, or even freelance work for your own business.
There are lots of options, and if you think hard enough, I am sure you can find some type of tasks that you have done that totally works for bridging the gap in your resume.
Get creative about what stuff you really did do, and sit down and brainstorm those tasks without having any distractions. Once you have done that, tweak them so that they are relevant for the job.
For example, traveling doesn’t mean that you were just traveling… what were you doing while you were traveling? Were you writing? Doing photography? Organizing trips? Travel planning? What were you doing that applies to the job that you are applying for? This rule applies to everything.
Lastly, make sure all of your most relevant experience is near the top of your resume.
And that is it!
I want to help you not have fear of having the “employment gap.”
If you have relevant experience, testimonials, and portfolio pieces to back you up, that’s all people care about these days. They just need really “good quality” people who have relevant experience, regardless of how much of a gap you may have in your resume.
There are SO MANY companies who just want good people and are having a really hard time filling their roles for remote jobs. That should tell you how much and how vast the number of jobs there are out there waiting for you.
So stop with just not applying to jobs, because you do qualify for something, and you may just need some help with figuring it out. And that is OKAY!
That is exactly why I put together 90 Day VA; it can help you bridge that gap, and even help you with learning how to build new and relevant virtual assistant job skills that you may not have yet.
My free class is always available for you to start getting real results right now. Thousands of people have already successfully begun the journey and are living their dreams. This can be you too!
Get started! Click HERE to check out my free masterclass.
In 90 Day VA, Esther teaches her students how to research and repurpose current content into blogs for the VAI website. Dawnae is the student we’ve chosen this week to feature what she’s learned in the course. Get to know her:
Dawnae is a virtual assistant here to relieve business owners of tedious tasks and help them focus on running the business of their dreams.
When she’s not helping businesses manage their content and doing other administrative tasks, she loves to sing at church and spend time with her loved ones.
She’s a member of 90 Day VA and assists with everything from email management to social media management and more!
To see all the services she offers and how she can help you, check out her website HERE.
