Do you put 'maternity leave' on your CV?

[LuckyC]

Hello all

Self-employed freelance web writer/ editor, now starting to look around for work again, so sending CV out.

Do you put 'maternity leave' on your CV? Or do you leave a gap? How do you handle it?

Thanks!

gap

I was a volunteer for NCT and I'm still, so no gap - I was newsletter editor.

I'd leave a gap, unless you managed to do a bit of work (voluntary or not). Legally you could do 10 days while on mat leave.

Good luck, it's tough freelancewise unless you are prepared to go inhouse, which I find stupid/uneccessary for certain jobs.

Never leave gaps in a CV. If you were on maternity leave, or not looking for freelance work for the same reason, say so.

If you have a reason for not doing this, close the gaps with freelancing, but be prepared to say what freelancing you were actually doing during that time and not make it sound half-hearted.

My CV only has start and finish years on it now so gaps are easy to 'vanish' !!

God completely forgot I had posted this. Probably because was panicking about work - goldenpeach, you are so right. Thanks for advice.

I have decided to say 'mat leave' as some of my more specialised knowledge is now a bit behind the times, and this is why, so...

LuckyC I do the same job as you and my CV is in list form, ie:

Nameofpublication: March 2011 xxxx article
Nameofpublication2: March 2011, article on xxxxx
Nameofpublication3: Feb 2011, article on xxxxx

So I too am worried about what happens when I have a gap! If you have more traditional job structure, like:

Sept 2007-June-2011 Manager of whatever....
May 2005-Sept 2007 Assistant of whatever...

it would probably be easier to close the gaps. But as a freelancer it is often more relevant to write it in lists.

Sorry - I haven't helped have I? Do let me know what you decide to do :)

In my experience you always get asked about the gaps if they are there, so I'd include 'maternity leave' in there (and have done myself). Have had a mixed employment history over last ten years, full-time, part-time, maternity leave, freelance back to employed (and a few periods of both overlapping) and now back to freelance so my CV only really makes sense if I put all the dates of everything in there with no black holes.

Good luck with the freelance. Can you tell I'm not inundated with work at the mo - talking on MN?!