I was having lunch with a friend the other day, and we were discussing living and working in the new economy. As many of you know, I was laid off a full-time job over a year ago, and have been making ends meet through the benevolence of friends and a lot of freelance writing.

I was ruefully recounting the “glitches” in my resume over the past couple of years. Then, perspective prevailed. Millions of people are smack in the middle of a major resume glitch right now. The “Great Recession” is changing the face of the work place and its work force, and these changes will have lasting impact for the next several years. HR directors will look at this period – from 2007 until 2012 or so – and unilaterally understand the necessity of whatever work you did (or didn’t do) during that time frame.

“In fact,” my friend added thoughtfully, “It may be the person with no gap on their resume who will be at a disadvantage. They won’t have learned any new skills, figured out new solutions.”

This is another example of the upside/down-ness of the new economy. So now I’m rethinking how I can present my resume “glitches” as demonstrated abilities: flexibility, resourcefulness, creativity, diversified skills, adaptability, initiative. In today’s world, you can turn patchwork, piecemeal work to an advantage.