Home / usa jobs / I haven't worked since I got my Master's a year and a half ago, due to personal issues. I didn't work during the 7 years I spent getting my BA and MA. Now that I'm applying for jobs, how should I address the gap in my resume?

I haven't worked since I got my Master's a year and a half ago, due to personal issues. I didn't work during the 7 years I spent getting my BA and MA. Now that I'm applying for jobs, how should I address the gap in my resume?

tl;dr - Questions up front, then a short paragraph summary of my situation. Lastly, the bullet-point list has more detailed information for the situation, in case it's helpful. Here are my big questions and concerns for this topic:

  1. How are employers going to treat someone with a 1.5-year gap after the Master's degree for "personal reasons" that I don't really want to explain, and almost no work history over the last 7 years?
  2. How should I address something like this in my cover letter or resume?
  3. Lastly, if a lack of work history and job references is a difficult hurdle to immediately overcome, what should I do to bridge the gap and start building up a positive work history?

I was in the military for a number of years, then got a BA from a foreign college, decided to become a regional specialist in that country, and got a Master's Degree from the top-ranked U.S. graduate school for this field. But I don't have any job experience over the last 7 years since I left the military and started going to school, aside from a three-month U.S. Embassy internship from 2014. I started having considerable academic difficulties during the very last semester of graduate school, and finished my Master's Degree more than six months after the original graduation date. I then made little to no effort to get employed for a year and a half, despite originally having some very serious ambitions and large variety of relevant job opportunities available.

Now I've gotten psych help and appropriate meds, and I'm finally getting back on track applying for relevant positions. I'm hoping more experienced people here can shed some light on my questions above.

More detailed info follows that might be helpful for my particular situation:

Over the past 7 years while getting my BA and MA, I've had no work and only conducted a single three-month internship over the entire time period. Here it is in bullet-form:

  • Worked in the U.S. Air Force for 8 years as a Chinese linguist.
  • Got an honorable discharge, went overseas to China and got a BA in Political Science. I graduated a full year early, with honors, having taken as many courses as were allowed each semester.
  • While going to school in China, I conducted an internship at the Beijing Embassy at a time when they were heavily understaffed, and out of necessity was essentially treated the same as an actual first-tour Diplomat. I performed a surprisingly wide range of official duties over three months.
  • Applied to six of the top 10 graduate schools in the U.S. in the field of foreign policy/diplomacy, and somehow was accepted to all six.
  • I chose the top school (which also offered me a 50% tuition reduction), and performed just fine until my last semester.
  • Had trouble turning my work in on time starting from my final semester, and it got progressively worse towards the end.
  • Was lucky enough to receive generous deadline extensions from all my final semester professors to finish my final exams and other graduation requirements long after the classes had finished.
  • Moved to China to be with my Chinese girlfriend, intending to get a job either at a Chinese company or at a U.S. company. During this time, I eventually turned in all of my graduate work to finally earn my more degree six months after they had been originally due, but I was still having problems.
  • But for a year and a half, I continued struggling with a ridiculous inability to do anything important for the advancement of my life or career. I started seeing a psychiatrist, and after a detailed examination I ended up prescribed with ADHD and anxiety meds, which brought considerable improvements to my motivation and a reduction of social anxiety.

Now that I feel like my life is getting back on track and I'm actually sending out applications for relevant work in my field, I'm curious about what a typical employer's perspective might be on such a large resume gap, how I should address my lack of work history in my application/resume/cover letter in general, and what sort of options I should consider in the meantime to gain experience, good work history, and future job references.

The older threads on this subreddit are an absolute wealth of information on the various aspects of getting employed, but I couldn't find anything related to a situation like my own. Thanks for any advice or insights you can offer.

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I haven't worked since I got my Master's a year and a half ago, due to personal issues. I didn't work during the 7 years I spent getting my BA and MA. Now that I'm applying for jobs, how should I address the gap in my resume? I haven't worked since I got my Master's a year and a half ago, due to personal issues. I didn't work during the 7 years I spent getting my BA and MA. Now that I'm applying for jobs, how should I address the gap in my resume? Reviewed by Louhi on octobre 28, 2018 Rating: 5

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