Ask HN: How to answer career gap in resume?
by shivajikobardan | 2025-12-18 15:13:23+00:00
I will be interviewing for a private IT job tommorrow.

I left my technical support job which I got right after college of more than two years. The company did not force me to leave. But I left mostly because I had once conflict with a senior teammate in a standup meeting. I crossed the line when I choosed to speak foul words. I had apologized for that incident in front of the entire team. But I felt very bad. Also I felt I was being quietly disposed due to decreased responsibilities, annoyed manager, continuous complaints on my work without evidence.

I will have to answer the existing five-six months gap(as of now) in my resume. During that time I have been rigorously been preparing for government IT job. I am asking this in context of a private IT job interview..

The question "Why did you leave your previous job without finding a new job?" is like a compulsory question.

Way-1, about what I will answer.

I will answer them "To prepare for government IT jobs".

Now there will be two possible follow-up questions(based on my experience interviewing a couple of Nepalese IT Companies after my resignation from my tech support job):

- They will now ask why are you coming back for private jobs back again?

- What did you feel missing in your ex private IT job that made you to prepare for government IT job?

For the first question; I will answer, I have now finished preparing/studying for the competitive exam which the government takes to recruit IT officers.

Now this leads me to a new dilemma. They will think, why should we hire you and invest in you when we know you will leave in six months or one year to government jobs? I have faced such situation in the last company that I interviewed for last week.

I tried to convince them saying it will be 1.5 years before I enter a government job. But obviously he was not convinced. ( I said 1.5 years because exams, interviews, deployment on office etc takes time in government and it is true).

For the second question, it is easy: financial security and predictable career growth mostly. Noone will have hard time believing it.

I do not see anything better than this. Of course I could say health reasons. But it will be difficult to prove.

Or I could say "The environment in my department was not helpful for my career and financial growth and I want to prepare myself for better jobs". But this leads me to another difficult phase. I have been solely focused on preparing for government IT jobs. I have been re-studying various subjects that are present in IT officer syllabus of government services.

What I wanted to say from the paragraph above is that I have not been doing certifications like RHCSA, Certified Kubernetes Administrator type or even learning to build a homelab in the last five months. I have nothing to show for that case. (Note that I am applying for IT support, devops, system engineer titled jobs)

Some AI bots gave this answer for the first question asked above.

"Over the period of time(5-6 months), I realized my core values were continuous growth(learning, financially, career etc)->thus I seek for private IT jobs now."

It sounds so fake. I would appreciate a more humanly response to this situation.