Should I add my job to my resume if I was sexually assaulted there?

I'm so sorry that you have had this experience; I went through something similar, so I can tell you about my experience.

From my experience, I do include that job on my resume. I wear it as a badge of honor; I made it through, and I am stronger because of it. I did good work while I was there, and I refuse to let someone else take that away from me. I too have gaps on my resume, and hiring managers do ask me about the gaps. I have no problem explaining that I went through something personal; usually the hiring manager does not push that question further.

I also am a hiring manager, and when there are candidates that I speak with who have gaps on their resume, I ask about those gaps as well. I have candidates who also will tell me that they went through something personal, or that they needed to take time to be with family; I never question candidates further than that.

Take all of the time you need to recover from your situation. When you find the right hiring manager, there will be no judgement for taking a gap (particularly if you were taking classes during that time!)

If someone posed this question to me, I would wonder about their treatment process and state of recovery from such a traumatic incident. Hopefully, through counseling and other rehabilitative measures, one would be able to separate the work experience from the traumatic incident. Otherwise, there would be a gap that would be hard to explain, could cause omission of some meaningful work experience, and could cause further emotional trauma each time when faced with its explanation.

Tee,

I am so sorry you are having to deal with this! I hope you have received counseling, and, I hope you continue to receive counseling, as needed. This is not the type of situation that can be easily dealt with. It will continue to resurface from time to time in your life, and you need someone available to you who can help you through those moments. It's not something someone ever "gets over."

I'd like to point out that many jobs use on-line application forms, which require you to list "all" work history for a specified period of time. An omission is a lie. You need to be able to rely on those months of work experience. You do not need to go into detail as to what happened. But you should be able to say, without emotion, "the business was targeted for a violent crime. I was not able to return to that job. I sought counseling, and am doing okay now, but I'd really prefer to not re-live that moment." I don't think anyone would push past that boundary and want more information, unless you were going through a background check for a position such as law enforcement or one that required a psychological exam.

While you may feel all alone in this situation, other people also have to address how to deal with previous employers they'd really prefer not to talk about. I work with many job seekers who have been fired. They were good employees for many years, and then suddenly get terminated. When I ask them "Why were you fired?" they either explode in anger or break down in tears, or both. I am not any kind of a licensed counselor, but I do my best to help them through this stage. Physical activity prior to the interview usually helps - running, kickboxing, etc. It is important to release the stress, rather than keep it bottled up.

Saying that you were "in school" is still an omission of work experience. If they look at your transcript, it will probably show that you took one or two classes, so that will raise questions. It's really better to not be deceptive and have to deal with consequences. You can do this!

Kim