Put your side project in your resume. That will put no gap on your resume.
I have interviewed and hired others with ongoing side projects on their resume.
Ask HN: Laid off –> solo founder. Do I look like I'm trying to hide something?
21–30 of 65 posts
Re: Ask HN: Laid off –> solo founder. Do I look like I'm trying to hide something?
#22I took a year off building a startup that went nowhere. I was incredibly worried this hole in my resume would hurt my job prospects and it didn’t at all, even in this market. No one ever asked.
Re: Ask HN: Laid off –> solo founder. Do I look like I'm trying to hide something?
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cars aren’t hypothetical. They’re real. You are deliberately misunderstanding and exaggerating my point to prove, well, I don’t even know what you’re trying to prove. First, my point is about optimising for happiness. Running out onto a road without thinking has nothing to do with happiness. Secondly, the risk profile between these two scenarios is completely different. In one, the OP _might_ have a slight difficulty…
I meant it earnestly! If I misunderstood, I have one other guy in here who made the same mistake. Your original comment reads like you’re against the concept of considering unpleasant counterfactuals in general.
Pretty sure OP considered the counterfactual and determined it was such a low probability, the alternative utility gain too low, that it shouldn't matter in the pursuit of happiness.
Taking calculated risks isn't recklessness.
Re: Ask HN: Laid off –> solo founder. Do I look like I'm trying to hide something?
#24What's wrong with working on a side project if you have the financial means to do so without other obligations? I’m sure level-headed hiring managers would agree and those that don’t are probably shops you’d want to avoid anyway.
Re: Ask HN: Laid off –> solo founder. Do I look like I'm trying to hide something?
#25My philosophy is that you should do what you want to do today, instead of doing something you don’t want to do because of a hypothetical future repercussion. Could this harm future employability? Maybe. But what’s the alternative, work a job you don’t want to maybe have a better chance of working another job you also don’t want in the future? Personally, that’s not the way I’d like to conduct my life. Opinions differ…
I want to murder someone I’m mad at today, and I should do it because I’m ignoring hypothetical future repercussions? Yes that’s hyperbole but the point stands, delaying instant gratification on impulses, individual tactics, individual strategic and societal level is a hallmark of a stable society encouraging conscientiousness.
Repercussions should not be what keeps you from murdering someone anyway. It shows you're still on stage 1 on Lawrence Kohlberg's scale of moral development [0]. I don't think your argument is valid for most people.
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Kohlberg%27s_stages_o...
Re: Ask HN: Laid off –> solo founder. Do I look like I'm trying to hide something?
#26File an LLC for yourself. Give it a normal name. Add it to your resume if you ever need one again (and maybe you won't!). Gives whatever time you spent doing or not doing something more authenticity.
Re: Ask HN: Laid off –> solo founder. Do I look like I'm trying to hide something?
#27File an LLC for yourself. Give it a normal name. Add it to your resume if you ever need one again (and maybe you won't!). Gives whatever time you spent doing or not doing something more authenticity.
Great idea, I’ve done this and people love it
Re: Ask HN: Laid off –> solo founder. Do I look like I'm trying to hide something?
#28This seems a bit neurotic and presumptuous to me. First of all, you can't control what others think of what you've factually done. Second of all, did you actually found anything or are you just taking time off to work on a side project with plans to return. Lastly, whichever it is, that's the way it is, what's to worry about? What would you do instead of working on your side project, and what would the hypothetical b…
I'd add that I don't feel like neuroticism is an inherently negative thing, but when you're getting into the territory of ruminating about how people will perceive the fairly obvious path you're taking, it does strike me as unhealthy. If I needed to get divorced, would it be healthy to think about the hypothetical impression others would have of that to the point where I wouldn't get divorced?
Re: Ask HN: Laid off –> solo founder. Do I look like I'm trying to hide something?
#29why would you need to say explicitly that you were laid off?
You can just say in resume:
Apr 2018 - May 2023: For-paycheck spaghetti code refactoring engineer in Large Boring Corp
May 2023 - current: founder and principal AI/crypto/quantum/whatever hacker in nextcoolthing.com
Re: Ask HN: Laid off –> solo founder. Do I look like I'm trying to hide something?
#30Probably won’t matter, but maybe it’d be advantageous to pretend it will. “Burn your ships” so to speak.