[5.5 years, Backend Engineer, Interested in platform, system-adjacent roles, South Asia]

There are career gaps in my resume (recent to oldest)

– [~4 months] [Jun '26 – present] – recovery after burnout (difficult workplace, unsustainable AI usage). Rested for a month. Then started a side-project and interview prep.

– [2 years] [Sep '23 – Oct '25] – Started with getting laid off, followed by a long stretch of unemployment, few failed interviews, high volume of resume not being shortlisted. Spent time mostly learning stuff, doing side-projects. Contracted at a small startup for 4 months after which I ended it as it wasn't the right place for me.

– [5 months] [Sep '21 – Jan '22] – Intentional. Spent time upskilling, and working on a side-project which landed me my next job.

I'm more interested to work on platform roles, or systems-adjacent roles (don't have all the raw skills to be a systems engineer as of today). One (among many) concern is, my last-to-last role is where I did platform work and that is 3 years ago. So at this stage, my resume sends out mixed signals about what I do, what I want, what I specialise in. The depth is lacking.

I have had a hard time getting callbacks before – which I guess is due to the career gaps. Just need to make sure that the resume does its job well this time. It has been a week since I started applying.

Looking for your feedback and suggestions.

Thanks community.