Gaps in employment to focus on education

I'm currently employed as a mid-level sys. admin. with two year's experience in IT and working on an advanced degree for a very specialized niche in IT. I have less than a year left on the degree. I stopped growing from my experience at work at least six months ago, and it is unrelated to the type of position I'm working towards. The company I work for has no positions of the type I want to eventually grow into. Plus, the degree I'm working on will only cover a facet of the type of role I'm going for; I have to spend a decent amount of free time to learn a domain of computer science on my own, so the opportunity cost of working is rather high.

The question is, since I'm fine for money, how much longer do I have to stay with my current employer in a boring position to avoid looking bad? Would an eight month gap while finishing the last semesters raise red flags?

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Comments

ptilsen

Forensics? Sorry, just curious.

I've been thinking about this myself. I'm not all settled on one opinion, but my thought has been if it's truly a different job, e.g. going for networking administrator to software engineer, then as long as it's affordable, quitting might even make the most sense. Employment gaps look bad, but as long as they don't prevent you from getting the interview, it shouldn't be too hard to explain.

I'm really very much in the same boat (though likely different interest areas). I'm just not sure enough about the transition and at least a year away from being in financial position. If I were sure about it, I think I'd quit and finish up school faster. I think the employment gap is small potatoes compared to the opportunity cost of doing the wrong thing slowing down finishing studies. I'm interested in what the communal response to this will be, though.

nhpr

ptilsen wrote: »

Forensics? Sorry, just curious.

Put a pick in my hand so I can head down into the mines and start mining data.

NetworkVeteran

Employment gaps aren't a big deal as long as you can have a good explanation and don't get rusty. For example, I took a year off when my son was younger. Only one employer--who made me an offer--acted as if that were at odds with their culture and that factored into my decision not to accept that offer. I was up-front about it on my resume and made it clear I had great references from my previous employer and was just re-certified to prove I wasn't rusty or leaking oil anywhere.

ptilsen

nhpr wrote: »

Put a pick in my hand so I can head down into the mines and start mining data.

Yeah, that's a big departure -- in a good way, IMO. Anyway, get the heck out of infrastructure ASAP.

hoktauri

My gaps tend to be around 3 months, every interview has just wanted an explanation and as long as you weren't spending the time selling drugs they were happy. I would personally stick it out a bit longer though (2 more months?), you could end up not finding a job for awhile after you finish.

powerfool

Unless your degree is one where you cannot work in your field until you complete, I don't see much reason to have a gap in your employment for education... unless you are doing something very cool or interesting, like doing a semester abroad or something.

Experience will be your primary tool anyhow.

Xyro

I feel like the worst thing I've done is create employment gaps because of school. If I had to do it all over again, I would prioritize getting work experience instead of schooling.

It could, perhaps, be that this is regional but as far as I'm noting employers prefer experience to education. They also view gaps, even if caused by attending school, as something only someone lacking in productivity & motivation would have.

You say that you have less than a year left on the degree. I would just try to "stick it out" if I were in your position instead of putting an 8-month (close to an entire year) gap in my work history.

Just my 1 cent.

NetworkVeteran

Xyro wrote: »

It could, perhaps, be that this is regional

Perhaps. I only have experience on the East and West coasts.

They also view gaps, even if caused by attending school, as something only someone lacking in productivity & motivation would have.

Understanding their objectives is key to addressing them. "While I was out, I was teaching at both my kids' schools. Yes, on a daily basis, and yes I had to learn those skills and complete formal training." I then went on to explain how I learned the necessarily skills so I could teach them effectively, how I made advanced concepts seem simple to children and their parents, and how I tracked and reported progress. These were all assets to selling my ability to communicate effectively. And, of course, the fact that I had re-earned my CCNP and was 'sharp' during the technical screens and interviews attested to the fact I had not become rusty.

I can sell anything, as long as I believe it, and that I was being "lazy" never entered my mind.

