I am a professional in the tech industry that has taken 9 months (and counting) off because of a sexual assault. How do I explain this since now I have an employment gap?

Hi guys, looking for advice on my situation and where do I even start when I don’t feel comfortable disclosing this ever in a phone screen or interviews.

Some background: I’m a young male professional (been working since I graduated college) with 6 years of experience in tech with my last role being 2 years in analytics. Basically, I left a stressful job at a startup at the beginning of last year for a new company and negotiated a start date for two months after I had resigned from old position. I wanted this time because I planned on doing extensive travel and finally having a vacation that was longer than a week.

I’m just going to be pretty general about what ended up happening, but early in my travels I was drugged and sexually assaulted. I ended up dealing with some of the worst feelings in my life. I bought a flight back home (California) right after this happened and asked my new employer if I could postpone my start date by 2 weeks and was OK’d. I felt like if I just got back home then I’d be able to figure things out and get back to normal, but I knew a few days after being back that wasn’t going to happen so I sent an email letting my new employer know that I was no longer going to be able to join the team and that I’m deeply apologetic while willing to provide a list of potential candidates if they don’t have another person lined up.

From that point on I just focused on getting my mind in a better place and finding a new normal so I could function like an adult again. I have a therapist that I’ve been seeing since I was in college when I dealt with some depression and at least have seen him once or twice a year since college as a checkup. I first went through counseling thanks to RAINN before looping in my therapist. I ended up going through a pretty dark time for a couple months. I shared an apartment with one of my close friends, but he let me sublet it out while I moved in with a sibling. I started going to the gym again not long after that and joined a dodgeball league and rugby club as a way to make new friends in a comfortable environment.

Eventually I got to a good place where I could go enjoy myself, nightlife and travel again and ended up temporarily moving to a new city so I could do open mics, write and photograph for a season and it was amazing and ending up meeting my current gf because of it. I feel like I’ve finally reached that “new normal” post-trauma and for the past two months been applying to plenty of job postings with few responses. I recently had an onsite that went swell in many ways, but was passed up for a different candidate. Thankfully this happened through a referral and my buddy setup a happy hour where I could connect with the recruiter that did my phone screen and was there for my onsite. We didn’t get too deep into it obviously, but after a few pitchers of sangria I asked what was the top thing that had them pass me up and she told me it was the director that felt I had taken too long to lick my wounds from my last job. I felt pretty hurt hearing this, but didn’t let this spoil the night and acted like I was just brushing it off as not a perfect culture fit when she told me.

So here I am now wondering how to game plan for future onsites and explaining my resume gap. I’ve talked to people who are close to me about my sexual assault, but I know this isn’t something I would ever share with anyone I don’t know very well so how do I go about explaining I needed a long time off for myself without being counted against me? I’ve crafted a ton of good lines for expected questions including several about my last job, but now I’m wondering if employers will even take me seriously for taking so much time off working for personal reasons/“self-development”.

TL;DR -- Quit my last job for a new job and got two months to travel. I was sexually assaulted while traveling, didn’t take the new job and took a lot of time off to recover for my mental health. I’ve reached a new normal and feel good about where life can lead, but how do I explain my employment gap to employers when I don’t feel comfortable saying: “Got sexually assaulted, did a lot of counseling, therapy, self-care and now I’m here”

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