I hire people where I work. Nothing fancy, just pest control, but I don't give a fuck. If you're licensed and seem decent as a human I'll give it a go. Worst case scenario is you suck, in which case you're fired pretty quickly on your own merit and I hire someone else. There are so many smaller companies out there in nearly every industry and they're ran by normal people with normal fucked up lives like most of us.
I've been fortunate to end up where I am and what I do but all my employees have fierce loyalty to me simply for being normal and treating them like maybe they're normal too and I hate seeing things like this because even these big corporate jobs are still being ran by people going home and having normal human problems. I don't understand why so many jobs have entry barriers that exclude shit like, "shit happens, sorry for being poor?"
Hope that makes sense. I'm rambling but I also had a shitty day with work and came home and drank. So fuck judgement.
Like Ive never said, when life gets you down, be optimistic. Not sure what kind of jokes you call funny or dark, but when I'm down I just figure I'll hang out near an elementary school. Odds it'll be over goes way up for me.
~sorry for the dark joke, just hope it made you laugh
I'm around 50 miles south of Nashville, lol. Spent 29? Years in Florida where I was born. If you want dark, wet, muddy or why can't I breath, it's what I know lol. But seriously do take care. If you want to vent, type me a dm and I'll promise you to read it and respond or never respond if you say, but sometimes a blather about B's is good. Rather you send it to me than if you actually get drunk and send it to your sibling, lol. I'll respond, or just end or start with don't respond, and I'll read . *Promise
I'll take you up on that. Much appreciated. I'm about to fall asleep but it won't be my last shit day I'm sure! I grew up in Dallas and Oklahoma, so I know kinda how you feel lol. These days I'm in California, and despite the difficulty level of basic survival, I love it here. Lots of natural beauty and all that, but honestly anywhere you go it's still the same bullshit mostly. I appreciate the empathy, I really do. Honestly, I'll probably send you random messages occasionally just to get it out. Feel free to do the same, please. Seriously, thanks.
Thanks, please do. If I have to I'll ramble about some shit about blowing up a bottle of homemade wine or something and making the kitchen ceiling peppered lol. I didn't even do that in my really dark days of drinking, I just was making a few bottles for fun and the sugar apparently got around the rim snd "sealed it". Which normally you let it breathe while covering it for no bacteria going in. Exploded worse than the videos of mentos in diet coke. Coated the ceiling walls everything I was wearing for about 8 feet in EVERY direction. I still haven't figured out how to clean the ceiling other than painting it. Lol.
Seriously, just blather when you need. No judgement and I'll either tell you something I've done or input if you want
I have had to do a decent amount of hiring over the years for my own corner the corporate meat grinder. I personally don't care about a gap unless the gap is too big. A big gap allows for a lot of rust to build, so it becomes a bit of a calculation of how much rust needs to get knocked off and if it's fine for this position if it takes longer to get productive. If they're still pretty sharp then the gap is no issue, and if they're really rusty then that can be a problem depending.
I interviewed a guy not long ago with a 3-year gap. No fault of his own, the economy sucks, so I didn't hold it against him. But despite knowing there was a technical interview coming up and knowing what skills we were looking for, the dude didn't put any effort into studying before my interview and he bombed pretty darn hard. Which is a shame because on paper he would've been an amazing candidate otherwise.
Anyways all of that is to say that sometimes a gap brings other stuff too, so a gap to me is a sign to look for that other stuff.
How do you like pest control? I’m not looking for a career change right now (just got a new job recently that I actually don’t completely hate yet), but it’s something I’ve considered in the past. Seems interesting.
I love it. Lots of freedom in this job. On your own all day. Wake up, get in truck, do jobs, go home. Plus people seem to really appreciate it and that's nice. Nowadays though I'm a manager so now I mostly sit at home or at the office doing stuff on a computer but being a tech was always a great job to me.
My answers to "Would you explain this gap in your resume?":
Relevancy: "I only included relevant experience on the copy of my resume that you received." Hiking experience isn't relevant. Couch experience isn't relevant. Time spent as the forgotten pawn in the machinations of capitalism isn't relevant.
Privacy: "I am not required to disclose medical information, and will not be discussing this matter any further."
Lemon is right...but not because they have medical problems. I'm left as hell but I'd get so annoyed if an interview candidate snapped back like that. I'd think "this person is going to escalate any minor inconvenience"
It depends, I know people that would be glad to help on the work but will not tolerate out of work pondering. Gaps on the résumé are sort of more of the latter, imo
You know what I do when someone casually asks me a question I don't want to answer? I keep it vague and give them a chance to pick up the hint. I don't give them a stone cold "I'm not going to answer that." like a defensive weirdo.
Feels like a lot of people in this thread don't realize an interview is a conversation. Or they just don't know how to have a conversation...
Seems like they think conversations involve certain spells and invocations to force it to go the way they want. Like if you have a legal right, you must aggressively invoke it so your opponent realizes you're a legal mastermind and hands you the job to avoid lawsuits.
Feels kinda like that advice for interacting with cops that sounded more like "how to be legally right while escalating interactions with the police". Or the sovereign citizen version that drops the "legally right" part entirely.
