Marketing coordinator with 5 years of digital campaign experience, returning after an 18-month break to care for a parent. Stayed current with freelance social media work for two small businesses and earned Google Ads and HubSpot certifications in 2026. Grew email revenue by 35% in one year in the most recent role.
Experience
Freelance social media manager, Career break: family caregiving (Raleigh, NC)
Feb 2025 – Aug 2026
Cared full-time for a parent through cancer treatment and recovery
Managed Instagram and Facebook for a bakery and a fitness studio part-time, growing combined followers by 2,300
Marketing Coordinator, Oak City Outfitters (Raleigh, NC)
May 2021 – Jan 2025
Ran email and paid social campaigns for a 6-store outdoor retailer with a $15,000 monthly ad budget
Grew email revenue by 35% in 2023 through segmentation and automated flows in Klaviyo
Coordinated 4 seasonal product launches with buyers and store managers
Marketing Assistant, Triangle Media Group (Durham, NC)
Aug 2019 – Apr 2021
Scheduled social posts and built monthly performance reports for 10 clients
Education
Google Ads Search Certification and HubSpot Inbound Marketing Certification, Online professional certifications (Apr 2026 – Jul 2026)
Bachelor of Arts in Communication, Carolina Piedmont University (Aug 2015 – May 2019)
Tools: Klaviyo, HubSpot, Meta Ads Manager, Canva, Google Analytics 4
Certifications: Google Ads Search 2026, HubSpot Inbound Marketing 2026
How to write a Career Gap resume
A strong Career Gap resume shows the skills you can prove from school, part-time work, volunteering, projects or an earlier career, and how they carry over to the role you want next. Put your most relevant recent role first and make every bullet show a result, not a duty.
Sections, in order
Summary
Education
Experience
Projects
Skills
Length: One page for most candidates; move to two only if every line is relevant.
Summary: Write two or three lines: your role, your strongest skills, and one result that proves them.
Skills to feature
Communication
Customer service
Teamwork
Time management
Microsoft Office and Google Workspace
Problem solving
Reliability and punctuality
Learning new tools quickly
Organization
Role-specific certifications
Example bullet points
Served about 120 customers a shift at a busy campus cafe and trained 4 new baristas on the POS system
Built a sales dashboard in Excel and Power BI as a certificate capstone, cutting a weekly report from 3 hours to 20 minutes
Kept the books for a 400-family school PTA during a career break, closing each year with a balanced audit
Tips from recruiters
Lead with the strongest evidence you have: put Education first if you are still in school, and a recent certificate or project first if you are changing careers.
List a career gap as one honest line with dates, then add volunteer, freelance or caregiving work and the courses you took during or after it.
Rewrite past duties in the language of the job you want, for example "handled cash and inventory" becomes "reconciled $8,000 in daily sales and ran weekly inventory counts".
Recommended templates
Classic (ATS-friendly): Jake's-style LaTeX classic: small caps and hairline rules
Ivy (ATS-friendly): Harvard-style Times layout with centered headings
Modern (ATS-friendly): Clean single column with accent headings and rules
Career Gap resume FAQ
What should a Career Gap resume include?
A Career Gap resume should show the skills you can prove from school, part-time work, volunteering, projects or an earlier career, and how they carry over to the role you want next. Use these sections in this order: Summary, Education, Experience, Projects and Skills. Put your most relevant recent role first and make every bullet show a result, not a duty.
What is the best resume template for a Career Gap?
Classic, Ivy and Modern work well for Career Gap roles. They are single-column with standard headings, so applicant tracking systems (ATS) parse them reliably.
How long should a Career Gap resume be?
One page for most candidates; move to two only if every line is relevant.
Which skills should a Career Gap put on a resume?
Prioritize the skills named in the job posting. Common ones for Career Gap roles are Communication, Customer service, Teamwork, Time management, Microsoft Office and Google Workspace and Problem solving.
How do I write strong Career Gap resume bullet points?
Start with an action verb, say what you did, and end with a measurable result such as GPA or honors, customers served and hours volunteered. For example: "Served about 120 customers a shift at a busy campus cafe and trained 4 new baristas on the POS system."