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I left my job about two months ago in order to go back to school full-time and to build up my skill sets in data analysis since I have mostly been working with data manipulation for Software as a Service companies.

The reason behind this sabbatical was as I was job hunting while working, I quickly found out that coming from such a specialized field where the company uses their own developed software and not outside commonly-used software. Most of the employers I was applying to were rejecting me because I had no experience with tool X or software Y even though I had a lot of transferable skills to offer. So I figured it would just be best to dive head in and train myself up to be more valuable to employers.

I am starting my job search now because my fiance has recently been laid off, and I need to find work again. I am still in school but I'm taking 9 credits instead of 12 and I am also in an online data analytics program.

Right now, I have a gap in my resume from the time that I left until now, and I know that I probably won't get a job for another couple of months so that gap is going to get bigger and more noticeable to employers.

I am not sure if I can put on my resume under my job experience something like:

Continuing Education Jun. 2019 – Present

Local Community College

  • Taking classes for MySQL, Database Design, and Unix programming.

This I would hope will smooth out any gaps and let an employer know that I am doing something with my time off. I am planning to put some of my projects on my resume as well, but I am not sure where to put those.

If anyone has any ideas on how to present this in my resume, that would be great.

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  • @JoeStrazzere The reason why I'm taking 9 instead of 12 was because one of the classes I was taking got cancelled, and I couldn't find another relevant course for my degree program that I could substitute those hours with. I'm 74% through my degree program now, so the higher level classes are not offered every semester.
    – Perdue
    Commented Aug 28, 2019 at 17:19
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    Exactly like that "Education Jun. 2019 – Present", education is totally valid reason for job gap
    – Strader
    Commented Aug 28, 2019 at 20:03

1 Answer 1

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Right now, I have a gap in my resume from the time that I left until now

Education / specialized studies are a perfectly valid reason for a gap in work experience, so sure, go for putting the experience in your resume.

One way to do that would be you bump the education section to the top in your resume, and mention it there instead of writing it as work experience. Something like:

EDUCATION

Local Community College, June 2019 - Current
    classes for MySQL, Database Design, and Unix programming

Online MOOC Sites, July 2019 - Current
    random course name for data analytics

Local Community College, XXXX - YYYY
    Some other details of a previous course you did


WORK EXPERIENCE

Company A 
    Work you did

Company B 
    Work you did

If you have concerns on the order etc (Work Experience before Education), you can check with a friend in recruitment on what is a good way to put this across in the resume for your location. I've seen the order of the two being different for different people.

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    Yes, the key is not to mention it as work experience (as it's not). An education section will do the trick
    – DarkCygnus ♦
    Commented Aug 28, 2019 at 17:24
  • @mu-無 already have a bachelor's degree, and I always though that the education section needs to go below the work experience or is this different since I am pursuing a new degree?
    – Perdue
    Commented Aug 28, 2019 at 17:37
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    @Perdue There are no hard and fast rules about that, I've seen people put any of Education, Skills, WorkExperience at top, so as to bring it out upfront. In any case, a recruiter in your area would be able to provide better feedback if they have any specific expectations on the ordering.
    – Anshul Goyal
    Commented Aug 29, 2019 at 9:51

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