How to Frame the Story of Your Work Gap
I suppose there will be some hiring manager or recruiter who will forget their humanity and ask people during interviews, “Gee, tell me about the gap in your employment between March 2020 and now…?”
You might be thinking, You mean other than the pandemic? Other than the daily fear and anxiety? Money wrangling? Going all the way to the grocery store only to realize I’d forgotten my mask? Or worrying that my cousin might not pull through her bout with the virus?
I am sure you, being a consummate human, will adopt some grace around this question and understand that what the recruiter wants to know is who you are in times of crisis, and what you did in the intervening months to position yourself for this next right role.
Of course you…
Networked.
Took online classes.
Read books.
Wrangled with your children’s virtual education.
Checked on your neighbors and delivered groceries to friends in need.
Had more than one conversation about money. Rent. Mortgage. Safety.
Learned more about virus transmission and political policy wrangling until your eyes crossed.
Went stir crazy.
Gained/lost weight.
Watched everything on Netflix.
Investigated the difference between what it means to say, “I’m not a racist,” and “I’m an antiracist.”
And of course you made at least one decision that changed everything.
So you might be tempted to answer with something akin to a highlight reel of your time off. You might be tempted to skip over the messy parts. The struggle. The amazing decision you made. And the lessons learned.
That is, you might be tempted to skip the story.
My advice? Humans are wired for story, so don’t skip it. But if you feel you need a little structure to draft your story, I got you covered. Take a look:
1. Context:
What were the circumstances that led to your layoff/reduction/change of role?
2. Introspection:
How did you feel?
What did it mean in terms of your past contributions and your potential future?
After wrestling with the impact, what did you decide was the best course of action? A pivot? A reinvention? Something else?
3. Interim “Messy Middle” Choices:
What were the bumps in the road?
What were the positives and negatives?
What were you noticing?
4. Inciting Incident:
What did you learn that deepened your initial decision, or caused you to change course?
Said another way, what did you experience/gather/learn/do with your interim choices that culminated in a realization that led to new choices/opportunities?
5. What it Means:
What is the big takeaway? Lesson learned?
Very often, the story itself will communicate the takeaway or lessons learned without needing to punctuate it at the end. But you need to know what your takeaway is.
Your audience/listener is smart; they’ve been listening to stories since they were children. So trust that the story you craft using this structure will naturally express your values, strengths, character, and skills without you having to directly point them out.
I am not saying you’re off the hook for learning how to confidently sing your own praises. But because humans are wired for story, trust that your audience/ listener will hear your values, strengths, character, and skills and attribute (scribble down) words like resilience, resourcefulness, persistence, generosity, influence, humor, etc., as they listen to your story.
Allow your story to do the heavy lifting.