It ignores the reality that anyone can judge you for any reason and that it's practically impossible to prove or even know why they reject you after an interview, so it doesn't even matter if they did it for an illegal reason as long as they didn't outright tell you (or each other in writing if you do try to sue, which btw if you sue someone over how a job interview goes, few will want to even interview you if they know about it, even if you're completely in the right).
Yeah, a much more normal way to say that is “I was dealing with a medical condition. It’s no longer an issue, but it’s a bit personal, so I’d prefer if we didn’t get into more than that.”
I mean, you asking to explain my medical history is lawsuit vibes.
"I didn't know this gap was for medical reasons" Why the fuck are you asking about a gap in my work history in the first place? What I did 5 years ago is irrelevant to this interview today.
It's so weird to draw weapons in response to that. Do you really always assume the absolute worst intent when someone asks open-ended questions? If so, it's hard to feel bad for you. You are one of the worst kinds of coworkers to have.
"Hey tocopherol, do anything fun this weekend?"
"How I spend my weekends is none of your business and I'm offended that you even though asking was appropriate!"
It's the same type of person ready to pick a fight over any perceived transgression. They pick stupid fights with their managers and make it a worse place to work for everyone.
What are you talking about? You're the one assuming the worst and being weird by not respecting a simple request in an interview! You just told me you assume they are going to escalate minor inconveniences because they requested basic respect.
Throwing a boilerplate legal defense in response to a question that's most likely being asked casually is a total tone shift. No one's going to think, "wow, this person really knows their rights!"
It almost makes you sound guilty of something. Preemptively defensive when you haven't been pressed in the slightest
I didn't assume it had to be stated like a legal disclaimer, whatever kind of response a person makes it's good to match the interviewers tone. I agree with you that you don't want to come off confrontational, I didn't read it that way.
Lots of people don't struggle to find jobs. Maybe you could take 5min to reflect on why some people would call this "snapping back", rather than post a snarky comment.
Yeah it's much better to begin with a more polite "It was medical in nature and I'd prefer not to discuss it." And only pull out the "hey, legally you can't ask about my medical issues" if they continue.
Another good one is to mention there being health issues in the family that necessitated you take time to help them with.
Only a very nosy employer will question that further. If they give you grief for helping your loved ones in such a situation, they probably aren't worth working for
I am not required to disclose medical information, and will not be discussing this matter any further.
Why the combative/legalese tone though? Why not just say "It was for medical reasons, I don't want to go into it" like a normal person? The interviewer would go "Oh ok fair enough" instead of thinking "What's wrong with this guy, did he get out bed with his left foot today?"
Second best is "independent researcher." Make up the metrics. You produced numerous 20,000 word reports for a small group of peers? Great, I have also barfed up a wall of text at reddit.
The NDA trick no longer works, employers caught onto this, and now they have a secret "We employed these people under NDA" list to verify it, and the worst ones don't upload it there to punish those who dare to leave
No, this could work in a way that all companies just submit names to the same list, and if someone says NDA they check the list.
Problem with this is that small companies or companies from other countries won't give a shit or won't be allowed to even submit anything. Of course, you could say small companies don't use NDA, but that is not true and defeats the purpose really
It's not that they keep a list of who was employed under NDA, it's that [the fact that you worked here] isn't what's actually under NDA, it's the actual project you were a part of.
NDAs just aren't the blanket defense people think they are.
The NDA can include the whole employment, otherwise, if you were employed for a specific time when a project happened to be run, you can be connected to the project
Employers like you to be desperate, so demonstrating that you can afford (whether through finances, friends, or foraging) to not work for a long stretch of time indicates that you won’t be negotiating with them from a position of dependency.
It also suggests you might be willing to walk away from an incompatible work situation, whether due to workplace toxicity or your own outside priorities, which can be scary to the person you'll be reporting to.
I fully hear that, but I'd argue it depends on the position you're interviewing for, as this can show competence. If the gig is management or involves handling the cash flow, taking a year to do you on savings should be an attribute. Whereas someone working check to check and dealing with stacks of cash would likely increase the risk a bigger business would associate with you vs someone who's dialed in financially.
Yeah, that’s absolutely fair. Even though it’s still the correct terminology, I don’t really think of (upper) management as having an employer-employee relationship with their company, so it didn’t occur to me to draw that distinction. I also didn’t think of people handling the books, but that also makes sense.
On the other hand, I worked for a company at which I started in the call center and moved to adjusting litigated claims. They gave me a credit card with a $5k limit and no use alert while I was still technically earning $15/hour and within two months of that, I was authorized to sign off on checks for up to $100k. I didn’t want them to think I was sketchy, so I didn’t push back too much, but I was always astounded that they trusted me (and several new hires at the company) so much so quickly.
Of course, $5k was peanuts and $100k was still not a big deal for the company, I’m sure they had a much different selection process for people who were handling the seven and eight figure payments.
Some recruiters are not so great at judging people. Instead they come up with rules and red flags to justify their choice, or worse, get inspiration from other recruiters on LinkedIn.
