Nobody has ever asked (then again perhaps someone has declined to talk to me for that reason?). In my cases the answer (had anyone asked) would have been easy: I took multi-year gaps to look after my kid. But it has literally not been an issue (note: my work experience is over 30 years).
Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
151–160 of 248 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#152I had a 5 years gap in my career - all medical. Recently, right after that gap, I was intervieweing with multiple companies - most of them didn't even ask me, even though I was worried as hell. In the end I got almost all job offers I wanted. The only notable exception that didn't even grant me a phone screen was Amazon, their recruiter told me that ML has advanced so much in those 5 years that all my prior experienc…
> ML has advanced so much in those 5 years that all my prior experience is totally irrelevant to them Most people involved in hiring are either not involved with the work being hired for, and thus have no idea about that side of things. Or else they're total amateurs at hiring itself who have, by virtue of having some measure of authority over it, deluded themselves into thinking they are awesome at it. Arrogance and…
I can understand if he's a PhD level scientist recruit. That it takes a while to digest all the newest methodologies if he hasn't been following.
A data engineer should have no such problem. Anecdotally, when I was recruited to Amazon, all of the people who made the shots are either SDE or SDM. It could also be a way of telling you that "This role has already filled", as it is likely with all of the people lining up for data/machine learning roles.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#153Thanks very much for submitting this and to the commenters offering advice. I’m also trying to come back after a gap and finding it very discouraging. The positive comments here are really helpful to change my mindset and get back a positive energy to discuss the meaningful things that I’ve done, even if they weren’t paid full-time jobs.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#154Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yikes. Hopefully paid? What if the candidate is currently employed? Where do you expect them to find the time, knowing that they are not likely to be only applying to your company, but to others as well?
If they're sufficiently motivated to want the job, they will jump through the hoops. If the job's not worth it to the candidate, they won't complete the task. Easy.
Thanks for doing that.
Back when I hired a lot I'd always ask candidates how their job search was going and what other businesses they are excited about besides mine. Kind of tacky, but it always alleviated nerves on both sides of the table. Companies with attitides like yours would always come up. What some companies ask candidates to do during their job search is pretty ridiculous.
Hoop jumping is probably required for their first couple jobs, but after that the employers are the ones competing for talent.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#156If it was something like a 5 year gap I'd probably have some questions at least about what was going on in that time, a year or so and I probably wouldn't notice as long as everything else on the resume looked good.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep. I've reviewed thousands of resumes but I never paid much attention to gaps. Gap of 1 year wouldn't even register in my brain.
Oh gaps are usually pretty interesting. I once dug into a big gap (3 years) and went down quite a rabbit-hole with a candidate that was in every other respect excellent. But the gap: Let's just say it was the worst thing you can imagine.
Prison for almost killing their interviewer for asking about an employment gap.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#158A gap in your resume is called a sabbatical. You spent a year doing something else that's more important to you because you can afford it. Medical plus some recovery time is a great reason. But just playing around with some new tech, investing in your education, or even spending time on your other interests, work for charity, or see something of the world, are great reasons. Slacking off may not sound great, but many…
Also, if you had good reason to take time off, but the future employer still has a problem with it, you probably don't want to work for them anyway.
I think this sort of statement is thrown around too lightly. It's a bad sign, but there's a limited amount of signal in it. It may not correlate strongly with employee experience, and lots of other positive factors might outweigh it.
Maybe it's just one recruiter's resume filter. Maybe the company actually has a great medical leave policy, or pays really well, or works on something the OP is super excited by. Or maybe the company is just really, irrationally weird about applicants having gaps on their resume, but is otherwise perfectly normal, and it doesn't matter ever again after OP signs an offer.
Sure, given two offers from otherwise identical companies OP should count this as a mark against, and sign an offer from someone who doesn't care. Given offers that aren't otherwise identical, though, what's it worth? $5k in salary? More? Less?
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
AFAIK misdemeanors have to be checked at the county level, and a lot of background checks skip them unless asked specifically (hence checking about the gaps).
Funny you mentioned that, i've seen a FB job posting mentioning they are ok with misdemeanor on the record. I wonder if there's a time they will okay a felony on file.
Oh for sure - it's weird to be judging based on most misdemeanors. I was commenting on how it's done by those who do it.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#160Entrepreneur time. I explain the few gaps on my attempts to create something of my own. I don’t mind saying it didn’t work out as I hoped but I got bit by the bug of creativity and went for it. Glad I did.
I did this also. I usually had examples or actual websites to show when they asked for details. Unfortunately, none of my start-ups took off, meaning I'm stuck in the middle class. 1 or 2 maybe could have if I had devoted full time to them, but couldn't at the time.