The one employer that objected--but made an offer--was from a different culture and, while they could understand a mother taking time off for their children, they had difficulty understanding a father taking time off for their children.

Most employers said something along the lines of, "I wish I had done that."

Xyro

NetworkVeteran wrote:

"While I was out, I was teaching at both my kids' schools. Yes, on a daily basis, and yes I had to learn those skills and complete formal training."

This makes all the difference because, theoretically, there was no employment gap. As I've come to realize, as long as you're doing something "work-related" they don't seem to recognize a gap.

NetworkVeteran wrote:

The one employer that objected--but made an offer--was from a different culture and, while they could understand a mother taking time off for their children, they had difficulty understanding a father taking time off for their children.

This would be a definite issue in this region. I'm glad it wasn't much of 1 where you reside.

NetworkVeteran

This would be a definite issue in this region. I'm glad it wasn't much of 1 where you reside.

I suspect I could sell that in any major city in America or Canada--at least it wasn't an issue in Texas, California, Georgia, or Washington. However, in very rural areas, and in some foreign cultures, I agree it would be an issue. In Canada the law even appears to allow fathers to take one year of leave. I had a colleague who did that. Those lucky Canadians!

The places that wouldn't understand a dad taking time off for his kids aren't places I'd live.

sratakhin

Is it even possible to work full-time while earning a Master's Degree from a university ranked in the Top 10 or 50? I'm talking about 9 to 12 credits a semester, not just taking one class at night.
I'd like to go to a school in another country in a few years and I'm not sure if working full-time is even an option for foreign students.

NetworkVeteran

sratakhin wrote: »

Is it even possible to work full-time while earning a Master's Degree from a university ranked in the Top 10 or 50? I'm talking about 9 to 12 credits a semester, not just taking one class at night.

Sure. While part-time jobs are easier to find as a college student, there are some compatible full-time jobs. The optimal ones would be a job requiring minimal to no work, such as monitoring/guarding a building or room, so you can use the time to sleep or study. Examples include monitoring PC labs, or the graveyard shift at a hotel lobby or data center, or a security guard. You could also take one of those part-time and get a second part-time job requiring only your mental presence.

But, life will be easier if you focus on your studies, or only do a part-time or summer job related to your degree. Remember to enjoy college and soak up as much as you can. There are plenty of employers who value a solid education.

instant000

Personally, I'd advise sticking with a job that makes it easier to work on your education goals while you can. If you're going into data mining, then you might want to see about getting some sort of side jobs doing that, so you can put the projects on your resume. That would probably be the most sensible way to slide over into that (at least, that's how I'm looking at it). I guess you can see my trend by now. I always try to suggest a way to blend what you're already doing into what you want to be doing.

If you work infrastructure, maybe there's some statistics you can pull that correlate outages to certain times of day, which leads to getting to the root cause of some weird issue you're having on your network.

It's kinda funny. Every time I think of data mining, I get an image of Qlikview in my head. (I know it's just a BI tool, but still, that's what comes to mind.)

If you can be good with the data, you can be involved in what drives a lot of business decisions.

Hope this helps.

N2IT

99% of the time employment gaps are a bad thing. Unless you are off doing some pro bono internship through MIT to build a new land rover for moon missions or something prestigious no way that would look good. I would stick it out a few more months like others have mentioned. knowing infrastructure couldn't hurt either. Database performance and other pieces that come into play could be useful from your previous experience. An 8 month gap is a long time - stick it out.

Xyro

NetworkVeteran wrote: »

The places that wouldn't understand a dad taking time off for his kids aren't places I'd live.

Fortunate you have that option. Some of us get stuck in these places.

sratakhin wrote: »

Is it even possible to work full-time while earning a Master's Degree from a university ranked in the Top 10 or 50? I'm talking about 9 to 12 credits a semester, not just taking one class at night.

I don't know anyone pursuing a Master's who is not working full-time.