Explaining Medical Leave on Your Resume

Don’t let a medical leave gap on your resume worry you too much.

You’re journeying along quite nicely in your career, and everything seems to be falling into place. Then bam! You or a close family member get a health diagnosis that hits you like a ton of bricks. It means you’ll have to sideline your career for a while.

In this post, we’ll show you the best way of explaining medical leave on a resume in 2024, including when you’re caring for a loved one or have had to take time out to recover from an illness or serious injury.

Employment gaps don’t have to be an issue

Historically, employment gaps have presented a problem for job seekers because they worry that their resumes will be dismissed by hiring managers who prefer to see a more consistent work history. That’s not always the case, though, especially if you take the time to properly explain the medical leave on your resume.

But how to explain medical leave on a resume that involves a leave of absence due to illness and do it in such a way that employers won’t doubt your fitness for future employment?

How do medical leave gaps occur?

Taking medical leave from work can happen for a variety of reasons. You may find yourself ill for an extended period of time – leaving you unable to perform your job duties. There are three major causes of medical leave:

Prevalent diseases such as cancer, with the chances of one in two men and one in three women in the US getting it, can sometimes force you to take an extended medical leave lasting for months, or even years, while you battle the illness and recover to good health.
Perhaps you suffered a serious injury that left you facing a long time of physical rehabilitation before you could rejoin the workforce.
It could be the case that you simply had to leave work to care for a loved one. Because long-term care costs are so high, many families find it more cost-effective to serve as caregivers for close relatives in these situations.

Sometimes, these types of absences aren’t readily understood by prospective employers and hiring managers – which means it’s critically important that you know exactly how to explain medical leave on your resume and cover letter.

Factors to consider on how to explain medical leave on your resume

It might be tempting to include an explanation that offers full disclosure about the circumstances surrounding your leave of absence. After all, what could be simpler than just laying out all the facts on the table, even down to the date of your previous surgery? But you should be careful about being too detailed as this could create unforeseen complications.

By law, you don’t have to provide those details since the Americans with Disabilities Act protects your medical information from such disclosure. Moreover, an employer who receives that type of information could be placed in an awkward position.

The last thing you want is to be hired because a prospective employer is mindful of being accused of discrimination. You also don’t want to be denied employment because a hiring agent secretly wonders whether your medical needs could be more trouble than you’re worth.

How to address medical leave on your resume

For a lot of job seekers, addressing medical leave related to an illness or injury on a resume can be challenging. Many get so caught up in the details that it’s easy to forget the broader goals on which they should be focused.

So, if you have a lengthy gap to explain, remember these important tips:

Be direct but brief. Offer no more information than is necessary. The goal is to quickly address the issue to get it out of the way so you can immediately refocus on the more positive attributes of your career.
Provide information on dates when you took medical leave, but there is no need to go into the nature of the medical concern. If you don’t want to disclose your illness, simply write, “Medical leave of absence,” and include the dates.

Medical leave on resume example

Medical Leave of Absence 5/2020 – 8/2020

IDT, Newark, New Jersey 11/2018 – 4/2020

Marketing Analyst

Researched and analyzed marketing trends in telecom.
Analyzed and tracked a marketing budget of $500,000.
Deployed new marketing campaigns in collaboration with the marketing team of 15.
Utilized Excel to migrate and organize data from various sources.
Contributed to the IDT internship program guide for 2018.

How to address medical leave on your resume when you were a caregiver

When your leave was due to taking time off because of a loved one’s illness, the explanation can often be easier to manage, as you can highlight empathy and other interpersonal skills.

Check out the pointers below on how to achieve this.

Be concise. Unless you learned new skills during your time as a caregiver, there’s no reason to focus too much on what you did during this period of your life.
Be prepared to discuss in greater detail during an interview, but have a strategy ready that is designed to refocus the conversation back to your strengths.
Provide the date and reason for the absence, and briefly describe it. A good example of that would be “Full-time caregiver for a terminally ill family member.”

Example of listing caregiver on a resume

Full-time caregiver for a family member 5/2020 – 8/2020

IDT, Newark, New Jersey 11/2018 – 4/2020

Marketing Analyst

Researched and analyzed marketing trends in telecom.
Analyzed and tracked a marketing budget of $500,000.
Deployed new marketing campaigns in collaboration with the marketing team of 15.