What's more, job interviews are poor predictors of job performance, so even those who are experienced with judging people in higher context settings are not so great at judging people.
I've been working in transportation and logistics first as a forklift operator, and now work as a local truck driver for nearly 15 years.
As much as I can find the job a little overwhelming at times, I appreciate that every interview I've had I just show up not looking like I fell out of a dumpster and let my actual skill determine whether I'm hired or not. The time spent on a forklift showing them my skills, or a drive test behind the wheel is my interview.
In 15 years, I've never been fired, left every job for something better, and never been turned down a position once in this current career path.
You're being hired to do a job. Why are so many ignorant and inept interviewers hiring someone who may or may not know how to do the job, or do it well?
If I'm hiring a bartender, I'm asking them to make me a couple drinks. If I'm hiring a custodian, show me how well you mop. I'm hiring a programmer, write me something. Every job is doing something. More interviews should involve the actual 'doing' part, not asking benign questions all the time.
Some jobs require things that are hard to do on the spot, like product manager who should be in the loop and take care of where development moves, or project manager who should make said development actually happen.
The skills can be sort of checked by presenting a problem and asking how they would solve it, but the more abstract the skill required is, the more can the difference between reality and interview be, in my opinion
I’ve successfully labeled a period of “being laid off and playing a lot of video games until my bank account got to the area I didn’t like it to be” as a sabbatical.
I have a "mental health break" line in my resume for a 4 month hiatus. I don't know if it's a flex or not, but it's honest about what it is. At some point, a potential employer asked about it with some stern reservation, which allowed me to avoid a toxic workplace culture. Win win.
NDAs are almost never all-encompassing. It may not even be legal. Usually an NDA is something like "I worked for [defense contractor] for three years as a mechanical engineer. I can't tell you about the projects I worked on, but I can elaborate on my responsibilities."
Unless they want your fingerprints, they probably aren't going to check your tax history and that is how they'd find out you lied. If you worked somewhere, you'd have been paid and that means taxes. Some US states protect your tax info from background checks, but not all.
so far, most haven't cared. there was one recruiter really caught up on it, but that call had at least 3 major red flags, so I wasn't too worried. I think next time I'll ask them why they haven't taken one themselves?
If you have enough financial security to be able to not work for a year, then the company may not want to hire you. Ideally it needs you to depend on it for everything, because this ensures you'll be a well-behaved slave for an extended period of time.
"some of your other, lesser applicants needed to 'work' to 'pay bills'. me, I'm a leader, I don't work for anyone. I inspire, I drive those beneath me to further productivity, raise profit margins, and fire those I don't like just shy of the one-year probation deadline. I don't need this company, this company needs me."
dramatic pause
"$250k, 6 months paid vacation, and a company car. Actually, you seem like a good guy, I'll take just 5 months and 3 weeks instead, just for you."
You see a lot of people who hire want individuals who live to work: workaholics. Those are the kinds of people you can get the most value from.
They don't care that these people exploit themselves and hurt their families in the process. These are the ones they want; therefore, those are the kinds of people we have to masquerade as.
70% of Lottery Winners go broke within 5 years. Something to do with the fact that managing money long-term and playing the lotto until you win are often incongruent skills.
Whether you did a good job or not, you can still list your work experience there. They cannot legally contact former employers about you without your permission.
Right, so leaving off what you did is a risk. And most people don't know this, but the hiring process is all about making sure they're not hiring a bad candidate, more than trying to find the best candidate.
You should put whatever you did right there on your resume so they don't have to guess. Even if it's "stay at home husband"
I interviewed for one place where they asked about a “gap” (and yeah my resume is just full of gaps due to mostly working contracts, so oh well I’m used to those conversations). The one they were asking about was literally while I was in school, getting my degree. So I told her as much, thinking that would be the end of it per usual.
But no, she followed up with “right, but didn’t you have a job while you were in college? Didn’t you DO anything?”
Bitch, college WAS my fucking job, I took it seriously so I could graduate my STEM program with honors (as an unmedicated AuDHD). I was attending classes year-round, lived very frugally, and had GI Bill to cover it, so why would I work?
She continued to press it after I gave her the interview-appropriate version of the paragraph above, I have no idea why. I concluded the interview with something like “I don’t want to work for a company that cares this much that I didn’t have a job when I was going to school full time, didn’t need one, and wanted to focus on furthering my career. Good luck finding someone with no self-respect, since that’s what you seem to be looking for.”
What happened between jobs is none of anyone's business. Do a fucking background check and see if I was in jail or not. You have zero right to know what I do or don't do in my personal life.
My response: "I'm a software developer. Middle manager douchebags told me they don't need my services because they think they can code their apps themselves. Ain't my first rodeo. They'll beg us come back to maintain this shit."
'Entreprenuer' is just a way of saying unemployed to make rich assholes feel smug about it. Writing a resume is just recoding every event so its written correctly for rich assholes to feel smug.
People care. When on interview committees I've had to argue that gaps aren't relevant. Maybe it's someone with the ability to plan and save and they decided to take a year or ten off. Maybe their independently wealthy and is doing it for fun. They probably lost a job at a bad time, couldn't get hired for 8 months and then got fucked by a gap in their resume for another 18. Some of these gaps are even old. Like what do we care about three months fifteen years ago. Even if that's a job they got fired from right away it's olllld.
