How to Include Life Experience on a Resume (Volunteer, Caregiving, and More)

It’s the dreaded question at job interviews: “Can you explain this gap in your resume?” Life happens, yet those gaps can raise red flags among recruiters and may even prevent them from interviewing you. But what if I told you those life experiences can enhance your resume? In this post, I’ll share various ways you can turn life experiences into valuable assets on your resume.

What Life Experiences Cause Resume Gaps

Life’s twists and turns can lead to breaks in employment. Below are some of the most common real-life experiences that can result in resume gaps:

Caregiving Responsibilities. Whether it’s caring for a child, someone with a disability, or an older person, caregiving can consume a significant portion of your time and energy. You may be forced to reduce your work hours or quit working altogether, leading to a gap on your resume.

Workplace Restructuring.  Being part of a workforce reduction or restructuring can unexpectedly leave you jobless. Depending on how quickly you can find another role, this experience can leave you with a gaping hole on your resume.

Volunteer Work. It's noble and fulfilling, but volunteer work is underrated as a form of professional experience. Does it have to be a blight on your resume? Absolutely not. Volunteer work on resumes can be an advantage. Keep reading to find out how. 

Educational Pursuits. Returning to school for continuing or further education is commendable. However, it does leave a gap in your employment history.

Illness or Injury. Health issues can sideline even the most dedicated professionals and can lead to extended periods away from work. Let’s see how we can keep this from becoming a liability in your job search.

Gap Year. A resume gap also results from taking a deliberate break from traditional employment to travel or explore other interests. As you’ll see below, this does not have to hurt your resume and job pursuit.

How to Handle the Gaps on Your Resume

Whether intentional or brought on by circumstances beyond your control, a variety of life experiences can punch holes in your resume. But they don’t have to be liabilities in your search for a new or better job. In fact, you can frame them as opportunities for you to develop skills and gain valuable experience.

Below, we’ll explore some of the ways to position and package such life experiences so that they make you an even more desirable candidate.

1. Caregiving Responsibilities

Caregiving requires many skills that may be transferable to the job you’re applying for. These include soft skills such as time management, communication, and empathy—qualities that are desirable in any job. 

You may also have gained or developed hard skills through certifications or formal training obtained during your caregiving period. Emphasize both hard and soft skills that are relevant to the job you’re applying for.

You can list time you spent caregiving under the work experience section of the resume. Caregiving is, after all, a type of work. You can list your title as “caregiver” and give a brief description of the situation. For example: “Took a leave of absence to care for a family member undergoing cancer treatment.”

2. Workplace Restructuring

It’s understandably hard to present yourself with confidence after you’ve been laid off. Just remind yourself that it wasn’t your fault. Instead, on your resume, focus on highlighting the achievements and contributions you made prior to the restructuring. This is the time to use numbers and other evidence that you made a measurable and meaningful difference in that role. 

You may also want to consider using a functional resume format rather than a chronological employment history. A functional resume format emphasizes your skills instead of a timeline of the jobs you’ve held.

Finally, be prepared to address this resume gap at the job interview. Without blaming the employer, say factually that you were laid off due to restructuring.

3. Volunteer Work

This one requires a mindset shift: Think of your volunteer experience or community service as being as valuable as paid work. List the specific responsibilities you had and, as with any previous job, share the achievements you made as a volunteer. Align your volunteer experience with the job requirements, emphasizing the relevant skills and experience the recruiter is looking for. 

Volunteer experience can be included under work experience or as a separate volunteer section of the resume. If you don’t have a lot of paid work experience yet, then you can include volunteer work under work experience. But if you have solid work experience, then create a separate volunteer section.

4. Educational Pursuits

Educational credentials may give you a leg up as a job candidate, especially if the degree you obtained is directly related to the position you’re applying for. Showcase your academic achievements, relevant coursework, and projects completed during the educational hiatus. But what if you studied something completely unrelated to the job? You can still highlight transferable skills you gained through the academic pursuit. These skills may include research, critical thinking, and problem-solving.

5. Illness or Injury

This is tricky because, depending on where you are, the laws may protect you from having to disclose anything about your medical condition or history. But on the other hand, you don’t want to keep mum about it and leave everything to the recruiter’s imagination. You need to find the sweet spot to address resume gaps due to illness or injury with honesty and discretion.

Your resume could simply indicate “medical leave.” And if it applies, focus on highlighting relevant skills and experiences you gained during recovery periods. For example, did you do remote work or self-directed projects? Even blogging about your illness and building an audience could display skills needed for the job you’re applying for.

6. Gap Year

A gap year doesn’t have to come off as a self-indulgent lapse in employment. Instead, frame it as a deliberate and enriching experience. Emphasize the skills and insights you gained during the gap year. If you traveled around the world, then you developed cultural competence, adaptability, and independence.

Resume Example

Let me show you how to include life experience on a resume with an example. I created it from a job resume template that I downloaded from Envato Elements. I chose this resume template because it has a clean and modern design. It comes in both Adobe Illustrator and Microsoft Word files. It’s easy to edit, with clearly organized and labeled layers for Adobe Illustrator. Every element of this resume is editable, so I could make it truly my own. I also like how it includes everything on one page—something not a lot of resume templates can do.

Below is an example of how to put volunteer work on a resume:

Notice how I listed my key achievements as a volunteer? This is to show that I deliver measurable value, whether or not I’m paid. Hopefully, the employer will think that if I can accomplish all this as a volunteer, then I can accomplish so much more as a paid employee.

Alternatively, I could have created a separate volunteer experience section and highlighted my achievements there. That’s also an acceptable way to showcase volunteer experience on your resume.

On the right side of the screenshot above is an example of how to list a break in employment due to academic pursuits. This is listed under the 'education' section of the resume. I went beyond listing the certificate I earned and elaborated on how I applied my new knowledge to my current work situation.

Life Experiences Enhance Your Resume

Life happens, and sometimes that means not being able to work. But gaps in work experience don’t have to be a liability. Instead, you can use life experiences to enhance your job applications, highlight your unique set of skills, and showcase the incomparable package you bring to potential employers.

As you’ve learned in this article, you can turn experiences like caregiving, taking a gap year, volunteering, and others into positive elements on your resume. It’s a matter of identifying how those experiences enhanced your skills and relating those to the position you’re applying for.

We have many more articles that show you how to make a stand-out resume. Check out these tutorials:

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If you want to create a resume that makes a great first impression, then check out Envato Elements. Streamline your resume writing with resume templates created by professional designers. They're easy to edit, so you can tailor them to your background and the jobs you’re applying for.