A new feature for LinkedIn profiles lets you highlight career breaks and provide more context about skills and experience gained in the workplace.
A LinkedIn announcement indicates that the feature will be released in response to users requesting ways to highlight the positive aspects of a career interruption.
The life experiences and skills people have built while resting can sometimes match what employers are looking for in an open position.
This feature is designed to encourage an open discussion between candidates and employers about time spent outside of the traditional workplace.
You can now indicate whether the job was taken for full-time guardianship, bereavement, caregiving, a one-year gap, layoffs, or other reasons.
LinkedIn data shows that the number of career breaks is on the rise, but there is still a stigma against them among employers.
Based on a survey of 23,000 employees and more than 4,000 hiring managers:
- 62% of employees have taken breaks at some point in their professional career.
- 35% of employees want to take a career break in the future.
- 20% of hiring managers say they will reject a candidate who takes a break.
Considering the stigma against professional interruptions, why does LinkedIn think it would be a good idea to highlight it?
Why highlight career breaks on your LinkedIn profile?
LinkedIn claims that professionals who take career breaks often refine their skills or develop new ones.
- 56% of employees say they have learned new skills or improved existing ones during breaks in their career.
- 54% of women who take a break from work say they are better off at their job than before.
Employer sentiments towards career breaks begin to take a different direction.
- 46% of employers believe candidates with career breaks are an unnecessary talent pool.
- 51% of employers are likely to call a candidate back if they know why they took a break.
The new Career Breaks feature for LinkedIn profiles gives you the opportunity to start a discussion and resolve employer concerns.
Additionally, you can emphasize how spending time away from employees makes you more valuable now as a candidate.
As this feature rolls out and more people add it to their profiles, employers will be able to specifically search for candidates who have taken a career break.
How to Highlight Career Breakups on Your LinkedIn Profile
You can use this feature by navigating to your LinkedIn profile and tapping Add Categories.
From there select the Add a Race Break option.
LinkedIn will ask you to fill in a few fields, such as the start and end of the break, a title for the break, and a description.
The form requests a “type” break and allows you to choose from the following options:
- Death of a family member
- career transformation
- To take care of
- full time parenting
- year of gossip
- Clipping / Omitted Terms
- Health & Wellness
- The search for personal goals.
- Professional development
- To transfer
- Retirement
- Travel
- Voluntary work
After you add a career break, it will appear in the experience section of your LinkedIn profile.