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CV after a career break: how to explain a gap or a redundancy

7 minute read · Updated 2026-08-26

Writing a CV after a career break feels awkward because the gap seems to shout louder than everything around it. In practice most UK hiring managers have either taken a break themselves or hired someone who did. What loses interviews is not the gap. It is a CV that leaves the reader guessing, because an unexplained two year hole invites the worst assumption available.

What employers actually think about a gap

A recruiter scanning dates is checking for two things: whether your skills are current, and whether there is something you are avoiding saying. A single honest line answers both. Redundancy in particular carries no stigma at all, because it is about the role rather than the person, and whole sites and departments close every year for reasons that have nothing to do with performance.

You are also not obliged to explain everything. An employer should not be asking health questions before making an offer, other than in limited circumstances, and under the Equality Act 2010 you are protected against discrimination linked to disability, pregnancy and maternity, and age. You can describe a break in neutral terms without going into medical detail.

Where the gap goes on a CV after a career break

Treat it as an entry in your employment history rather than a hole between two entries. Give it a heading, a date range and one or two lines. That way the eye moving down the page never stops on an unexplained jump.

  • Career break, Sep 2023 to Jan 2026. Full time caring for a family member. Completed a Level 2 Diploma in Adult Care during this period and maintained an enhanced DBS on the update service.
  • Redundancy and job search, Apr 2026 to present. Role removed when the site closed. Since then, refreshed my SMSTS and completed an abrasive wheels course.
  • Parental leave and childcare, 2022 to 2025. Returning to full time work with school hours now settled. Available for shifts from 7am.
  • Recovery from illness, 2024 to 2025. Now fully fit and available for a full time permanent role.

Notice that none of these apologise, and none run past two sentences. Say it once, calmly, and let the rest of the CV do its work.

Wording for the most common situations

Redundancy

Use the word. It is precise and it protects you: Position made redundant in a company wide restructure. If your team of thirty went, say the department closed. If you were paid statutory redundancy pay, that itself confirms it was a genuine redundancy, which usually requires at least two years of continuous service.

Caring responsibilities

One line is plenty. Many carers pick up genuinely relevant skills, including managing medication schedules, dealing with social services, hospital discharge planning and household budgets under pressure. If any of that touches your target sector, put it in the skills section as well.

Long term sickness

Say that you were away for health reasons and that you are now fit to work. You do not need to name a condition. If you will need adjustments, that conversation belongs after an offer, and the employer has a duty to consider reasonable adjustments for a disability.

Travel, study or a failed venture

A self employed business that did not last is still experience: you found customers, priced work, invoiced and dealt with HMRC. List it as self employment with the trading dates and what you learned to do.

Refresh what has quietly expired

The most common reason a returner gets filtered out is not the gap but a lapsed ticket, which is a fixable problem. Before you start applying, check the following if they apply to you:

  1. DBS certificate. There is no formal expiry date, but employers generally want one issued recently, or a certificate on the update service so it can be checked instantly.
  2. Driver CPC. Professional drivers need 35 hours of periodic training every five years, and driving for hire or reward without it is an offence.
  3. CSCS card and site tickets such as SSSTS, SMSTS, IPAF and PASMA, all of which run out on a fixed cycle.
  4. NMC registration for nurses, including revalidation every three years, and equivalent registers for other regulated professions.
  5. First aid at work, food hygiene, safeguarding and manual handling certificates.
  6. Software you used to know. A free refresher on the current version of a system beats claiming a skill you last used in 2019.

Get the first page working harder

Because the reader will glance at the dates, make sure everything above them earns attention. Lead with a statement naming the job you want, follow with a key skills block full of the words in the advert, then the history. Put your most recent qualification or refresher course high on page one so the reader sees current activity before they see the gap.

Finally, apply widely rather than perfectly. Returners often over polish one application a week instead of sending eight decent ones, and hiring in most UK sectors runs on volume and timing. If your applications are going out and nothing comes back, our guide on why you are not hearing back works through the usual causes, and the list of CV mistakes is worth a read before you send the next one.

Next step: add a dated entry for your break, book any refresher course you need, then search our latest vacancies and apply to something this week rather than waiting until the CV feels finished.