How to explain a gap in your CV

Caring for someone, being ill, being made redundant in a bad year, studying, moving country, raising children — a recruiter has seen all of it. What makes a gap a problem is not the gap. It is a reader noticing dates that do not add up and wondering what they are not being told.

Name it in one line

Give the gap an entry in your experience section like any other, with dates and a single line of explanation. No apology, no detail you do not want to give.

• "Career break — full-time carer. Mar 2023 – Aug 2024."
• "Career break — travel and Spanish study (reached B2). Jan 2022 – Nov 2022."
• "Redundancy and job search. Sep 2024 – Feb 2025. Completed AWS Solutions Architect certification during this period."

Use years, not months, for old gaps

A four-month gap in 2015 does not need to be visible in 2026. If everything on your CV is dated by month, a short old gap becomes conspicuous for no reason. Using years for roles more than about eight years ago is normal and closes it without hiding anything.

If the gap is now

A gap that runs up to today is the one worth addressing directly, because it is the first thing a reader will ask about. Put a line in your summary rather than leaving it to be discovered: "Currently seeking a return to operations management after two years as a full-time carer." It turns the awkward question into an answered one.