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I’m adding a historic career break to my LinkedIn profile which was nursing, looking after and caring for someone stage 4c cancer and two preschool children.
Should I just leave it as “Caregiver” and not really describe the situation, or put something like:
“Stay at home parent to two preschoolers and nursing partner with stage 4c BC”
"Caregiver" or "Stay at home parent" is probably sufficient - most potential employers aren't really going to be interested in details beyond explaining why the gap exists and that hopefully it isn't anything they would see as really bad, like serving time for murder etc.
That said I'm not sure it needs putting on LinkedIn - it's not the same thing as your CV/resume and people rarely expect it to account for your entire career in quite the same way.
First of all, allow me to say how sorry I am this happened to you. I know exactly how difficult caring for your partner while also having to do all the childcare as well in this way is.
For context, my kids were a little older than yours when I had this experience, but nevertheless I was out of the career world for over four years.
Does this even need to go on LinkedIn? I have never addressed my career gap on LinkedIn or even on my CV when applying for roles. I was asked about it in a couple of interviews but I never felt that it really held me back. When I was re-entering the job market, I knew I'd not kept my skills to the level I would have if I had been working, so I was ready to take a pay cut to get back in and prove myself.
When I accepted a role (only the second or third I'd applied for once I was looking again) only my line manager and their boss knew why I'd taken a career break. I didn't discuss it with anyone else in the company for over a year. I guess I was somewhat concerned about perceptions and I didn't want to be "that guy" who talked about nothing else. And I certainly didn't want it to be all I was asked about for ages after I joined.
You don't say what the outcome has been for you and you family, nor should you have to. Unfortunately our outcome was not good, so maybe that coloured my view about speaking about it during the early days back.
I hope it has been a better outcome for you all!
I'll try to be a little more nuanced here.
First of all: I'm very sorry: this is an extremely difficult thing to go through.
How to present it on LinkedIn depends on how relevant the experience is for the types of jobs you are looking for either in terms of skills or behavior or in terms of how it shaped you as the person you are today. It also depends on how how comfortable you are talking about it. This is entirely your choice.
I would not put any specific details in your LinkedIn profile. If you just want to explain the gap "Caregiver" will do just fine. If you want to draw attention to it (and invite a conversation during the interview process), something like "Caregiver in a difficult family situation" could work.
I see two purposes to a LinkedIn profile:
If a item in the job history doesn't do either of those things, it doesn't need to be listed. Just like a resume doesn't have to include everything, the LinkedIn profile can have gaps.
When you get to actually applying for the job, or as a part of the background investigation you may be required to not have any gaps in your work history. In those cases you could go with the caregiver explanation. You would not be expected to give details regarding reason, diagnoses, etc.
I personally don't agree with Sebastiaan's answer. As @GregoryCurrie already mentioned in the comments revealing someone elses medical diagnosis (even when we are talking about a partner or family) to the whole world via posting it on LinkedIn in is definitly NOT appropriate, even with consent..
I would add it to LinkedIn in following manner:
Caregiver and C4 services from ... to ...
That should suffice without revealing a distinct diagnosis and the person affected.
Clarification asked in the comments:
Stage 4C (Suspicious of malignancy) means the cancer may have spread to distant organs
Personally I’d go for something in between. If I was recruiting someone, just ‘Caregiver’ would be a bit short. But the other option you mentioned is quite personal for a medium like LinkedIn. I’d go with “Caregiver for partner with cancer”. It sounds serious enough to be a full-time task, but is to the point.
LinkedIn should not be used as a direct match to your resume. I personally would not add any details about a gap on LI, you can add it to your resume, or wait until someone asks you. Life happens, those details don't need to be for public display. Many people have had this situation where they've had to cut back on work, or take time off for family. If an employer sees this as a negative, then that is not a company you should work for.
I personally would put Homemaker. I'm also on LinkedIn and was tasked with this myself. It's hard to make it sound like you don't just sit home all day doing nothing (I'm back at it after my newest addition in april and I forgot what it was like shew!!) Also list your strongest qualities and attributes in the fanciest words you can find for them. Be sure to review your resume and make sure it's up to date and accurate!! Good luck!
