Hi Anna,

 Thank you for reaching out to Cancer and Careers. I’m so sorry to hear that the return to work has been difficult. The truth of the matter is, gaps in resumes are not as much of a red flag or deterrent as they once were. With that said, you should still be prepared to talk about the gap if needed. Despite being out of work, it does sound like you can allude to your time in graduate school as a reason for taking some time off of work. You can take a look at our article on Minding the Resume Gap to give you some ideas for how to manage and navigate a job search after time away.

As for this new job, if it is negatively impacting you physically and/or mentally, it’s simply not worth that stress on your body. Seeing as you haven’t really been there that long, perhaps you don’t mention your time there at all? While it’s not necessarily a bad thing to only be at a job for a short period of time, it might cause some questions to come up about the job that may give more information away than you would like. If you do feel it’s important to include the job on your resume, you can provide a vague explanation and use our verbal technique, The Swivel, to redirect the conversation and turn attention back to your skills and why you’re the best candidate for the job. As for ‘burning bridges’ I would say there is likely a way to leave amicably, you could let them know given your other commitments, it’s not working out with your schedule, or something else that is not personal or specific to the position itself.

Happy to chat about this further if you would like, you can reach out to cancerandcareers@cew.org to set up a call.

Warm regards,

Nicole Jarvis, LMSW

Assistant Director of Programs

Cancer and Careers