Gap in bachelors and start of employment

[master_aspirant]

Hi All,

There's the gap of 3 years after my bachelors degree in electronics engineering and the start of my employment. In that time, I enrolled for one 3 month online course and did my preparation for the CAT(MBA entrance exam) and appeared for many banking exams. This was the 2012-2015 duration. After this, I have continuous employment with one intermittent gap of no more than 3 months when I switched the job. One of our family friend has his own company with employee strength of 20-30 and deals in the electrical systems. During 2012-2015 , I have also helped them voluntarily in development of the new product line. He has agreed to provide me the experience letter for duration(2013-2015) but wont have any salary slips etc.

I have received the admit for the masters degree for winter term and will be applying for the study visa soon. Will that be fine to use that experience letter in my study visa application or should I just mention that I was preparing for the competitive exams only for that duration. From 2015- present, I have the experience letter and salary slips from all the employers and the joining letter and salary slips from the recent employer where I am working for 3 years.

Really appreciate the suggestions here. Thanks

 

[primaprime]

You can do that, but your main goal should be to explain why a Canadian master's will improve your career prospects in your home country.

 

[master_aspirant]

Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, certainly I will address all that and will be the main focus in the application. The reason for the question was while explaining the background and things I have done from bachelors to present, can I say the I have worked in company from 2013-2015 and support that with the experience letter. I was concerned if it by any chance comes under misrepresentation.

Is there any advantage I get out of covering the gap with the experience letter rather than saying I prepared for the competitive exams. Do they care about the employment history that old or just the present employment and your studies. Please advise. Thanks

 

[master_aspirant]

@tapperb @canuck78 , can you please provide your inputs too here. Thanks

 

[Impatient Dankaroo]

@tapperb @canuck78 , can you please provide your inputs too here. Thanks

3 years is an extremely long time to be prepping for an exam. I would include both your volunteer experience as well as you prepping for the exam in your SOP. However, that begs the question about what happened after prepping for the exam. Did you do an MBA? If not, why not? Was your volunteer experience linked to what you did after?

Master's degrees generally face less scrutiny than other degrees, however, it might be be good to make sure to address the points mentioned above just in case.