Hey guys,

I am a banking professional with 6 years of work ex and soon going to join a top B-school in the UK. I just joined a job back in December and took it as a stop go measure before MBA starts. Now I am not liking the job and want to quit (Reason 1) and also do some part time course, skill up gradation (Reason 2)
Question is : How will the future UKrecruiter look at my resume with this gap in mind ? I also had earlier 3 years gap when I was preparing for UPSC exams (Nearly cleared it though).
Advice is most welcome.

Regards

Hi John Snow(good alias)
No recruiter is going to simply ignore your skillset only based on the fact you have a gap in your corporate career. People have many reasons to have a gap in their career such as pursuing a passion, child care, elderly care, or even to relieve stress, which the recruiters know. Their only concern would be it has not spoiled the qualities, skills and values that you bring to the table. You should justify your stand and this is a covid period so they may overlook it. Don't force yourself to a thing which you don't like, which would be disastrous to your health and character. Try to develop yourself in the period, live your life. Best wishes things will turn optimistic.

The main thing recruiters will look for is that you are able to explain you used the time productively. I managed a large recruitment programme last year and it was easy to identify candidates with gaps who had been doing something useful (and ideally related to their career in some way) like learning/upskilling, caring for family, renovating their house, volunteering etc. These all come up frequently. 

You obviously don't want a recruiter to think you spent most of your time bingeing on Netflix...

I've had gaps of 6 months, a year and 18 months in my career over 30 years and it's never been an issue.

[Edited by aslamo on Mar 03, 2021]