Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
211–220 of 248 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
So if you have a years worth of work todo, and 50 people apply, you get the work done for free?
That would be the worst consulting experience for the company and I think you can easily tell a different between a test and outsourced work. Also that wouldn't likely save time. If the task will take someone 2h, I'd have to spend more than that: describing the task with all the relevant context, providing a mock of the environment it needs to be plugged into, reviewing the result, fixing any issues, changing it to m…
2 hours sure. A week not-so-much.
OP wasn't clear how big the task was.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#213Earlier 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.
Did they get the job, though?
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#214The things you do between roles define you as a person and make you interesting. Use them as such. Tell the truth: I was sick, had enough savings to heal up and take some time off, and now I'm fresh and ready for the fight. I also did X Y Z and A B C, had some fun. Play time's over, and I'm looking to work hard. If they can't appreciate that, then they wouldn't appreciate you in general. A self-solving problem.
Personally, I would never, ever mention anything whatsoever about my health in a professional setting (or a personal one, but that is a different topic). It’s absolutely none of their business, and invites silent discrimination, or worry about future health issues. In the best case it frames you as someone who is sometimes sidelined, not hearty. Why do that to your sales image? My grandfather had a saying: never talk…
I knew a guy who was desperate to fill a cashier job. I recommended my friend who fit the bill - honest, able to stay in the same spot all day, polite, has managed teams. The guy was excited.
However, he got into an accident once, lost a leg, which was reattached and partially replaced with metal a few years ago. He walks with a limp, but can walk and stand fine. It shouldn't affect his job unless it involves heavy lifting or running.
What shocked me was just how fast the potential employer changed his tone when he found out.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#215Your real gap is max 4 month, not much of a gap. You can fill it in with personal project that you did some other time if you really don't want to have that gap, or just say the real reason, medical and that's it.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#216As a person who's reviewed a lot of resumes, I don't actively look for job gaps, so I probably wouldn't notice. I'm more interested in what technologies you use (role), and what you've done in the past (experience). As long as you are sharp and know your stuff, you'll do fine. Even if it is a red flag to some, I strongly believe software interviewing is a numbers game, due to randomness and bad interview processes. A…
Can I bring up the converse question - who would actively look for job gaps? And why?
I usually look for time patterns in CVs. Gaps could be part of that. If someone turns over many jobs quickly I don't want to pay to bring someone up to speed only to see them leave when they should hit their stride. Or a month or 2 gap after every job can indicate they are getting the boot as most people swap one job for another.
But one gap for a year, not many would really care I suspect as long as there is a reasonable rationale if they do ask.
If someone had many long gaps then if might flag there is something going on and you'd dig around.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#217I 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.
"If they don't like it, you probably don't want to work there anyway." That's always important to remember.
What does it mean, though? Is it just "sour grapes is a powerful force"?
I don't know about gaps in particular but there are lots of places I thought I'd love working that wouldn't take me.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#218I don’t understand why people are concerned about this, why would a gap be interpreted negatively?
Are people just assuming that a gap means prison?
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#219Just 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.
They want to know you weren't in jail. That's it.
Fear of jobs gaps is also about avoiding bad candidates. If someone has a longer gap, there's a chance that he was interviewing the whole time and, during that time, got dozens/hundreds of rejections. So, the lazy heuristic is to assume everyone else was correct and reject him as well.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume?
#220As a person who's reviewed a lot of resumes, I don't actively look for job gaps, so I probably wouldn't notice. I'm more interested in what technologies you use (role), and what you've done in the past (experience). As long as you are sharp and know your stuff, you'll do fine. Even if it is a red flag to some, I strongly believe software interviewing is a numbers game, due to randomness and bad interview processes. A…
Can I bring up the converse question - who would actively look for job gaps? And why?
I know some HR look for consistency and 'internal progression'. Relying on past history of consistent career progression suggests, to them, the vector the individual is on. Completely ex-post and opaque at the best.
Having being called a "maverick" during past moves, this doesn't gel well with me. It's lazy. But it is common. Finding a fantastic HR person is indeed an honour. Finding a fantastic one however is not commonplace, it's often box-tickers that have little understanding or desire for understanding, just a KPI.