Entrepreneur 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.
Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
11–20 of 248 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#12"I required time off to provide care for a loved one". No further explanation beyond that is owed.
> "I required time off to provide care for a loved one"
But that's a lie.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#13I took nearly a year off in the 1990s, just "doing coffee shops and bookstores." I read a lot, did some recreational programming and a little travel. Basically took it easy after a number of years of high-hour, high-visibility projects (and a high-hour, low-visibility startup that essentially crashed).
Never had any trouble with that explanation.
If they don't like it, you probably don't want to work there anyway.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#14Just tell the truth. Medical is a perfectly valid reason.
Tangent: What does it say about hiring culture that a gap of 3 months is a potential deal breaker? Like anybody who would ever deign to not be employed by choice is unhirable. God forbid that people are defined by anything other than having a career working for others. A person's worth is not defined by how much economic value they create.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#15Just tell the truth. Medical is a perfectly valid reason. Tangent: What does it say about hiring culture that a gap of 3 months is a potential deal breaker? Like anybody who would ever deign to not be employed by choice is unhirable. God forbid that people are defined by anything other than having a career working for others. A person's worth is not defined by how much economic value they create.
I would go further and say your 'tangent' is the actual issue we should discuss here.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
And that loved one can be yourself.
Yea don't lie. That won't go well if you get hired and now you have to remember to keep some lie consistent.
Why wouldn't it? The people who care about a resume gap is HR, and the people you work with are not those people. The daily people you work with don't care what your past is, it's only HR that has a negative opinion of job gaps on hire-ability.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#17"I required time off to provide care for a loved one". No further explanation beyond that is owed.
> "I required time off to provide care for a loved one" But that's a lie.
It's not a lie (providing care for yourself), and your potential employer has no right to additional information as it relates to your medical condition and why you needed the time away from employment. Don't disclose what you don't have to. It provides you no benefit, and can only be used against you. Why would you sandbag your employer opportunities (and the ability to support yourself) because of faux moral hazard?
More importantly, why would one feel an employer is entitled to detailed information about this gap? It is none of their business.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#18> Now i feel completely healthy, refreshed, passionate and ready to rock again
What did you do to get refreshed again? And can you keep this up while working 40 hours a week?
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "I required time off to provide care for a loved one" But that's a lie.
It's not a lie (providing care for yourself), and your potential employer has no right to additional information as it relates to your medical condition and why you needed the time away from employment. Don't disclose what you don't have to. It provides you no benefit, and can only be used against you. Why would you sandbag your employer opportunities (and the ability to support yourself) because of faux moral hazard…
It is a lie. You weren't providing care for a loved one (that's not how anyone would reasonably interpret 'love one'). It is indeed none of your employer's business. But still you should not deliberately mislead with an untruth.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#20I always wonder what the HR person would get all upset over a gap for? Can someone tell me about the time they rejected a candidate because they had a gap in their employment? lol :D
I mean why do they care. If I save up money and take a year off every few years? That just means if I get bored of them I'll walk out.
It sounds like the kinda thing people care about because they're told to, but they don't actually have a reason why.