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I am planning to join a Master's program abroad in the US this Fall (starting in August) and have received an admit for the same. I am currently employed and have told my employer about this. I wish to leave early so that I can spend time with my family and focus on my fitness. However, if I leave now (in March), that will leave me with a career gap of about 5 months from April to August. Will this be a problem when applying for internships and jobs during and after my Masters? I also want to mention that I will require an H1B visa if I want to work in the US. My current employer is quite flexible and has given me the freedom to choose my last working day (any date within the next 2 months).

EDIT: I am currently working in the tech industry (software engineering, machine learning, quantitative research, and the likes) and would be interested in pursuing a similar role after my Masters.

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  • You probably should check the employment requirements for your Visa, and verify if a different visa will be required to go to school in the US. Once you have a Masters nobody will care about what happened before your Masters. Lots of people are not employed when they get a Masters degree.
    – Donald
    Commented Mar 5, 2021 at 1:01
  • @Donald I do have an idea of the employment requirements for my visa. Going to school in the US requires a different type of visa, at least in my situation it does. Seems like I was overthinking about my "career gap" problem, thanks for the reply!
    – temp_user
    Commented Mar 6, 2021 at 22:25

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Gaps <1 year don't matter. Just have some cute story about what you did in those months (1-3 sentences) for the 1 in 10 interviewers who ask, so they can say "cool" and move on.

Resumes are not comprehensive anyway, you're supposed to list relevant positions. If you have a lot of positions you may end up skipping some leaving "gaps" in the timeline, even though you were working in that time. The gap may very well be another job you don't consider very relevant, and they're unlikely to ask about something you don't consider important. They'll want to ask about what you did list instead.

Gap before a master's is especially irrelevant, it is understood that school starts at a certain time of year so nobody will look twice. If someone has time left to ask about your "gaps" your application is probably so boring that you have no chance, gap or not. If you're a strong candidate there will be too many more important things to interview about.

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