LinkedIn has added some new job title options to help users address career gaps in their profiles, while also making some changes to how freelance positions are listed, in order to make it easier for users to provide transparency in their professional experience.

As explained by LinkedIn:

“We’ve heard from our members, particularly women and mothers who have temporarily stopped working, that they need more ways to reflect career gaps on their Profile due to parenting and other life responsibilities. To make it easier for moms, and all parents, we’re making some important changes to the Profile. We introduced new job titles, including “stay-at-home mom,” “stay-at-home dad” and “stay-at-home parent” to allow full-time parents and caretakers to more accurately display their roles.”

As you can see here, users will now be able to add these new titles to cover gaps in their career timeline, which may otherwise have raised questions about what happened to those seemingly ‘lost’ years.

The new options also give more credence to the work that parents do, so rather than hiding those experiences, they’re displayed front and center, which could be a positive in recruiter assessments.

In addition to this, LinkedIn’s also adding new options for freelancers to help improve their career path listings: 

“In the coming weeks, if you use one of these new stay-at-home job descriptions and set the employment type field to “self-employed,” you will no longer need to specify a company or employer.”

LinkedIn’s also looking to add a new field specifically for employment gap types, like “parental leave,” “family care” or “sabbatical,” so that people can better display their true professional journey.

The added transparency could provide significant benefit for those concerned that any ‘holes’ in their resume may disqualify them for consideration, while also providing a more complete picture for hiring managers as to your full career experience.

It’s a relatively small change in the broader scheme, but a relevant one for the millions of people, particularly women, who may feel like they’ve missed opportunities due to taking time off to raise their kids, or for other purpose. Having a gap on your history can be concerning, and can feel like you’re being unfairly judged for such – but by providing more options to explain, that could help to present a clearer understanding of your path.

The new listing options are now available in the app.