62% of employees have taken a break at some point in their professional career. Most employers shy away from hiring candidates with career breaks and most applicants hide it. Do men get away with it more easily?
Let us look at 3 triggers for careers breaks: Career transitions; life transitions and for caregiving.
#careerbreaks - think of it as a HAPPINESS FILTER 
Lifetime employment is a thing of the past
The average life span of businesses is reducing. They merge, fail and get acquired. The employees are impacted in every such move. Job descriptions are fluid and layoffs are more common than you think. These changes are involuntary.
People will have to take frequent breaks for upskilling. As people live longer, the need to stay relevant may see career breaks becoming even more common.
20% hiring managers say they will reject a candidate that took a break
Ignore the 20%
20% of hiring managers say they would reject a candidate that took a break. This is a sign of an organization whose leaders are still living in the past. They will struggle to attract top talent especially among millennials. Besides, 80% of the hiring managers accept career breaks as reality. Ignore the 20% who discriminate. <read more>
84 percent of millennials foresee taking significant breaks during their career.
Why you should add ‘career breaks’ on LinkedIn – 5 reasons
Make it stand out
1. Full disclosure is a smart policy: Live fearlessly and the world will adjust to it. It allows you to bring your full self to work
2. It is a “happiness filter”: Your stating it on LinkedIn will weed out employers whose mindset will make you unhappy. Use this as a “happiness filter”.
3. Career breaks energise you: Fatigue and burnout are signs that you need a break. Career breaks do for our career, what sleep does for a tired body. It is a chance to match our skills, opportunities and dreams.
4. Gender agnostic “Returnships” are in vogue : The #greatresignation has forced employers to broaden their definition of a talent pool. Returnship programmes have evolved over time from being smaller cohorts to being not just bigger and virtual, but also gender-agnostic cohorts. <read more>
5. It impacts men as much as women: Men and women may vary in their reason for taking a Career Break, but it is becoming the norm everywhere. So go ahead and add your career break to your LinkedIn profile.
How should you navigate your career after a break <read this>
BONUS: How to add a Career Break on your LinkedIn Profile
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