Always circle back to the value you bring

No matter if you were on a personal medical leave or took time off work to care for someone else, you can still highlight any skills and experiences gained during that time. If you went to school, took some online courses, or volunteered, the knowledge and skills you gained can be leveraged to show you’re still in the know even after being out of the loop for whatever time period you were off.

Emphasize skills learned: “Participated in 4 online courses to stay up to date on emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML).
Highlight transferable skills: “Leveraged compassion and empathy to care for an infirm family member, managing complex calendars and competing priorities on daily activities.

Addressing medical leave in a cover letter

Being as brief as possible when explaining medical leave on your resume is best. The advantage of a cover letter is you can use this to succinctly dispense with the details of any leave. This will then free you up to focus your resume on the skills, achievements, and qualifications relevant to the job at hand.

Example: “During my two-year medical leave, I completed courses in [relevant field] and volunteered with [organization] to hone [skills 1, 2, and 3], which will allow me to bring value to your [Name of Team] team.”

In this way, you’ve not only addressed the leave but imparted details about valuable skills you acquired or knowledge you gained. It lets prospective employers know that no matter what’s going on in your life, you’re all about bettering yourself and that you’re the type of person who brings value to whatever situation you’re in.

Mistakes to avoid when talking about medical leave on your resume

Considering the fact that your resume needs to get past the applicant tracking system and impress a hiring manager, it can seem like a good idea to minimize any gaps that result from medical leave. However, there are some things you need to avoid.

Being too vague

Very few people have a steadily progressive career with no employment gaps. When you properly explain medical leave on your resume, you have to find the right balance between not enough and too much information, mostly because you don’t want the employer to use their imagination as to what you were doing for the two years you were out of work. The first thing they’ll think is something negative. So, to avoid those types of red flag thoughts:

Be honest: The last thing you want is for a prospective employer to question your honesty. If they feel you’re being dishonest about what you were doing during your leave, they may wonder what else you’re hiding.
Address potential concerns up front: If you allow the hiring manager’s imagination to run wild, you can expect more questions about your leave, which could put you and them in an awkward position during an interview.

Being too detailed

Likewise, because of the ADA and HIPAA, you aren’t required to provide every detail about everything that went on while you were on medical leave. Your privacy is important, but on top of that, those details are simply irrelevant to the job you want. For example, there’s zero need for you to write something like this on your resume:

“Took medical leave after a cancer diagnosis which resulted in 6 surgeries and extensive rehabilitation over 14 months.”

Your best bet is to find a balance and reassure prospective employers that you were sick, you got over it, and are fully prepared and ready to come back to work. Here’s what that looks like:

“Medical leave | 12/2022-04/2024: Took time off to address a health issue, now fully recovered.
Use additional bullets to mention skills or knowledge you gained like we talked about earlier in this article.

Using negative language

It can be easy to view any medical leave as a setback to your career. However, you want to avoid addressing it like that on your resume. Employers want new employees who are positive and adaptable. When you use negative language to talk about your medical leave, you give off the impression that you aren’t able to cope with the unexpected.

Examples of negative language:

“I was forced to take time off when I was diagnosed with a major illness.”
“My illness caused me to miss work for over a year.”
“I had to leave my job because of health problems.”

These blurbs all indicate that something was done to you but that you did nothing to overcome the challenge. Negative language also doesn’t help you emphasize the fact that you’re ready to get back to work. When you shift the verbiage to something more positive, you shift the narrative from a difficult time to a time of growth.

Example of positive language:

“Took a medical leave; am now fully recovered; and ready to bring renewed energy to a new role.”

Focus on being the right person for the job

Explaining medical leave on a resume might feel awkward, but the key thing to remember is to explain it in an honest and straightforward way without lingering over it – and then move on to convincing the hiring agent that you’re the right person for the job.

Good luck with your continued job search.

If you’re still unsure how to explain medical leave on your resume, there is help in the form of ZipJob’s free resume review. You can upload your resume and have it reviewed, with tangible pointers as to how you can improve those job-seeking documents.

This article was originally written by Elizabeth Openshaw. It’s been updated by Marsha Hebert