Easy questions have easy answers, right?
No I can’t. I signed an NDA.
I tried to get the US-Citizenship. But then came the Macarena…
If i have to explain the gap (which clearly means I was not employed), it means you are incompetent, you fail my interview, I don’t work with incompetent bosses.
My resume has a bigger gap than goatse
I spent some time in a mountain cave replica in a Nepalese themed restaurant, diligently honing my programming skills without the noise of the outside world. No internet, no mains, no toilet. Just me, my laptop, an angry manager who called the police and 60 charged replacement batteries that fell off a truck.
There I created the art of meditative programming where I learned to program not just my machine, but myself. As a result of this resume gap I am now able to function as a 13.6% more productive employee and have finally met the benchmark of 1.0x engineer. At my former employer I delivered a project which brought them in revenue totaling at least $12, giving me priceless experience because of this training.
“I was consulting.”
It’s true, I was giving out advice left and right.
It was my sabbatical, and be really smug when you say it, like I’m better than you.
Online and on video games.
Me: “I was moving in silence or under a NDA.”
That’s too much info. A simple “I can” answers their question.
In Germany, just ask them what the gap between 1933 and 1945 in their company’s history is as a direct response.
I am not sure drawing a comparison between your unemployment and the reign of the Nazis is the best move
But if you get a rise out of them it’ll be perfect.
I got really into table tennis and lost track of time.
Those were the times I was taking time off to argue with the voices in my head that were telling me to kill again.
Did you win the argument?
For like 3 months out of the 2 year gap, yeah
Yes. I created the document in Google docs, and you opened it in Word.
That’s why you should provide PDF of you resume.
Nah just give them the
.texsource and let them deal with it.
I created it in Word and opened it in Teams by accident once.
Teams embedded Office is the worst. Like, can you not, and would it hurt to be ⅔ less bloated by doing so?
I always put in “traveling overseas”
In my case this is actually true, but I’ve never had anyone question me taking 12 months off every few years
Oh. I’m bookmarking this. Great idea.
Will this actually work?
Not even remotely.
It depends on the context if you say you had an NDA and can’t elaborate at all on the details that’s a clear red flag as most NDAs you can at least give the context of what it is about I.e. specific job processes, witnesses an event, etc.
If you say you worked for X company but can’t talk about the details of your work because of an NDA then that’s fine but they might call your old employer to verify you did really work there.
For the most part, yes. They only really ask the question because they automatically assume you were in jail if you have a gap over 2’ish weeks long. So they’re really just looking for some sort of explanation besides “I was just unemployed for no reason.” Because they assume “no reason” is really “I don’t want to admit that I was in jail.”
2 weeks is barely enough to get an interview. Who thinks jail? lmao
I give 'em the old “caring for a sick or dying family member.” Look sad that they brought it up. That usually shuts them up.
I believe this is the best answer.
Lol who tf actually thinks that. Ive hired and never thought that
Man, you must live a privileged life if it didn’t even cross your mind that jobs might exist where that is a legitimate concern.
What if a small gap on their resume means jail?? What the fuck are you on about
Chill dude. I’m saying that there are jobs that employ pp
yeah thats a wild assumption, maybe ppl just have enough money to survive for a while and dont want to work while they pursue hobbies, why is that not allowed, nah mustve been in jail
maybe ppl just have enough money to survive for a while and dont want to work while they pursue hobbies
The issue is that this is exactly what employers are trying to avoid. They want a good little worker bee who will show up every day and complete their tasks as assigned for 25 years straight. They don’t want someone who will just randomly decide to quit and focus on their hobbies. They want stability and predictability, because hiring new workers is a massive expense.
Because ppl expect/get more benefits and pay overtime
I thought it was worse to retain ppl long term and thats why they are constsntly firing ppl?
It’s almost never actually a good business decision in the long-term to lose an employee, unless that employee is actually causing losses. All the layoffs of the past 50ish years from corporate downsizing is thanks to the business philosophy of Jack Welch. When you stop paying a large group of people, it looks good in the next quarterly meeting because you can point at the money you’re saving. The bad part is that now the business A) has lost that productivity, and B) will likely need to spend more money hiring a replacement worker who won’t be as competent.
I also just think it’s human nature to see something like 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10 and say “where are 8nand 9?” It’s not necessarily an accusation or something. I’m not saying that never happens, some places and interviewers are awful. But I think a lot of people are just making sure there isn’t a typo or something.
I had a 6 month gap and I said I was taking a sabbatical (which was the truth). No one batted an eye.
Wouldn’t any criminal record be public record? Couldn’t they just look it up?
You can have criminal records sealed, depending on what it is, etc.
Also, in many jurisdictions you can’t look up criminal history older than a certain number of years
No NDA on earth prohibits giving a vague idea of what the duties and industry were. You may not be able to say the specific projects you worked on, or maybe even the name of the employer under extreme circumstances, but that would be like MI5 level rare, and those folks aren’t out applying for the jobs you are.
The real trick is having an LLC so you can just point to that and say you were consulting or self-employed during that time. Or have a friend with one.
A buddy of mine had an LLC and I hired him to write my cover letter. He then had me fill some review about my experience with his company for some position he was applying for. I never lied, but the whole thing just felt so weird. But at the same time, that’s just normal. It’s not like he wasn’t capable of the work or something. He did a good job on my cover letter. He was a good grant writer before that. I just have that lingering Christian guilt that’s like “omg you’re doing something wrong! This is your conscience! Behave!”
I can’t tell you, I signed an NDA
An idiot asked me that once when I had just finished my masters. Like did you read my resume?
I think they do that to:
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Judge your reaction to being asked stupid questions.
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Check that you know what’s written on your CV, to see if you’re lying on it or something?
C) Because someone else chose the candidates for interview.
Based on the context and my own personal experience as a person who has interviewed hundreds as a hiring manager --not syaing I do this, just that I understand-- they said “HEY FRANK WE NEED YOU TO SIT IN THIS INTERVIEW IN 30 MINUTES. K THANKS” and Frank showed up and tried to pretend that he knew what was going on.
Sounds about right, I’ve had interviews where the boss has forgotten.
Granted it was just bar work, still pretty funny to see the dawning of realisation spread across their face.
Also these first impression moments are good because you can predict how they would treat you if you worked there. I walked away super annoyed and didn’t care that I didn’t get called back in. I was way overqualified for the position but was also desperate for one since I had just moved back to the country and needed to sponsor my spouse for residency.
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