How to Address Employment Gaps in a Cover Letter
· Keith Kwai
A short, confident line does more than a long explanation — here’s how to write it.
State the reason for the gap in one neutral sentence, then move immediately to what you did with the time or what you’re bringing to the role. “I took eight months to care for a family member, and I’m now ready to bring full focus back to [function]” closes the topic instead of inviting more questions about it.
What reads badly isn’t the gap itself — it’s over-explaining it. Three sentences of justification signals more discomfort than the gap does on its own.
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