I'd guess that filling the gap with pretty much anything is better then leaving an actual gap. Maybe add a proof from police that you weren't in jail or something.
If a candidate shows me police proof they weren't in jail, I would be very suspicious: why did they do that? I would never even consider they were in jail, but now that they bring it up...
If you're applying to a job where there are a lot of applicants, they might be looking to filter out applicants quickly. The first pass might get rid of anybody with a gap in their resume, anybody who doesn't have a degree, anybody who doesn't live in the right city, etc.
I've actually done that a few times. It rarely comes up, but when it does, I just tell them the truth. I was traveling or just felt like taking some time off. As far as I can tell, it's never been a problem.
Now that I think about it, I'm kinda surprised people aren't more curious about it. No one's ever brought it up again even when I've worked with them for years after. On the other hand, I never remember anything work people tell me about their personal lives.
If you ever get the opportunity to take a year off work, you should probably do it because it is amazing.
I know this sounds like a flex, and it is, but don't worry; my life has been horrible for a long time and no amount of money can fix it.
Not sure. My first thought was that the flex is that they have the money to afford the time off, but I feel like that could hurt an interview because clearly the interviewee doesn't need to rely on the job. An interviewer might think they'll fuck off at any time again.
I hire people where I work. Nothing fancy, just pest control, but I don't give a fuck. If you're licensed and seem decent as a human I'll give it a go. Worst case scenario is you suck, in which case you're fired pretty quickly on your own merit and I hire someone else. There are so many smaller companies out there in nearly every industry and they're ran by normal people with normal fucked up lives like most of us.
I've been fortunate to end up where I am and what I do but all my employees have fierce loyalty to me simply for being normal and treating them like maybe they're normal too and I hate seeing things like this because even these big corporate jobs are still being ran by people going home and having normal human problems. I don't understand why so many jobs have entry barriers that exclude shit like, "shit happens, sorry for being poor?"
Hope that makes sense. I'm rambling but I also had a shitty day with work and came home and drank. So fuck judgement.
Hope your day/night gets better mate. Cheers
Cheers. Appreciate that. It'll be fine. Just the ebb and flow of life and whatnot.
Cheers, man. This, too, shall pass.
Like Ive never said, when life gets you down, be optimistic. Not sure what kind of jokes you call funny or dark, but when I'm down I just figure I'll hang out near an elementary school. Odds it'll be over goes way up for me.
~sorry for the dark joke, just hope it made you laugh
Oh man... I live in America so that joke is awful and makes me feel bad that I didn't think of it sooner.
I actually laughed at that. I shouldn't, but fortunately I graduated long before I wasn't physically able to.
Thanks
I'm around 50 miles south of Nashville, lol. Spent 29? Years in Florida where I was born. If you want dark, wet, muddy or why can't I breath, it's what I know lol. But seriously do take care. If you want to vent, type me a dm and I'll promise you to read it and respond or never respond if you say, but sometimes a blather about B's is good. Rather you send it to me than if you actually get drunk and send it to your sibling, lol. I'll respond, or just end or start with don't respond, and I'll read . *Promise
I'll take you up on that. Much appreciated. I'm about to fall asleep but it won't be my last shit day I'm sure! I grew up in Dallas and Oklahoma, so I know kinda how you feel lol. These days I'm in California, and despite the difficulty level of basic survival, I love it here. Lots of natural beauty and all that, but honestly anywhere you go it's still the same bullshit mostly. I appreciate the empathy, I really do. Honestly, I'll probably send you random messages occasionally just to get it out. Feel free to do the same, please. Seriously, thanks.
Thanks, please do. If I have to I'll ramble about some shit about blowing up a bottle of homemade wine or something and making the kitchen ceiling peppered lol. I didn't even do that in my really dark days of drinking, I just was making a few bottles for fun and the sugar apparently got around the rim snd "sealed it". Which normally you let it breathe while covering it for no bacteria going in. Exploded worse than the videos of mentos in diet coke. Coated the ceiling walls everything I was wearing for about 8 feet in EVERY direction. I still haven't figured out how to clean the ceiling other than painting it. Lol.
Seriously, just blather when you need. No judgement and I'll either tell you something I've done or input if you want
I have had to do a decent amount of hiring over the years for my own corner the corporate meat grinder. I personally don't care about a gap unless the gap is too big. A big gap allows for a lot of rust to build, so it becomes a bit of a calculation of how much rust needs to get knocked off and if it's fine for this position if it takes longer to get productive. If they're still pretty sharp then the gap is no issue, and if they're really rusty then that can be a problem depending.
I interviewed a guy not long ago with a 3-year gap. No fault of his own, the economy sucks, so I didn't hold it against him. But despite knowing there was a technical interview coming up and knowing what skills we were looking for, the dude didn't put any effort into studying before my interview and he bombed pretty darn hard. Which is a shame because on paper he would've been an amazing candidate otherwise.
