Deborah Meyer ⋅ Columbus, OH Anthem, Inc. ⋅ 35 years experience

Shane: Another option is after most recent employment include sentence, Reason for leaving: Opportunity to focus 100% on college education for xx time, to advance professional career.

Shane Snyder ⋅ Fallbrook, CA U.S. Marine Corps, Gunnery Sergeant ⋅ 17 years served

Thank you to all who have replied. I now have a better idea of how to approach this and will return my resume to it's previous format. Yes, I started to reformat my resume and then thought it would be best if I asked before going any further. I hope you all have a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year...Thank you!

Amy Coty ⋅ Berkeley, CA The Berkeley School ⋅ 20 years experience

Hi Shane-

The cover letter ought to indirectly explain your "official" employment lapse. "I've been completing my....for the past...." and leave it there. Don't dwell on it. OWN it. It's a strategic approach and all yours. That's attractive!

Jake Brown ⋅ Montclair, NJ U.S. Army, Captain ⋅ 5 years served

Don't put education as experience. Education is listed in a resume in one section, experience in another. Each goes chronologically. When in school, people often list education first, followed by experience. People who are working list experience, then education. When employers see a gap in experience, they (should) check the other section to see if you were in school at the time.

For current education, you can't show your graduation date or degree, but you can show something like "B.A. anticipated in May 2016". And list your GPA and societies. If you've got it, flaunt it.

You can use a cover letter to help explain why you are focusing on school now.

Seth Lynch ⋅ Plano, TX Hewlett Packard ⋅ 15 years experience

Shane,

While school is experience, it is not a job so don't treat it that way.

If you want to keep a chronological resume, list your last job as your most recent position then just above that, have a statement that says you are currently a full time student with xxxxx major, and any key achievements.

If the jobs you plan to look for after leaving school are closely associated with your major, that will show your focus on the education you are receiving.

Drew has a very good recommendation. To land a good set of interviews use your college's career services center or a military JMO/ Sr NCO recruiter.

Sid Raza ⋅ Ann Arbor, MI Self Employed ⋅ 15 years experience

Shane, I would not list current school info under current position information. It can be misleading and mischaracterized. One way to combat your unemployment (since you are a student now) line on the resume is to get a volunteer position in that field serving for a few hours per week. We are talking 3-4 hrs a week here. That can serve as a filler and gives you something new to talk about prior to finishing up the degree. If you can share your resume in MS Word format, I will be glad to look at it and send some suggestions that may potentially help you.

Drew Schildwächter ⋅ Wilmington, NC Salesforce ⋅ 8 years experience

Shane: the trick is how to convey that effectively to your audience. You have two issues that I see: how appealing is your résumé and how well can you explain your informed decision to go back to school in an interview. I believe you need to begin by answering the second question and work backward. I can't answer that second question for you, but I can give you some food for thought on the first question.

You can sidestep the first issue potentially by using your school's career services or using a military recruitment company to guarantee an interview. Still, it's a question you need to answer eventually and the résumé question hinges upon how best you can control the narrative before you talk to an employer in person. If you list school only under education then that burden falls to your networking and your conversations prior to the interview; you risk not getting that interview if the employer doesn't give you the chance to explain yourself.

If you are going to include school as an employer then you need to effectively begin your narrative on the résumé. You need to have bullets with serious impact because, you're right, they may not care about your GPA. (e.g. being in an honor society is not remarkable, but if you were one of 1% of students selected from your program or if you led the organization and made measurable improvements.... that might be a horse of a different color.)

Alternatively, you could write a functional résumé and try to avoid the question, but that might provoke the question as much as the time gap might - plus you might look as if you're hiding something. It is a risk also because there is definitely a segment of the hiring population that doesn't like functional résumés.

I hope that all helps. Best of luck, Marine.