Does this look bad to employers? (details inside, too long for title)

[yepimonfire]

Does it look bad to employers to have a big gap in employment (say 4 years) if the person was a student during this time? Reason i ask is because i originally quit my job to go to school, then i decided i wanted a job again and started working for another company, ended up doing that for about 6 months and came to the realization that i was unable to successfully juggle both a job and school. i was getting way behind at the start of this semester and a good amount of assignments from last semester after beginning the job (which was sometime towards the end of the semester) never got turned in.

Long story short, i can't do both and be successful in school, and obviously school is more important to me.

 

[Irvrobinson]

If you are pursuing a degree valuable to the field you are working in, or want to work in, it won't be perceived as a gap. And, of course, you actually have to get the degree.

 

[Adam]

Gaps in employment beg the question - what were you doing? Well, you were going to school...an easy question to answer.

If you go interviewing for long-term employment, you'll want to be able to convince them that you won't be leaving in six months to go back to school or do something else.

 

[STRONGBADF1]

What they said.

 

[Dan]

Make sure it is very clear on your resume. Have a timeline in one place that covers work and education. If they are in two separate places it could confuse the person who screens the applicants. Remember that they may have hundreds of resumes for a few positions and may not be that careful reading the whole resume. ANYTHING that makes it hard for them to pick you out of the pile will be seized upon.

Every year we have 800 applicants for four slots. I review about 100 of the applications and get to pick 10 to interview. The applicants are all top third of their class medical students, very strong. Anything askew will kill their chances.

 

[itschris]

I'm in the finance industry and I'm Financial Manager and I hire and work with analysts. So here's how I see things... a lot depends on the position/profession. If you were a dog catcher for 10 years, then went to school to get an economics degree, then applied for analyst position with me... I'd probably pass in favor or a different candidate.

However, if you were doing something in the field prior (lets assume you were applying for an I.T. role with my group) and you went back to school to become degreed in your field, i.e., computer science, etc. and you were applying for an advanced programming positon with us... then you'd absolutely be considered.

 

[j_garcia]

It will be fine.

 

[Adam]

I'm in the finance industry and I'm Financial Manager and I hire and work with analysts. So here's how I see things... a lot depends on the position/profession. If you were a dog catcher for 10 years, then went to school to get an economics degree, then applied for analyst position with me... I'd probably pass in favor or a different candidate.

Glad you weren't my hiring manager - I was a paper carrier for 10 years before going to school...and my degree isn't in journalism.

Okay, maybe I did start carrying papers at 7...

 

[lsiberian]

Guidelines for a good resume.

1. Put your full name(First and Last) on it

2. Put your address, email address and phone number on it.

3. Have a cute elementary ed major check your paper for errors.

4. Use the format suggested by your school's career department

5. Get internships during the summers or at least volunteer with someone.

6. Network with people in your field and major.

I've gotten resumes without full names or an address. You can imagine how annoying that is. Remember to make friends with your classmates. They will get you jobs. My first Job came through a classmate. My second job came through my resume and interview skills.

We ended up hiring a former classmate.

Can you push a mower or operate a snow shovel? You could always print up some business cards and do that for folks.

 

[jinjuku]

Since we are talking about Resume Advice:

Seek a pro that can help you build a resume. I prefer seeing resume's that are built to highlight experience over historical employment. It is partially about the spin.

This depends on the job but we write well defined postings that actually contain all the interview cues. You would not believe how many people come in and don't realize the interview script was already written for them. It's like they came to interview for an entirely different, and non-existent, position.

Also do practice interviews in front of friends and family.

 

[lsiberian]

Since we are talking about Resume Advice:

Seek a pro that can help you build a resume. I prefer seeing resume's that are built to highlight experience over historical employment. It is partially about the spin.

This depends on the job but we write well defined postings that actually contain all the interview cues. You would not believe how many people come in and don't realize the interview script was already written for them. It's like they came to interview for an entirely different, and non-existent, position.

Also do practice interviews in front of friends and family.

I agree. It's much more helpful to know you've programmed in C# for 3 years than to know you worked for Microsoft for 3 years. Also be sure to play with the tools used in your profession. Do personal projects using them.

 

[majorloser]

Just be careful using a just skills based resume over one that also lists your past jobs. The purely skills based resume is usually used by three types of candidates

Those that have many years experience with one employer in the field applied for (can you say OLD)

By those with many past jobs but not all in the field applied for (job hoppers)

And lastly, fresh college graduates (newbs)

 

[yepimonfire]

If you are pursuing a degree valuable to the field you are working in, or want to work in, it won't be perceived as a gap. And, of course, you actually have to get the degree.

Let's say in a hypothetical worse case scenario someone fails classes (and can't receive financial aid or loans until they take courses out of pocket and pass them) and then returns to the workforce looking for retail type jobs in order to pay for classes etc? This isn't my situation or even a possible situation at the moment, but i always like to look at possible obstacles in worst case scenarios. Do you think it could cause a problem when seeking employment in a retail/minimum wage type setting? Based upon your "you actually have to get the degree" statement.

Or, even taking into account something else that causes school to be postponed (like some sort of obstacle). For example, I'm staying with my grandparents right now and basically other then what little money i get back from my pell grants I have no income. If something were to happen to them, or something goes awry in my situation (millions of possible circumstances here lol) and I have to go back home, school would be put on hold until I came up with a new plan. (the exact program i'm going after isn't really available back home, so i'd have to think up something else).

How could this potentially effect me? I don't want to gamble with failure and i always want to have a realistic "plan B" should things go differently than planned.

 

[yepimonfire]

Can you push a mower or operate a snow shovel? You could always print up some business cards and do that for folks.

I don't know man, those are awfully complicated pieces of machinery, and there are a lot of dangers involved (especially when you start getting into snow shovels) if you don't know what you're doing.....