Anyways all of that is to say that sometimes a gap brings other stuff too, so a gap to me is a sign to look for that other stuff.
How do you like pest control? I’m not looking for a career change right now (just got a new job recently that I actually don’t completely hate yet), but it’s something I’ve considered in the past. Seems interesting.
I love it. Lots of freedom in this job. On your own all day. Wake up, get in truck, do jobs, go home. Plus people seem to really appreciate it and that's nice. Nowadays though I'm a manager so now I mostly sit at home or at the office doing stuff on a computer but being a tech was always a great job to me.
Sounds quite nice honestly. Thanks for sharing, I’ll look into it some more.
My answers to "Would you explain this gap in your resume?":
No2 will make any interviewer exclude you as they don't want to hire a "lemon"
Lemon is right...but not because they have medical problems. I'm left as hell but I'd get so annoyed if an interview candidate snapped back like that. I'd think "this person is going to escalate any minor inconvenience"
It's because they have boundaries.
No, it's because of how they choose to respond to a tiny bit of friction.
They're the type of person who wouldn't take 2 minutes to help you with something that's not explicitly outlined in their job description.
Yeah.
Boundaries.
A completely inflexible person.
Someone who isn't willing to be taken advantage of.
Acting their wage.
It depends, I know people that would be glad to help on the work but will not tolerate out of work pondering. Gaps on the résumé are sort of more of the latter, imo
You know what I do when someone casually asks me a question I don't want to answer? I keep it vague and give them a chance to pick up the hint. I don't give them a stone cold "I'm not going to answer that." like a defensive weirdo.
Feels like a lot of people in this thread don't realize an interview is a conversation. Or they just don't know how to have a conversation...
Seems like they think conversations involve certain spells and invocations to force it to go the way they want. Like if you have a legal right, you must aggressively invoke it so your opponent realizes you're a legal mastermind and hands you the job to avoid lawsuits.
Feels kinda like that advice for interacting with cops that sounded more like "how to be legally right while escalating interactions with the police". Or the sovereign citizen version that drops the "legally right" part entirely.
It ignores the reality that anyone can judge you for any reason and that it's practically impossible to prove or even know why they reject you after an interview, so it doesn't even matter if they did it for an illegal reason as long as they didn't outright tell you (or each other in writing if you do try to sue, which btw if you sue someone over how a job interview goes, few will want to even interview you if they know about it, even if you're completely in the right).
Its a conversation that determines whether you can collect enough credits to have food and shelter. Defensiveness seems like a natural reaction, no?
I would hate to be interviewed by you, asking for respect of medical privacy is "snapping back"? No wonder it sucks so fucking much to find a new job.
Legalese style “I will not be discussing this matter any further” in an interview does give off future lawsuit vibes.
Yeah, a much more normal way to say that is “I was dealing with a medical condition. It’s no longer an issue, but it’s a bit personal, so I’d prefer if we didn’t get into more than that.”
I wouldn't even say that much. Any interviewer asking about a 'gap in my resume' is already coming off to me as a micromanaging cunt.
I mean, you asking to explain my medical history is lawsuit vibes.
"I didn't know this gap was for medical reasons" Why the fuck are you asking about a gap in my work history in the first place? What I did 5 years ago is irrelevant to this interview today.
It's so weird to draw weapons in response to that. Do you really always assume the absolute worst intent when someone asks open-ended questions? If so, it's hard to feel bad for you. You are one of the worst kinds of coworkers to have.
"Hey tocopherol, do anything fun this weekend?"
"How I spend my weekends is none of your business and I'm offended that you even though asking was appropriate!"
"Ok dude have fun sitting in your car at lunch"
A professional interview in which personal questions are being asked inappropriately is not even close to friendly banter between co-workers.
It's the same type of person ready to pick a fight over any perceived transgression. They pick stupid fights with their managers and make it a worse place to work for everyone.
What are you talking about? You're the one assuming the worst and being weird by not respecting a simple request in an interview! You just told me you assume they are going to escalate minor inconveniences because they requested basic respect.
Throwing a boilerplate legal defense in response to a question that's most likely being asked casually is a total tone shift. No one's going to think, "wow, this person really knows their rights!"
It almost makes you sound guilty of something. Preemptively defensive when you haven't been pressed in the slightest
I didn't assume it had to be stated like a legal disclaimer, whatever kind of response a person makes it's good to match the interviewers tone. I agree with you that you don't want to come off confrontational, I didn't read it that way.
Yeah, casually asking something on a job interview
Lots of people don't struggle to find jobs. Maybe you could take 5min to reflect on why some people would call this "snapping back", rather than post a snarky comment.
Yeah it's much better to begin with a more polite "It was medical in nature and I'd prefer not to discuss it." And only pull out the "hey, legally you can't ask about my medical issues" if they continue.
Thank you. You're one of the only people in my replies who gets what I'm saying lol
Other people are acting like the interviewer is demanding answers.
An interview works both ways. If that's how they consider humans, then you dodged a bullet.
Another good one is to mention there being health issues in the family that necessitated you take time to help them with.
