Employment gaps are far more common than most CVs admit, and stretching dates to hide one is a risk a single phone call will expose. Here is how to present a gap honestly: trim older roles, use your cover letter wisely, and frame what you learned in between as real experience.

Recruiters rarely read CVs these days; they query a database, and only the first 30 to 50 results get a human look. This piece explains how to seed your CV with the job-function and industry keywords, in both long and abbreviated form, that make it surface.