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For a few years I had a lot of employment gaps. They were certainly
justifiable, but they wouldn't have looked good on my resume, just the
same. Maybe it's true that gaps look worse for men, but, believe me,
they hurt me, too.
In my experience, I got away with not explaining those gaps on my
resume. I think the resume just helped the employer determine whether
he/she was interested enough to interview me. If I got the
interview, that's when I had to explain. But it's more possible to
gloss over the gaps then; I could say, yes, I was unemployed from
March to September so I could such-and-such then.
Often, I've had to explain employment gaps on an application or on a
request for a security clearance. So it's been tough. But at least I
could keep it off my resume. Beth