How to List Parental Leave on Your CV: A Guide
Taking a break from work to look after children is a common reason for a career gap. CV career gaps can induce panic in job applicants, who may fear employers will look unfavourably upon any time spent out of work. However, there are plenty of ways to highlight a parental leave career gap on your CV to improve your chances of success. In this article, we discuss how to list parental leave on your CV, with tips and examples.
How to mention parental leave in your CV
If you’re among the thousands of people every year who take parental leave, you might be wondering whether it’s necessary to mention it on your CV. Generally, it’s a good idea to mention your parental leave if it creates a significant gap in your CV that would otherwise be unexplained.
If you took statutory parental leave (including maternity leave, paternity leave or shared parental leave in the UK), but then returned to the same job, it might not be necessary to mention this on your CV. However, if your parental leave resulted in leaving a job, and then taking up another role, leaving a career gap, it’s best to mention it. It’s also better to mention parental leave if you’re applying for your first job after taking time off to look after children.
The most suitable place to mention your parental leave is in your work experience section. You can place it between jobs, or if you’re currently taking parental leave and looking to get back into work, mention it as the first item in your history. Mentioning your parental leave helps to explain any gaps in your career timeline.
Do you have to include parental leave in your CV?
It’s not essential to include parental leave on your CV, but an unexplained gap in your work history will likely be far more harmful to your chances of success. If you have a gap in your work history, employers will want to know the reasons, and looking after children or family is a legitimate reason for taking time away from work.
There are some situations where it’s not necessary to include parental leave on your CV. If you took statutory maternity or paternity leave from a job, before returning to the same role, you don’t need to mention this in your CV. However, if your period of leave took up a significant amount of the time you were employed in the role, you might want to reference it so you don’t mislead readers about your experience levels.
Can discussing parental leave on your CV be an issue?
Discussing parental leave on your CV shouldn’t be an issue for most employers. It’s usually more damaging to try to cover up or ignore career gaps. However, if you’ve taken a long time off work and you’re concerned that employers might see it negatively, there are ways to mitigate this.
One way to do this is to use a functional or skills-based CV, that places more emphasis on your key skills, and puts your work history further down your document. Another approach is to mention other activities you’ve taken part in during your parental leave, such as volunteer work, hobbies and activities that helped you develop a skill or experience that’s useful for the role you’re applying for.
Examples of how to mention parental leave in your CV
The most appropriate place to mention your parental leave in your CV is in your work experience section. By placing it in this section, you create a more complete timeline of your employment history, making it easy for the reader to understand your career path.
You don’t typically need to provide much information on your parental leave beyond the dates that you were out of the workforce. However, if you have space and you want to explain your leave, you could add some brief bullet points. These could help to explain a particularly long period of parental leave, or other activities you took part in during this time, such as caring for other family members. Mention other key skills and activities, such as voluntary work that you took part in during your parental leave, in the relevant sections of the document.
Below are some examples of how to mention your parental leave in your CV.
How to mention parental leave (short version)
You can find a brief example of how to include your parental leave in your CV:
Employment history
Account Manager, Holden Logistics Ltd, Peterborough, April 2021 – present
Parental leave, February 2020 – April 2021
Customer Service Manager, Foreman & Partners Removals, Stamford, September 2017 – February 2020
How to mention parental leave (detailed version)
If you want to add some more detail to your parental leave, use this format:
Employment history
Parental leave, June 2020 – present
- Took a career break to have two children (born June 2020 and September 2022)
- Provided carer support for family members, including elderly relatives
- Volunteered at Woking Children’s Centre, providing advice to new mothers
Expert Tip:
Your parental leave can be an asset to your job applications, so don’t shy away from mentioning it in your CV. Parenting can help you develop crucial soft skills and resilience to respond to challenges both in life, and the workplace. Mention some of the skills you developed during your parental leave to show the value of your parenting experience.
Valuable experiences and skills during parental leave
Even though parental leave is time spent out of the workforce, it doesn’t mean you’re not gaining valuable experience and skills that can make an impact on your CV. You might decide to include some skills you gained as a direct result of parenting or looking after family members. These could be particularly useful if you’re applying for a role in childcare, education or healthcare.
You may wish to add soft and transferable skills that you’ve developed through your parenting. These might include time management, stress management, budgeting, flexibility or anything that’s helped you become more resilient in your response to challenges.
If you’ve taken part in any groups, developed a hobby, learned a new skill or undertaken any voluntary work during your parental leave, it’s also worth mentioning these. This shows you’ve spent your time productively, and can also help you to show you have the skills and experience outlined in the job description.
“Discussing parental leave on your CV shouldn’t be an issue for most employers. It’s usually more damaging to try to cover up or ignore career gaps.”
Other ways to list parental leave in your job applications
If you’re unsure about adding your parental leave to your CV, you might prefer to mention it in your cover letter. The cover letter provides an opportunity to add further detail and context that you might not have space for in your CV. This can include addressing career gaps such as parental leave.
If you decide to reference your parental leave in your cover letter, mention it briefly but don’t draw too much attention to it. You shouldn’t need to justify time taken off work for childcare responsibilities. A brief sentence should suffice, confirming that the gap in your CV is because of parental leave, and if you like, briefly explaining any activities you took part in during this time.
Quick tips for including parental leave on your CV
Follow these quick tips to make sure you highlight your parental leave in the most effective way in your CV:
- If you took statutory parental leave and then returned to the same job, it’s not usually necessary to mention your parental leave on your CV. If you like, you can include a bullet point about this under the work experience section entry for the role you time off from.
- Reference parental leave in your CV’s work experience section, filling the gap between jobs in your chronological timeline.
- For short periods of parental leave, you can simply mention the time off without any further explanation.
- For longer periods of parental leave, add some brief bullet points to explain the extended period of time away from work.
- Use the other sections of your CV to show you used your parental leave productively, such as listing skills, hobbies or volunteer work.
- If you want to draw particular attention to your parental leave or any other career gap, use your cover letter.
Key Takeaways for Including Parental Leave on Your CV
Don’t shy away from talking about your parental leave on your CV, or at any point during the recruitment process. It’s far worse to have a gap in your CV than it is to be honest about what you’ve been doing, and why you haven’t been working. Your parental leave can be a positive element of your CV if you can show you’ve gained any skills or experience during this time, which are useful for the job you’re applying for.
Presenting your CV in the best possible way can enhance its content and make a positive impression with hiring managers. CVwizard has a wealth of CV templates and tools to help you draft, design and structure your CV for the greatest possible impact. You can also find useful tips in our huge library of CV articles. Sign up with CVwizard to start creating your beautiful CV today.
