u/3dessa

I’m not sure what to call my situation but it’s not a job gap. I am fortunate enough to have a really good assistant manager job at a local restaurant in the town I grew up in. It isn’t stressful and genuinely fulfilling.

I make a little over 50k depending on tips and overtime. Nothing crazy, but I’m a recent college graduate living with my parents so my expenses are low month to month.

I have one year of data analysts experience before I was laid off and return to my current job now. I spend my time off working on projects and applying. I’m worried if there’s such a thing as “career gap” where if I spend x amount of time working at this restaurant, my years worth of DA experience becomes irrelevant to recruiters. I’m hoping the projects I work on acts as credibility that I still am capable of the job.

Has anyone been in a similar experience? Do recruiters see career gaps as a bad thing?

I am graduating this year with a computer science BS with a minor in data science. I have one year of professional experience working as a data analyst, and another year interning as IT support. I don't want to pursue a masters in data science and although I enjoyed IT I have had no luck in lining up a job in either fields after graduation.

I am considering pursuing a CPA with an ISC discipline, but I am worried that I might put all this work into getting the extra credits I need (24) plus passing the exams and then end up being stalled from getting my CPA because I won't be able to find proper work experience. I fear my lack of experience in accounting would prevent me from getting many interviews. I have been told that passing the AUD and or FAR before applying would boost my resume, but I am unsure.

Is my plan to pivot dumb? Anyone who did not go the traditional college pipeline, how did you get your work experience for your CPA?

I go on LinkedIn everyday to scroll my feed (I'm really just keeping an eye open on certain companies I want to apply to). Everyday I come across someone in my network posting what is obviously an AI generated post. The typical story about the job market or how the hiring process is not fair or whatever.

I'm not hating on the game, I know how hard it is out there. Just genuinely curious, has posting daily AI generated content ever work for anyone? I feel like you would have a better chance posting personal project progression than AI text slop.

I’ll be graduating college later this month and will be moving back to NJ to live with my parents as most broke college grads do. I’ve applied to a few NJ gov openings that opened up this past week from the following departments: DOC, BPU, DOA, and DOT. I know under Murphy there was a hiring freeze. Was wondering if anything has changed since Sherrill took office. I’ve seen back in February she wants to speed up hiring by making the process have to go through less approvals but have not been able to find any follow up on that news. Anyone have recent experience in the hiring process? For those who have been through the process and or have received an offer, how long did it take you and for which department(s)?

Side note, many openings I’ve applied to within these departments required me to submit my credentials to a njgov email responsible for recruiting. I found it kind of shocking to me. Idk, seems like an old, less efficient way to handle applications.