Been on a career break and looking at ways to fill the gaps in your resume? Now, you don’t have to hide your career break. LinkedIn, the popular networking platform, has introduced a new feature that helps display career breaks.
The latest addition has been introduced to normalize the different career breaks people take. Some career break options mentioned are bereavement, career transition, full time parenting, lay off/position eliminated, professional development, relocation, travel, voluntary work, retirement, to name a few.
The networking site’s own research findings state that while break between jobs have begun increasing, the negative response to it from employers hasn’t reduced. In short, there is considerable stigma surrounding such breaks.
As per news reports, the survey of 23,000 workers and over 4,000 hiring managers, revealed:
- 62% of employees have had a break at some point in their professional career.
- 35% of employees would want to go on a career break in the future.
- 20% of hiring managers reveal would reject a candidate that took a break.
Career breaks are common for women, especially for those going on maternity breaks. Avtar research shows that two important events that often put a pause in women’s careers are marriage and maternity.
However, today companies are going agnostic with their policies for second career programs, keeping it open for both men and women who have taken career breaks.
