How To Fill In Resume Gaps

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How Do I Fill In Time Gaps In My Resume?

Even if you have no gaps in your resume, you will nonetheless inevitably be challenged by some recruiter who naturally expects to find them anyway.  So it is important to head them off at the pass, partner.

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How? you ask.  The answer is simple: work and stay busy.

Sounds a little confusing, doesn’t it?; you don’t have a job, and my just telling you to work right now so as to have something to put on your resume does not seem helpful – the problem is the problem.

Well hang on, and I’ll explain myself.  Actually, it is pretty simple…  Do your own thing.  Start a little business.  Volunteer to help someone else.  Build a website.  Or download a demo version of some software that prospective employers are looking for, and get to know it; then make an entry for Training on your resume.

Oh, and by the way, don’t confuse “simple” with “easy”. They are different words with different meanings

Here is what I have been doing over the past 10 years: Acquiring domain names and building websites.  As a Business Analyst or Project Manager, I make entries into my resume that represent all of my skills and accomplishments for my own website activities just as for a paying corporate client.

As part of successfully marketing yourself in the realm of Internet jobs, you should have a website.  Everyone should have one.  And you don’t have to be a programmer to build your own nowadays.  I’ll do a followup how-to article on the step-by-steps.  But for now we’ll stick to the strategic perspective.

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Recently I spoke at a networking group and shared about this very subject.  Volunteer to do something in your professional line of work for a non profit organization, or to help a friend in their small business.  Do it for a few weeks or a few months if necessary.  In addition to helping someone out, you receive a new and recent reference as well as filling in a gap on your resume.

Personally, I have been building a few websites that I am happy to put on my resume.  Creating a little umbrella entity called Destination Websites, I list myself as the Project Manager for a number of implementations for sites like Traffic Report and Custom Rides and Loan Quotes (with some valuable collaborration help from a colleague who resides a quarter way around the world).  Though these have humble beginnings, the amount of time, energy, skill, and thinking is no less valuable or real than if done in a paying position.

Please take this advise to heart, because what I am telling you is very valuable.  With hard work and God’s help, I am often able to command superior compensation when a hiring opportunity does come my way after several months subsequent to a paying position.  And because of that, I work fewer weeks in the year but can still earn as much as if I worked 2000 or even 2080 hours.

Work smart, stay busy to keep gaps out of your work timeline, and build a solid career.