Only a very nosy employer will question that further. If they give you grief for helping your loved ones in such a situation, they probably aren't worth working for
How have these answers been working out so far?
Pretty good so far. I haven't had a job that makes me wish for a workplace accident in years.
Why the combative/legalese tone though? Why not just say "It was for medical reasons, I don't want to go into it" like a normal person? The interviewer would go "Oh ok fair enough" instead of thinking "What's wrong with this guy, did he get out bed with his left foot today?"
I just tell them "personal commitments", and they don't pry any further, but maybe that only works for crappy minimum wage jobs.
"I'm sorry, I can't talk about that. I signed an NDA."
You can even create your own NDA to sign so it won't be a lie, if you care about that sort of thing.
First rule of signing your own NDA is you don't talk about signing your own NDA.
Signing an NDA with oneself sounds like fay trickery 🤣
This is the best answer by far.
Second best is "independent researcher." Make up the metrics. You produced numerous 20,000 word reports for a small group of peers? Great, I have also barfed up a wall of text at reddit.
Narrator: I didn't.
The NDA trick no longer works, employers caught onto this, and now they have a secret "We employed these people under NDA" list to verify it, and the worst ones don't upload it there to punish those who dare to leave
They signed an NDA so they can’t elaborate
I googled it. If you're under NDA for the company name how are they going to ask the company?
It's more like people have suggested it to me to avoid the NDA trick in the future.
I signed a non disclosure agreement about that period of time and am not at liberty to discuss it.
Well ZILtoid1991 said you have to tell us with who and we can ask them to use the secret non disclosure disclosure mechanism, who was the NDA with.
The counter party is covered under the terms of the NDA, I can’t disclose who they were either.
Checkmate
No, this could work in a way that all companies just submit names to the same list, and if someone says NDA they check the list.
Problem with this is that small companies or companies from other countries won't give a shit or won't be allowed to even submit anything. Of course, you could say small companies don't use NDA, but that is not true and defeats the purpose really
It's not that they keep a list of who was employed under NDA, it's that [the fact that you worked here] isn't what's actually under NDA, it's the actual project you were a part of.
NDAs just aren't the blanket defense people think they are.
The NDA can include the whole employment, otherwise, if you were employed for a specific time when a project happened to be run, you can be connected to the project
"I had to provide end of life care to a close relative" doesn't get followed up by a lot of questions.
Something you can only say if you get to the point where you get an interview.
Employers like you to be desperate, so demonstrating that you can afford (whether through finances, friends, or foraging) to not work for a long stretch of time indicates that you won’t be negotiating with them from a position of dependency.
It also suggests you might be willing to walk away from an incompatible work situation, whether due to workplace toxicity or your own outside priorities, which can be scary to the person you'll be reporting to.
I fully hear that, but I'd argue it depends on the position you're interviewing for, as this can show competence. If the gig is management or involves handling the cash flow, taking a year to do you on savings should be an attribute. Whereas someone working check to check and dealing with stacks of cash would likely increase the risk a bigger business would associate with you vs someone who's dialed in financially.
Yeah, that’s absolutely fair. Even though it’s still the correct terminology, I don’t really think of (upper) management as having an employer-employee relationship with their company, so it didn’t occur to me to draw that distinction. I also didn’t think of people handling the books, but that also makes sense.
On the other hand, I worked for a company at which I started in the call center and moved to adjusting litigated claims. They gave me a credit card with a $5k limit and no use alert while I was still technically earning $15/hour and within two months of that, I was authorized to sign off on checks for up to $100k. I didn’t want them to think I was sketchy, so I didn’t push back too much, but I was always astounded that they trusted me (and several new hires at the company) so much so quickly.
Of course, $5k was peanuts and $100k was still not a big deal for the company, I’m sure they had a much different selection process for people who were handling the seven and eight figure payments.
If you do call it a "sabbatical"
Works for people in academia
And industry. I work in IT and like 20% of people go on sabbatical after a decade working, sometimes to ponder a career change.
I just did one of these for 7 months over which I bought a ranch and went backpacking. Today I started new gig as a staff dev.
Sounds awesome, all the best for the new job!
A decade? Can I go on sabbatical after 2 years working?
You can go as much as you want almost, as long as you have money to sustain yourself...
Some recruiters are not so great at judging people. Instead they come up with rules and red flags to justify their choice, or worse, get inspiration from other recruiters on LinkedIn.
What's more, job interviews are poor predictors of job performance, so even those who are experienced with judging people in higher context settings are not so great at judging people.
I've been working in transportation and logistics first as a forklift operator, and now work as a local truck driver for nearly 15 years.
As much as I can find the job a little overwhelming at times, I appreciate that every interview I've had I just show up not looking like I fell out of a dumpster and let my actual skill determine whether I'm hired or not. The time spent on a forklift showing them my skills, or a drive test behind the wheel is my interview.
In 15 years, I've never been fired, left every job for something better, and never been turned down a position once in this current career path.
This wouldn't work for some jobs, but where it does a skill test does sound like a perfect interview. Glad you're doing well
Every interview should come with a skill test.
