How and when to explain gap in CV?

[DianaPrincessOfThemyscira]

DH is applying for part time jobs, retail stuff mostly (not professional).

How and when should he explain this? In the CV? He applied for B&Q and they didn't give the option for a cover letter (and he was rejected anyway).

Also, what sort of style of CV? This surely shouldn't matter but he really needs a job and google just isn't giving me the best info. I have worked in recruitment but for a contact centre which he definitely won't be working for.

I think it depends on what the gap is for. DH has 2 gaps on his CV- one is about 9 months after a redundancy, the other was about 4 months after we moved to another country. He doesn't hide them and just has a succinct and honest single line explanation.

When he was searching for work while unemployed he had a kind of personal statement at the top of his CV which addressed the gap, the role he was seeking, and how some of the voluntary work he was doing supported that.

The most important thing is that it sensitises recruiters to candidates, so he should ensure his CV is neat, proofread, and that he is punctual and presentable at interviews.

No gaps. Just a line in the appropriate place saying 'unemployed' or 'caring responsibilities' or whatever.

It's often worth having a "reason for leaving" column, so that 'end of contract' or 'redundancy', etc are transparent and any subsequent gap is almost self-explanatory.

Just be honest, it’s really fine to have gaps, I wouldn’t judge someone for having them (might be envious if they’ve gone traveling for 6minths or something though!)

A man that worked for me had ‘completed house renovation project’ around a gap on his, which was fine but in hindsight this was clearly a break due to mental health issues. I really, really wish (though I get why he didn’t) he’d have said this up front. We’d still have hired him but we would have thought about how we set him up a lot more than we actually did.

How to explain the gap depends on why there is a gap surely?

Does he have to put dates on. I've done internal recruitment and all dates are removed from cvs to prevent age discrimination so a gap is hidden anyway.

I can't believe I forgot the reason why

He was made redundant Xmas 2012, at the time we had a young baby so I went back to work full time (would have done part/part if he hadn't lost his job) and we haven't needed him to work since.

Youngest is now 7, DH is bored at home and if I'm honest, I'd like him to be bringing in some money, as although I have a good salary it's stressful being the only earner. So a looooong gap! He's not done any volunteering or anything, so nothing to pad out the time.

He might look at retraining in the future but not right now.

It's not a gap then, in that hes not been 'out of work' he's been carrying out a family role. I would just put something like full time parent during this period.

Cool thanks. Is it better to put that in the cv in the opening statement or something? ‘looking to re-enter the workforce’ or something?