Resume template · Updated October 2026
Resume template for a career gap or break
Short answer
Meridian is a good fit for a resume with a gap: it prints skills above experience, so current, relevant skills are read before the dates, and the gap itself goes into your work history as one honest, dated line. The fictional sample is a staff accountant on an 18-month break for relocation and recovery, with volunteer bookkeeping and a course listed under it.
Download the career gap sample
Simone is a fictional staff accountant. Replace every detail with your own before you send it.
The files are made in your browser by Resumity's own exporters, from this sample. The builder opens it as your own resume: click any line to replace it. Free plan, no watermark.
Why Meridian suits a career gap resume
Meridian prints the summary and skills before work experience, so a reader sees six years of close and reconciliation skills before reaching the break. Its plain black and grey layout keeps attention on the content, and the full dated history still follows, so nothing looks hidden.
Second choice: Henrietta. Henrietta prints experience straight after the summary, a better order once the gap is behind you and a new job sits at the top of your history.
What goes in each section, in Meridian's order
Meridian prints its sections in a fixed order, the same in the PDF and the Word file. Here is that order for this sample, and what to put in each section.
- Professional Summary. Two sentences of experience, then one plain line about the break: how long, a short reason and what you did to stay current. Closing with your start date tells a recruiter the gap is over or about to be.
- Skills. Put the skills you used most recently at the front, including anything learned during the break. Someone checking whether your skills are still current reads this row first.
- Work Experience. List the break as its own dated entry at the top, titled "Career break" with a short reason in plain words. Anything you did during it (volunteering, freelance, courses) goes in its bullets; your earlier jobs follow as normal.
- Education. Degree, school and year. A course taken during the break can go here or in the break entry; choose one place so it does not appear twice.
The sample resume as text
The same content as the files above, so you can copy a line or compare it with your own.
Simone Archer
Staff Accountant, General Ledger and Month-End Close
Charlotte, NC | simone.archer@example.com | (704) 555-0191 | linkedin.com/in/sample-simone-archer
Staff accountant with six years of month-end close, reconciliations and audit preparation in industrial supply and food distribution. Kept skills current during an 18-month career break (family relocation and health recovery) with a Power BI course and volunteer bookkeeping. Available to start immediately.
Experience
Career Break: Family Relocation and Health Recovery, Planned career break, Charlotte, NC (05/2025 to Present)
- Volunteer bookkeeper for Hillside Tenants Association: reconcile the bank account monthly and prepare the treasurer's quarterly report in QuickBooks Online.
- Completed a 40-hour Power BI course and rebuilt a month-end close checklist as a practice dashboard.
Staff Accountant, Carlisle Industrial Supply, Raleigh, NC (03/2021 to 04/2025)
- Closed the books for two of the company's five entities each month within the five-day deadline.
- Reconciled 30 balance sheet accounts monthly and cleared a backlog of aged items in the first year.
- Prepared audit schedules and answered external auditor requests for three annual audits.
- Moved the fixed asset register from spreadsheets into NetSuite with the controller.
Junior Accountant, Brightwater Foods Distribution, Raleigh, NC (06/2019 to 02/2021)
- Processed about 300 vendor invoices a week and matched them to purchase orders.
- Prepared the weekly cash report for the finance manager.
Education
Bachelor of Science, Accounting, Piedmont State University (05/2019)
Skills
Month-end close, Account reconciliations, Accruals and prepaids, Audit preparation, Fixed asset accounting, NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, Excel (XLOOKUP, pivot tables), Power BI, Deadline management, Clear documentation
How to make the sample yours
Name your own reason in a few words
Layoff, caregiving, health, relocation, study or travel: pick the plain term that is true. Leave out diagnoses and family details; a reader needs the reason, not the story.
Fill the break entry with real activity, or keep it to one line
If you volunteered, freelanced or studied, give it bullets like a job. If you rested and recovered, a single dated line is enough; do not invent activity to fill it.
Keep months on every date
Switching to years only, to blur a gap, backfires when an application form or background check asks for months. Use one date format throughout.
Refresh one skill before you apply
A short course in a tool the postings mention (the sample uses Power BI) gives the summary something current to point to.
Prepare an interview answer that matches the line
Write two or three sentences that say what the resume entry says and end with why you are ready now. The resume, LinkedIn and your answer should agree.
Keywords to keep where they are true
Terms this kind of resume is usually searched for. Use the posting's exact wording, and only for work you have done.
- career break
- professional development
- available immediately
- month-end close
- account reconciliations
- general ledger
- audit preparation
- NetSuite
- QuickBooks Online
- Power BI
- volunteer bookkeeping
- continuing education
Mistakes to avoid
- Stretching the end date of your last job to cover the gap. Employment dates get checked, and a mismatch costs more than the gap.
- Giving medical or family details. "Health recovery" or "family caregiving" is all a resume needs.
- A cute title for the break, such as "Sabbatical of self-discovery". Plain words read as confident.
- Apologising for the gap in the summary. State it once and move on to what you offer.
How the sample PDF reads in text extractors
We exported this sample with Resumity's PDF exporter in Chrome on 2026-10-29 and read the file back with three open-source text extractors. This shows whether software that turns a PDF into text can recover it; it is not a test of any commercial applicant tracking system. How we test templates.
| Extractor | Name, email, phone | Headings | Bullets intact |
|---|---|---|---|
| pdf.js 4.10.38 | All found | 4 of 4 | 8 of 8 |
| pdftotext (Xpdf) 4.00 | All found | 4 of 4 | 8 of 8 |
| pypdf 6.13.0 | All found | 4 of 4 | 8 of 8 |
Frequently asked questions
Should I explain a career gap on my resume or only in the interview?
A gap of more than about six months is worth one dated line on the resume, so a recruiter does not have to guess. Save the fuller explanation for the cover letter or interview.
How do I list a career break on a resume?
As an entry in your work history with a title such as "Career break: family relocation", the start and end months, and bullets only if you did something relevant during it.
Does a short gap between jobs need explaining?
Usually not. A few months between jobs is a normal job search; list your jobs with their real dates and move on.
What if the gap started with a layoff or dismissal?
The resume does not give reasons for leaving a job. If the time that followed is long, a career break line covers it, and the reason for leaving becomes an interview topic.
Will applicant tracking systems read this Meridian PDF?
The sample PDF read back with its contact details, all 4 section headings and all 8 bullets intact in three open-source text extractors (pdf.js, pdftotext and pypdf). Commercial systems such as Workday, Greenhouse or Taleo were not tested, and each employer configures its own.