Maternity Leave / CV Gaps

Former Member

Right i've just returned from over a years maternity leave to be made redundant within a matter of weeks as the organisation i work for has been declared insolvent. The sector i work in is pretty small and pretty much all of the organisations i want to apply to next will know about this and as my job as in fundraising the fact that it was declared insolvent could reflect badly on me as it looks like i didn't bring in enough money. However i think bringing in over a £1million a year 2.5 days a week is pretty good and I think that there were much bigger problems than lack of funds including an unwillingness on the part of the management to invest in fundraising.

So when it comes to my CV do you think I put the truth and say the dates I worked but put in brackets that i was on maternity leave for most of the last year - to show that i wasn't responsible for the downfall of the organisation.

Or do you think that i just put the date I left on maternity leave and explain in my covering letter that i'm now returning to work after being on Maternity leave and ignoring the few weeks i was back at work this year - I am pretty sure that i convince my line manager to back this up in any reference - as she is also unfortunately also currently on maternity leave so in the same situation.

Former Member

The tip I always give is to use years rather than months, that hides most gaps, but then I would put in your maternity leave if I was you like:

2008-9 Job
2009-10 Maternity Leave
2010 Job (redundancy)

That would highlight that you missed the downfall...

Former Member

MoK wrote: »

The tip I always give is to use years rather than months, that hides most gaps, but then I would put in your maternity leave if I was you like:

2008-9 Job
2009-10 Maternity Leave
2010 Job (redundancy)

That would highlight that you missed the downfall...

To be honest, I wouldn't even mention the maternity leave as you were technically still employed by the company I'd put (going by MoK's) example

2008-10 Job

and ignore the maternity leave, because in my view it is better to look like you've worked, rather than you've been out of the loop for a year on maternity leave. just my opinion

Former Member

No I actively want to show that i wasn't at work so I cant' be blamed for what went wrong as i'd only been back for a few weeks after over a year off.

I've seen a couple of jobs going which are a step below my current job and i've decided that i'm not going to apply for them as it actually looks better on my cv to have been bringing up children rather than going back a step.