Balancing family, career gap & job search - need your guidance!

Hey everyone, I’m sharing this with the hope of getting some guidance and maybe a few leads.

I’ve been facing a 2-year career gap. It started with a medical emergency at home during November 2023 when I had to quit my job, and by the time things stabilized, the market turned rough. Because of the gap, my education loan EMIs are now falling on my parents, which has been really hard on them. On the personal side, my girlfriend and her family are waiting for me to get back into a stable role so we can plan our future together.

Before this break, I worked as a Software Engineer at Capgemini, mainly in QA automation, API testing, backend validation in the Capital Markets domain, having acquired 2.5 YOE there. I have experience in functional/automation/manual testing, worked with Selenium/Java, Postman, SQL, JIRA, ALM, etc. I’ve continued upskilling and doing freelance/side projects during the break to stay sharp.

I’m looking for advice on how to re-enter the industry after a gap, especially in QA automation, SDET tracks, or even potential React frontend roles, which I've learnt and built a personal project on. If anyone has openings, referrals, or even suggestions on how to position myself better, I’d be really grateful.

Thanks for reading. Any help means a lot.