Covid/gap history/peace corps

[lynn1994]

So I was sent home from peace corps at the end of March 2020 because of covid. I had been there for 18 months. I am now applying for law school for fall 2021. I did not start working again until October 2020. I worked for the YMCA and a Bike Share Non Profit. Now I have a full time job as an on campus tutor with a college prep high school that I started in January 2021. My question is what is the best way to handle this.

1- should I include the YMCA and Bike Share jobs on my resume? or should I only include the new full time job and use an addendum to address the gap?

2-Should I not include any of these jobs, and leave peace corps at the top of my resume, and explain the situation in an addendum?

I am leaning towards the 2nd because I am worried if the first 2-3 things they see are short-term odd jobs, they won't take me seriously. But prior to being evacuated from peace corps because of covid I have a much better, more accurate, resume. I worked jobs I was passionate about and for long stints because I wasn't scrambling to get back on my feet due to a pandemic. Any help would be so appreciated.

[KelseyWoods]

Hi Lynn!

This is a fairly common scenario (especially this past year!) and there are a few different ways that you can handle it:

1) You could just leave the smaller jobs off of your resume. A work gap in 2020 is pretty common and law schools are unlikely to think much about it. If you feel like your jobs at the YMCA and the Bike Share didn't add anything significant to your experience, then this might be the way to go. You could include a brief addendum about being called back from the Peace Corps early due to covid. But you don't need to make big excuses for a job gap that is totally reasonable following the Peace Corps in general but extra reasonable during a global pandemic/economic crisis.

2) You could just list all of the jobs you've had chronologically on your resume, including the smaller jobs. I'm assuming you will spend time talking about your Peace Corps experience in your personal statement or elsewhere so it doesn't necessarily need to be at the top of your resume. They'll know you were in the Peace Corps. And, again, 2020 was a weird year for employment for a lot of people so they're not going to judge you for having a couple of short-term gigs.

3) You could organize your resume so that you kind of get the best of both worlds here. Front-load your resume with your significant work experiences and include a section at the end for your "Other Work Experience" and just list your smaller jobs there. That way everything is on your resume, but you are highlighting the experiences you really want them to see.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Best,
Kelsey