Don’t Worry About the COVID Gap in Your Resumé

One bright side of a pandemic is that you aren’t alone

Last year, the pandemic changed employment globally. Countless people lost their jobs. Many people that are willing to work are struggling to find any opportunities, and they are applying for government assistance in record numbers. In an effort to maintain livelihoods and protect jobs, the UK has furloughed 9.9 million jobs as of 13th December 2020.

If you find yourself excluded from the furlough system and you are worried about the growing gap in your resumé, and how that will affect your professional opportunities in the future, I have only one thing to say:

Don’t worry about it. Just do something.

These are unprecedented times and gaps in resumés are in most cases, clearly not a reflection of a person’s ability to do a job as much as tough economic circumstances. It’s more than understandable and acceptable that many people will have a year or two out of “professional” work.

At the same time, there will be others who continue to progress in their roles as they work remotely from home. They will continue to gather experience and gain an edge over those that don’t. Without taking away anything from what these people have accomplished, they will understand that they are in a very fortunate position.

If anything is clear, it’s that the effects of the pandemic are not evenly distributed.

People in charge of hiring will understand that the career gap is mostly due to the pandemic. As much as they might try to filter people out by relevant education, qualification, and experience. There will be a large proportion of the cohort that lacks those exact criteria. What matters then, is what you did during your COVID career gap. Ideally, it won’t even look like a gap.

Be Proactive

The only thing you really have control of is how you choose to deal with your limiting circumstances. In future interviews, you’ll need to spin it in your favor.

Show prospective employers what you chose to do during these challenging times. I understand that choice is scarce for many in times like this. If you have bills to pay and you don’t have the luxury of doing much else, your choices might seem decided for you. But that is part of your story. That is part of what you have been up to during these testing times.

Maybe you have the ability to find other means of employment, take jobs you never considered before, or educate and skill yourself up further. You could even start a side hustle.

The gap in resumés will likely normalize for the next few years. In the grand scheme, a couple of years is nothing.

What’s going to differentiate potential candidates from others in the future when opportunities pick up again? Experience, skills, and knowledge. Not to mention a strong dose of resilience and enthusiasm.

In the meantime, what can you do to improve your situation?

Be Flexible

Firstly, if you need to get any job to plug a financial black hole, prioritize that. Consider taking jobs you may not have considered before just to get by.

There is also a reality for many others that they can just move back home with their parents. They probably already have. Perhaps that lifestyle isn’t one you imagined you would live at this point in your life. But who can really plan for something like this?

Seek/Create Relevant Experience

If you lack experience and struggle to find paid work but you can afford to do it for free, you should. That experience will set you apart from other candidates in the future.

Early 2020, I wanted to see if I could consult small businesses without consulting experience. The following is an account of how I effectively created my own work experience in a win-win situation.

I’m incredibly thankful that we are living in a world where doing your own thing is admired in the way that it is. I have seen many friends and ex-colleagues leave their jobs in good and bad times, to try to build their own businesses. One of them left a high paying job to start in the midst of the pandemic.

Whether people succeed or not can be somewhat irrelevant for future opportunities. Obviously, it would be better if they succeeded but what matters more is that these people had the courage to try. It becomes an experience they can leverage and bring value to their next venture or place of work.

As much as the career gap might have been forced upon you, you can choose to tackle it proactively and learn from it.

Do your reasonable best to make lemonade when life gives you lemons.

Further Education and Skill Acquisition

I appreciate that it can be very costly to pursue further education. This is particularly true in the US where tuition seems extortionately high. In Europe, it’s a bit more manageable.

But if you find yourself in a situation where you aren’t working or doing anything in particular, you should find a way to upskill yourself.

Self-study can be as expensive or cheap as you make it out to be. You can pay for private tuition, online courses, and guidance. Or you can pick up a few relevant books, watch free educational content on YouTube or Coursera, and design your own education.

It’s about being resourceful and making the most of the limited resources you have. Use whatever you have to build yourself an advantage.

To Conclude

At times of crisis, many people find themselves like deer in headlights, frozen in their tracks and unsure of what to do next. They can’t even react. They just hope things will get better.

Having a semblance of a plan already puts you ahead of others that can’t move. So make a plan, no matter how imperfect it may be. Perfection isn’t the goal. Just do something that can help change your situation instead of waiting for things to get better.

You can either try to seek help or you can do your best to help yourself.

Do what you can. Take care of your physical and mental health. If you find that you can take on a little more, then do it. Strong mindsets are like muscles, the more you work them, the stronger they become. The more you neglect them, the more they atrophy.