Gap in CV

ChikiChiki

Hi All,

I've been dwelling on this for a week now and am still not sure how to approach it.

I was employed with a company as a Business Analyst up until March 2016. At this stage I set up my own company and went self employed obtaining a 6 month contract in a consultancy role in a large organisation. I worked on the contract for three months from April to July and before resigning from the position.

I had a couple of reasons for resigning. The main reason was that I felt really burned out and was not able to give 100% of myself. Something was happening to me and it just wasn't right, in hindsight I think some sort of breakdown. I was getting sick before work in the mornings due to stress and actually crying going out the door to work some mornings. Sleep was bad with me regularly waking up in the night in sweats due to anxiety attacks. My confidence died. I'm a 29 yr old grown man who is supposed to be confident and assured in his role. I was missing key details from meetings and feeling really demotivated. A typical week for me would be 25+ meetings given the workload with staff at all levels. The volume of meetings meant that I was struggling to deliver key documentation and organise my work accordingly. I really hated it.

Another reason for resigning is that I feel I needed to fix my own mental health rather than ploughing on. My dad took his own life last year just before I commenced my final year of college and its something I never really dealt with. I just ploughed myself back into work and college. I finished off a degree in which I done 4 nights a week at night since last September in May and I put all of my energy into that obtaining some brilliant results. Since resigning in July I have taken some counselling and I am doing lots of exercise to improve my mental health. I also travelled to Asia for 3 weeks as a break. Prior to this I hadn't a holiday in 3 years as I used up all my annual leave for college.

I was not in a good place when I left the contract position. My confidence was on the floor and in hindsight I believe I was depressed. My resignation was to my manager via a text message after a visit to the doctor which is awful but that's the place I was in. I think she could see that I was struggling anyway and she was a tough cookie. She called me out on all the mistakes I was making throughout my time there and as a result I would not be confident of getting a good reference of her. I believe I did a good job for the three months that I was there but we just had different ways of doing things and disagreed with each others methods.

So now after a few months off I'm ready to return to the workforce perhaps taking up a new contract role. I feel I cannot ask for a reference off my ex-manager but at the same time I know I did a lot of good work there and it would be a waste not to write in the experience to my LinkedIn and CV. The gap is from April until now. Anyone have any suggestions on what I could do to fill the gap or maybe better to leave it out? Sorry for the long post, once I started writing I couldn't stop.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Tony EH

I don't think you have to worry about anything. That's just a period of a few months. It's perfectly normal to be between jobs for that length of time.

Relax.

witchgirl26

First off I'm sorry for your loss. Having been in a similar position myself - I ploughed myself into finishing my own professional qualification and working after my dad's death because it was easier. I only dealt with it properly 5 years after the fact.

Honestly I don't think you have to worry about the gap. If asked just say you took some time out to evaluate where you were going after finishing your degree etc.

I would put the experience in from that role. Was your manager a bad person but was she just tough in general on mistakes? It might be worth a phonecall to her now asking if she would mind being a referee for you.

endacl

You finished a prolonged period of intense work and took some time off? That's not a gap. That's some time off.

ChikiChiki

Tony EH wrote: »

I don't think you have to worry about anything. That's just a period of a few months. It's perfectly normal to be between jobs for that length of time.

Relax.

Thanks Tony. I'm probably overthinking it a bit. My main concern is whether I should leave out the last role as it ended quite suddenly and by text message and no replacement resources lined up which reflects quite badly if I say so myself.

witchgirl26 wrote: »

First off I'm sorry for your loss. Having been in a similar position myself - I ploughed myself into finishing my own professional qualification and working after my dad's death because it was easier. I only dealt with it properly 5 years after the fact.

Honestly I don't think you have to worry about the gap. If asked just say you took some time out to evaluate where you were going after finishing your degree etc.

I would put the experience in from that role. Was your manager a bad person but was she just tough in general on mistakes? It might be worth a phonecall to her now asking if she would mind being a referee for you.

Thanks for your sympathies Witchgirl26 and likewise to you. Yes, that is one line i'm thinking of going down, just saying I took time off from March to finish my degree and then took some time out afterwards to travel and chill which I did quite a bit of in fairness.

My manager wasn't a bad person as she gave me opportunities to do well and tried her best to motivate me. I'm certain she could see that I was low. However it was a funny relationship in the sense that when it came down to methods of doing things we clashed as she preferred things done quicker not giving me enough time to get things done properly. It was a huge deployment of software into various departments across multiple sites. We did have a clash on the Thursday before which I feel tipped me over the edge and therefore I wouldn't feel confident calling her for a reference.

I regret taking the role in the sense that it was too much for me and the wrong time coming up to exams. However some of the stuff I learned and experience I obtained was invaluable. Example being organising and delivering training days for huge groups of people. This was complemented by a very senior person in the organisation as they had a plant in one of the sessions. Training days are something I never did before. It would be a shame to omit this from my CV and LinkedIn

endacl wrote: »

You finished a prolonged period of intense work and took some time off? That's not a gap. That's some time off.

Yes, your probably right. I've worked 10 years since I was 19 with no gaps as long as this so I'm probably overthinking it.

witchgirl26

ChikiChiki wrote: »

My manager wasn't a bad person as she gave me opportunities to do well and tried her best to motivate me. I'm certain she could see that I was low. However it was a funny relationship in the sense that when it came down to methods of doing things we clashed as she preferred things done quicker not giving me enough time to get things done properly. It was a huge deployment of software into various departments across multiple sites. We did have a clash on the Thursday before which I feel tipped me over the edge and therefore I wouldn't feel confident calling her for a reference.

I regret taking the role in the sense that it was too much for me and the wrong time coming up to exams. However some of the stuff I learned and experience I obtained was invaluable. Example being organising and delivering training days for huge groups of people. This was complemented by a very senior person in the organisation as they had a plant in one of the sessions. Training days are something I never did before. It would be a shame to omit this from my CV and LinkedIn

You had a clash but if she was generally a good person just different styles then it's worth having a call with her. Maybe don't mention the reference bit at the start but you could call under the pretense of apologising for the way things were left and explaining the situation (explain but acknowledge that it could have been handled better). If the conversation goes well and she understands, mention how you're starting to look and would like to use her as a reference due to what you learnt there and the experience gained. If it doesn't, then you at least know where you stand.

asuna_cpl

Maybe reach out to your ex-manager to have a chat on the phone or meet up for coffee somewhere? I'm sure that things can be smoothed out, as this is not an uncommon thing to happen to a person. I wish you best of luck with coming back in your career!

Let’s hope things worked out for the OP during the last 2 years.

shenron

I don't think you have to worry about, a gap is perfectly normal, just try to explain this gap in the best way. For example, you can say that you attended courses, etc...