You're being hired to do a job. Why are so many ignorant and inept interviewers hiring someone who may or may not know how to do the job, or do it well?
If I'm hiring a bartender, I'm asking them to make me a couple drinks. If I'm hiring a custodian, show me how well you mop. I'm hiring a programmer, write me something. Every job is doing something. More interviews should involve the actual 'doing' part, not asking benign questions all the time.
Some jobs require things that are hard to do on the spot, like product manager who should be in the loop and take care of where development moves, or project manager who should make said development actually happen.
The skills can be sort of checked by presenting a problem and asking how they would solve it, but the more abstract the skill required is, the more can the difference between reality and interview be, in my opinion
I've interviewed enough to know that once the testable basic capabilities are covered, its just a speed date
I’ve successfully labeled a period of “being laid off and playing a lot of video games until my bank account got to the area I didn’t like it to be” as a sabbatical.
ymmv though
Sounds like a sabbatical to me.
I have a "mental health break" line in my resume for a 4 month hiatus. I don't know if it's a flex or not, but it's honest about what it is. At some point, a potential employer asked about it with some stern reservation, which allowed me to avoid a toxic workplace culture. Win win.
Oh fuck, that's an enjoyable response. Unless theres something they can check about that. I dont know enough about employment.
NDAs are almost never all-encompassing. It may not even be legal. Usually an NDA is something like "I worked for [defense contractor] for three years as a mechanical engineer. I can't tell you about the projects I worked on, but I can elaborate on my responsibilities."
Unless they want your fingerprints, they probably aren't going to check your tax history and that is how they'd find out you lied. If you worked somewhere, you'd have been paid and that means taxes. Some US states protect your tax info from background checks, but not all.
I have a small consultancy with several staff.
Couldn't care less about a gap on someone's resume.
I wouldn't ask but if someone told me they'd taken a year off to get stoned every day and watch judge judy that's not a deal breaker.
If anything, having enough cash saved up to live an entire year with no work, and buy that much weed, demonstrates strong financial management skills
I've done almost exactly that. Twas wonderful
Specifically only Judge Judy? Or other shows mixed about?
So much stupid tv. Many night walks getting stoned with audio books. Nursing beers at the pub occasionally. Had a nice garden that summer.
I learned I'd make an excellent trust fund baby! So if anyone wants to bequeath me a modest fortune, that'd be nice. Ty
Dear Abby,
I would like to be a House Cat.
so far, most haven't cared. there was one recruiter really caught up on it, but that call had at least 3 major red flags, so I wasn't too worried. I think next time I'll ask them why they haven't taken one themselves?
Oh yeah sir, that was my year as a porn star, you should have asked your wife about that
"oh, that's why mom mentioned you look familiar"
If you have enough financial security to be able to not work for a year, then the company may not want to hire you. Ideally it needs you to depend on it for everything, because this ensures you'll be a well-behaved slave for an extended period of time.
Yep. They want desperate people.
... but not too desperate; clients might be scared off if the parking lot is full of rusted out 90s econboxes...
"some of your other, lesser applicants needed to 'work' to 'pay bills'. me, I'm a leader, I don't work for anyone. I inspire, I drive those beneath me to further productivity, raise profit margins, and fire those I don't like just shy of the one-year probation deadline. I don't need this company, this company needs me."
dramatic pause
"$250k, 6 months paid vacation, and a company car. Actually, you seem like a good guy, I'll take just 5 months and 3 weeks instead, just for you."
Real straight shooter. Upper management written all over ya.
Michael Bolton?
Do you wear flip flops by chance?
You see a lot of people who hire want individuals who live to work: workaholics. Those are the kinds of people you can get the most value from.
They don't care that these people exploit themselves and hurt their families in the process. These are the ones they want; therefore, those are the kinds of people we have to masquerade as.
"I won the lotto and had the funds to not do shit for 3 years."
Damn, man blew all his money in 3 years
More common than you would think.
70% of Lottery Winners go broke within 5 years. Something to do with the fact that managing money long-term and playing the lotto until you win are often incongruent skills.
https://www.marca.com/en/lifestyle/world-news/2025/11/09/6910bd9e46163faf278b45b6.html
One must speak the language of the bourgeois to win his favor.
*taps sign*
"Took a sabbatical to learn [skill]"
If it is possible within your field, just say you've been freelancing.
Or say you took some time off to sharpen your skills.
Sharpening skills is still work, I wouldn't even say 'time off'.
Just say you took a year off to watch game shows and jerk off.
"I was sleeping."
"For a year?"
"Fuck has it been that long?!"
I was specifically called back to be asked about this. It felt so weird because in my country this is not a common question
"I enjoyed life for a bit, focused on hobbies, family and so should you"
They do. It could mean you were unable to find a job or hiding where you worked because you didn't do a good job
I love the “unable to find a job” one. Like, IT’S BECAUSE OF FUCKING GAP! HIRE ME, IDIOT!
Whether you did a good job or not, you can still list your work experience there. They cannot legally contact former employers about you without your permission.
Right, so leaving off what you did is a risk. And most people don't know this, but the hiring process is all about making sure they're not hiring a bad candidate, more than trying to find the best candidate.
