I am 28Y Male, Joined MNC in 2022 as ASE and was in the organisation till 2024 during my tenure I was assigned a pre recorded sessions training regarding, Java, Spring Boot, Microservices etc. which lasted for more than 1 year, one of my senior gone through this so called training for around 1.5 years from his DOJ, but luckily after the training he got a project after so much of thousand time asking for project from manager. After my training completion, they conducted a technical test which I cleared and my manager told me now I will get a chance to work on project as I cleared the test, which never happened.

After sometime I started asking for project from my manager & from my delivery manager. Both use to tell me you have to wait and all. After sometime they moved me officially to bench which lasted for 6 months with no salary. For 6 months during this time I didn't get a chance to work on a project and then I had to resign being 6 months on bench.

I started looking for opportunities with whatever experience I had with me, but as I didn't have past 6 months salary slips, nobody was ready to hire. I kept trying trying.. After sometime I lost hope and got stuck with some personal affairs, was mentally so tired with things happening around me, I was not able to focus on my career, Life kept challenging me one thing after another.

It led 2+ years to overcome with things happened to me in my personal life. Sometimes, I still gets traumatised but doing well so far.

Now I am trying so hard to make comeback after 2+ years of gap and all. Preparing theory, building projects etc. But looking at the current market situation, I am getting into depression, losing hope yet trying and trying.

I am so confused that, Either I should focus on my current tech stack or shall I work on projects or should I learn AI first.

Sometimes it is so frustrating and demotivating, I just can't understand what is happening with me or how will I end up. I can't tell anybody what is going on with me, everyone is busy in there own stuff.

Feels like I wasted my life and now nobody will give me a chance.

I just want to work.

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I worked as an Associate Software Engineer (Java) from 2022–2024. During the first year I underwent company training and later cleared an internal technical assessment. Unfortunately I wasn't allocated to a project and eventually resigned after an extended bench period.

Due to family caregiving responsibilities, I then took a career break of over two years. I'm now ready to return to software development and have been applying for Java backend, fresher, and internship roles, but I'm getting very few interview calls.

I would appreciate advice on:

* How should I present this gap on my resume?

* Should I apply as a fresher or experienced Java developer?

* What skills or projects would make me more competitive in today's market?