LinkedIn, the social networking platform for professionals, has solved this problem by allowing job-seekers to add a career break section to their profile.
What Is a Career Break?
A career break is time spent away from paid employment, usually lasting for more than a month and up to several years in length. It is slightly different from a sabbatical, when an employer agrees for you to take unpaid leave before returning to your job again in the future.
Instead, a career break means you terminate your contract with your employer to allow you to pursue interests outside of work. You’ll then return to the workforce when you’re ready, but usually finding a perfect career with a different employer.
A career break can be taken out of choice, for example, if you decide to travel or care for your family. Alternatively, you might end up on a career break after losing your job. Even if this hasn’t been your choice, the transferable skills and experiences gained outside paid employment can be valuable to future employers.
Why Do People Take Career Breaks?
Although anyone can take career breaks at any stage in their employment history, they are predominantly used by women. And there has been a surge in female employees leaving the workforce recently.
Jess Huang, a partner of McKinsey & Company, explains that women have struggled with a lack of childcare since 2020. She says, “1 in 3 women are doing five additional hours of housework every day” and are therefore choosing to prioritize home life over their careers.
According to a LinkedIn blog post, which reveals 64% of women take a break at some point in their careers. 22% of these are for parental leave, 17% are for medical leave, and 14% are due to mental health. And it’s taking longer to reenter the workforce following a career break, too, with 39% of US women extending their career break.
Should Career Breaks Be Flagged?
One of the most challenging decisions for anyone who has taken a career break is how to frame this when trying to attract recruiters. Should you be honest and acknowledge you’ve not been working, or try and gloss over it?
If you’re trying to decide what to do, know that 52% of hiring managers believe that candidates should be proactive in highlighting their break and outlining what they learned during their experience away from work.
Flagging a career break allows you to admit you’ve been away from the workforce, but gives you the space to explain why the time has been so valuable and what it could bring to a role you’re applying for.
As an example, manager Emma McCulloch took a six-year career break to raise her two children, including her son, who was born with cerebral palsy.
You can add a career break section to your resume or explain it in your cover letter. But with many recruiters using LinkedIn to seek talent to join their organization, it also makes sense to add a career break to your profile here.
Adding a Career Break Section to LinkedIn
On the front page of your LinkedIn account, look beneath your profile picture and click on Add profile section. Beneath the Core section, you’ll have the option to Add career break in a separate box.
At this point, LinkedIn displays a positive reminder that “Experiences outside a linear career path can make people better colleagues, thought partners, and leaders. Share these moments that make you unique.”
By clicking on the Type box, you’ll have the opportunity to categorize your career break as one of the following 13 options:
Bereavement Career transition Caregiving Full-time parenting Gap year Layoff/position eliminated Health and wellbeing Personal goal pursuit Professional development Relocation Retirement Travel Voluntary work
You can also specify the location of your career break and the start and end date. If you’re currently taking your career break, you can select the checkbox to indicate this.
Adding a career break to your profile should also tie in with any employment you have listed within your current LinkedIn bio. For example, if your bio shows you’re currently working for someone, you can opt to end your employment status for this company and switch to your career break status instead.
Next, use the Description box to explain the background behind your career break and the benefits it has provided you with. The final step is to press Save to apply the changes to your profile.
Troubleshooting LinkedIn Profile Issues
LinkedIn works best on one of the following internet browsers:
Internet Explorer Microsoft Edge Chrome Safari Firefox Opera
If you have difficulty adding a career break to your profile, one of the following solutions may help you.
Sign in and out of your LinkedIn profile Clear your cache and cookies Disable your browser’s pop-up blocker settings Use a different browser.
If you continue to experience problems, you can raise a support ticket with LinkedIn Customer Support.
Have the Confidence to Explain Your Career Break
Although the career break feature is aimed at candidates, it’s also a useful tool for businesses that are switching to more inclusive hiring policies. Companies like IBM, PayPal, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, HubSpot, and General Motors are committed to helping people reenter the workforce following a break. They’re offering career reentry and mentoring programs to assist these candidates.
The LinkedIn career break feature encourages candidates to be confident about acknowledging they’ve taken a career break and to embrace the skills they’ve picked up outside the traditional workplace. If this applies to you, head over to the platform today and update your LinkedIn bio.
