Label Your Gaps! LinkedIn Provides a Career Breaks Feature
Do you have gaps on LinkedIn? You can use the new Career Breaks feature to record a break in your career. Gaps can be pre-planned, or they may come as a surprise. Prepare an explanation for an interview, as you may be asked, “Why did you leave your last position?” or “Please explain why you were not working between x and y.”
LinkedIn wants to set the tone that career breaks are normal, as announced by their Product Manager, Camilla Han-He. She wants people to know that there should be no stigma in having a gap between work.
Sometimes individuals need to take a break if they have been in a toxic work environment, or they may need time to think and reevaluate their next steps. They may have lost their job due to downsizing, a merger or acquisition, or their industry got hit by the pandemic. Each situation is unique, and no one should jump from the frying pan into the fire.
When you take a break, you can rewrite the narrative and develop a story about how that break helped you in some way and what transferable skills might apply to a new role.
You can add this career break to your profile both on mobile and desktop. The demo of what it looks like on mobile can be seen in this post, along with some suggested courses you can take. There will be a live event on March 11th, 2022 at noon ET on this topic also.
Here is a list of items you can designate for your career break:
- Bereavement
- Career Transition
- Caregiving
- Full-time Parenting
- Gap Year
- Layoff/position terminated
- Health & well-being
- Personal Goal Pursuit
- Professional Development
- Relocation
- Retirement
- Travel
- Voluntary Work
If you decide to take a break to upskill or reskill, you might want to check out LinkedIn’s Future of Skills on their Github.
Read a previous article on How to Conquer the Employment Gap on Your LinkedIn Profile & Resume to garner other ideas.
NEXT STEPS
- Subscribe to my newsletter on LinkedIn for bright ideas to manage your career.
- Join as a member at https://greatcareers.org/membership of the #1 business networking association on the Philadelphia Business Journal’s Book of Lists two years in a row!
- Register on the events page for our upcoming events.
AUTHOR BIO
Lynne M. Williams is the Executive Director of the Great Careers Groups, a volunteer-run 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that provides career education and networking connections for 1) job seekers in career transition, including veterans, and 2) employed and self-employed for career management. She is also the President of ChemPharma.net and runs a Clubhouse session every Friday at 11 AM ET on the Thought Leadership Branding Club.
Aside from writing keyword-focused content for ATS resumes and LinkedIn profiles, Lynne is currently writing her doctoral dissertation on LinkedIn for Job Seekers. She is a contributing author on “Applying to Positions” in Find Your Fit: A Practical Guide to Landing the Job You Love along with the late Dick Bolles, the author of What Color is Your Parachute?, and is also a speaker on career topics.
This article is also published on: vista.today, montco.today, delco.today, bucksco.today, and may also be in the author’s LinkedIn newsletter. A list of articles can also be found in a Google doc.