You should put whatever you did right there on your resume so they don't have to guess. Even if it's "stay at home husband"
Mostly they just want to know you weren't in prison during the gap. Be prepared with an explanation
I interviewed for one place where they asked about a “gap” (and yeah my resume is just full of gaps due to mostly working contracts, so oh well I’m used to those conversations). The one they were asking about was literally while I was in school, getting my degree. So I told her as much, thinking that would be the end of it per usual.
But no, she followed up with “right, but didn’t you have a job while you were in college? Didn’t you DO anything?”
Bitch, college WAS my fucking job, I took it seriously so I could graduate my STEM program with honors (as an unmedicated AuDHD). I was attending classes year-round, lived very frugally, and had GI Bill to cover it, so why would I work?
She continued to press it after I gave her the interview-appropriate version of the paragraph above, I have no idea why. I concluded the interview with something like “I don’t want to work for a company that cares this much that I didn’t have a job when I was going to school full time, didn’t need one, and wanted to focus on furthering my career. Good luck finding someone with no self-respect, since that’s what you seem to be looking for.”
Damn. I would not work for a company like that. Fuck that. HR failed the interview.
I wonder if your response made them think about it for at least a bit
Doubt
Will "i wasnt in prison during the gap" suffice?
I'll explain by leaving.
What happened between jobs is none of anyone's business. Do a fucking background check and see if I was in jail or not. You have zero right to know what I do or don't do in my personal life.
They want people who are too desperate to be able to have gaps on their resume.
My response: "I'm a software developer. Middle manager douchebags told me they don't need my services because they think they can code their apps themselves. Ain't my first rodeo. They'll beg us come back to maintain this shit."
(Happened last time with VBA.)
"Ok, so you are potentially coming back to your previous employer soon. I guess we shouldn't hire your then."
The care about compliance. If You go "I don't give a fuck about the norm" You'll have a good time while you say it and then probably a rejection.
I agree that they shouldn't care but they do. Unless they are cool.
I've had gaps, and no employer has ever asked me anything about them.
'Entreprenuer' is just a way of saying unemployed to make rich assholes feel smug about it. Writing a resume is just recoding every event so its written correctly for rich assholes to feel smug.
People care. When on interview committees I've had to argue that gaps aren't relevant. Maybe it's someone with the ability to plan and save and they decided to take a year or ten off. Maybe their independently wealthy and is doing it for fun. They probably lost a job at a bad time, couldn't get hired for 8 months and then got fucked by a gap in their resume for another 18. Some of these gaps are even old. Like what do we care about three months fifteen years ago. Even if that's a job they got fired from right away it's olllld.
It's because they hear all of those excuses and realize "It can happen again"
But they'll use dog whistles like "Motivated" and "Hungry"
They’ll use anything to reject you. But I don’t think they “care”.
Depends how you frame it—gap sounds bad, took time to learn/reset sounds way better 😅
I kind of doubt employers care, but it does seem like one of those things that will get your resume auto filtered by their AI screening check.
I'd guess that filling the gap with pretty much anything is better then leaving an actual gap. Maybe add a proof from police that you weren't in jail or something.
If a candidate shows me police proof they weren't in jail, I would be very suspicious: why did they do that? I would never even consider they were in jail, but now that they bring it up...
That was my "On the lam" year. It worked, and here I am. When do I start?
If you're applying to a job where there are a lot of applicants, they might be looking to filter out applicants quickly. The first pass might get rid of anybody with a gap in their resume, anybody who doesn't have a degree, anybody who doesn't live in the right city, etc.
Just claim u where under NDA for that time
Just say you retired. And then got bored.
Like totally
"you don't seem desperate enough... that might mean you expect more than slave labor, which complicates things for our company."
I've actually done that a few times. It rarely comes up, but when it does, I just tell them the truth. I was traveling or just felt like taking some time off. As far as I can tell, it's never been a problem.
Now that I think about it, I'm kinda surprised people aren't more curious about it. No one's ever brought it up again even when I've worked with them for years after. On the other hand, I never remember anything work people tell me about their personal lives.
If you ever get the opportunity to take a year off work, you should probably do it because it is amazing.
I know this sounds like a flex, and it is, but don't worry; my life has been horrible for a long time and no amount of money can fix it.
What flex? Healthy out-time is a problem in a industry ravaged by burn-outs?
Not sure. My first thought was that the flex is that they have the money to afford the time off, but I feel like that could hurt an interview because clearly the interviewee doesn't need to rely on the job. An interviewer might think they'll fuck off at any time again.
It depends on what level you're at. Looking for C suite. It's a benefit. They "know their worth and are well traveled"
Any real worker. Detriment, you have shown you can decide to not to continue to slave away for the broken system.
Nah, folks who hire pay attention to microgestures, reactions, speech etc -- not if the interviewer "Had sex with a coworker just for laughs".
Boomer shit. Not real in today's market.
Of course the nerd neck bearders who haven't touched grass in 20 years are out in full force with shit like, 'they want you desperate ' 🤣
I mean ofc some people are very insecure but tbh this job market rn is fucked.