Easy questions have easy answers, right?
“I was unemployed”
- Why?
- Can they not even keep a job?
“I took a sabbatical”
- Mysterious
- Arousing
- Shows off the size of your enormous sack
EDIT : When I took my sabbatical and I was dating at the same time, instead of being seen as a scruffy bum it actually did give an air of mystique, since most people at that age were not doing things like that.
What’s your biggest strength?
The size of my enormous sack
Santa?
Randy Marsh, sir, you’re hired.
I love Randy Marsh, but theres absolutely no way in hell I’d hire him, the legal risks would be high as fuck, plus there’s always the risk he would start a coup and take over the place.
I don’t care if he’s qualified, he’s Randy fucking Marsh, that’s a danger to your wellbeing.
Sounds like you need a little tegridy.
I’m having some tegridy right now.
“That’s when I was happy” is the only correct answer.
“I took four months off to recover from burnout”
That’s pretty much what I said - I took some time off for my family. I was getting called 3-4 times a week between 6pm-5am, often times not being present for them, so I had to make a change or risk losing them. I got the job and don’t get called at night. Win-win all except for those 4 months without paying and stress of resume rewrites and a million applications.
Yes. I’ve basically said that, not that I’ve had such a rude, direct question from an interviewer.
“I had to provide end of life care to a close relative.”
I have a big gap from a few years of depression and that’s my go to line. I have never ever heard a follow up question.
I have a big gap from a few years of depression
It’s relieving to hear I’m not the only one, that shit was crippling. Glad we both made it through!
Fuck yeah. We survived!
How big are we talking, I sometimes feel like taking a year off to fix my mental health, but I fear it will kill my career
I have a year of uni (unfinished), a year of an apprenticeship (unfinished) and then 1.5yrs of joblessness. Started at 20, I learned a trade in my mid twenties and have a solid career now. I just regret I was never able to finish uni.
“Yeah, I spent that time driving Uber/Doordash/whatever.”
No boss to confirm/deny, and it’s not like Uber is going to tell a random employer when one of their drivers were active.
Depending on your career, this might be worse than not doing anything
Why’s that?
Well, just a gap in the resume might mean you took yourself a sabbatical of sorts. But driving an uber means you were desperate for cash and needed a job, but wasn’t able to secure one in your main field. That’s sus.
Will this actually work?
It depends on the context if you say you had an NDA and can’t elaborate at all on the details that’s a clear red flag as most NDAs you can at least give the context of what it is about I.e. specific job processes, witnesses an event, etc.
If you say you worked for X company but can’t talk about the details of your work because of an NDA then that’s fine but they might call your old employer to verify you did really work there.
Not even remotely.
For the most part, yes. They only really ask the question because they automatically assume you were in jail if you have a gap over 2’ish weeks long. So they’re really just looking for some sort of explanation besides “I was just unemployed for no reason.” Because they assume “no reason” is really “I don’t want to admit that I was in jail.”
I also just think it’s human nature to see something like 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10 and say “where are 8nand 9?” It’s not necessarily an accusation or something. I’m not saying that never happens, some places and interviewers are awful. But I think a lot of people are just making sure there isn’t a typo or something.
Wouldn’t any criminal record be public record? Couldn’t they just look it up?
You can have criminal records sealed, depending on what it is, etc.
Also, in many jurisdictions you can’t look up criminal history older than a certain number of years
Lol who tf actually thinks that. Ive hired and never thought that
yeah thats a wild assumption, maybe ppl just have enough money to survive for a while and dont want to work while they pursue hobbies, why is that not allowed, nah mustve been in jail
maybe ppl just have enough money to survive for a while and dont want to work while they pursue hobbies
The issue is that this is exactly what employers are trying to avoid. They want a good little worker bee who will show up every day and complete their tasks as assigned for 25 years straight. They don’t want someone who will just randomly decide to quit and focus on their hobbies. They want stability and predictability, because hiring new workers is a massive expense.
Because ppl expect/get more benefits and pay overtime
I thought it was worse to retain ppl long term and thats why they are constsntly firing ppl?
It’s almost never actually a good business decision in the long-term to lose an employee, unless that employee is actually causing losses. All the layoffs of the past 50ish years from corporate downsizing is thanks to the business philosophy of Jack Welch. When you stop paying a large group of people, it looks good in the next quarterly meeting because you can point at the money you’re saving. The bad part is that now the business A) has lost that productivity, and B) will likely need to spend more money hiring a replacement worker who won’t be as competent.
Man, you must live a privileged life if it didn’t even cross your mind that jobs might exist where that is a legitimate concern.
What if a small gap on their resume means jail?? What the fuck are you on about
Chill dude. I’m saying that there are jobs that employ people who often have a criminal history, and gaps in their employment record really often are because tey went to jail.
So, even though you may not interview very many former criminals in your line of work, surely you shouldn’t be at a loss to understand why anyone would ever think that.
Im saying the hiring managers that think that are brain dead
2 weeks is barely enough to get an interview. Who thinks jail? lmao
HR plebs
I give 'em the old “caring for a sick or dying family member.” Look sad that they brought it up. That usually shuts them up.
Pop
No NDA on earth prohibits giving a vague idea of what the duties and industry were. You may not be able to say the specific projects you worked on, or maybe even the name of the employer under extreme circumstances, but that would be like MI5 level rare, and those folks aren’t out applying for the jobs you are.
The real trick is having an LLC so you can just point to that and say you were consulting or self-employed during that time. Or have a friend with one.
A buddy of mine had an LLC and I hired him to write my cover letter. He then had me fill some review about my experience with his company for some position he was applying for. I never lied, but the whole thing just felt so weird. But at the same time, that’s just normal. It’s not like he wasn’t capable of the work or something. He did a good job on my cover letter. He was a good grant writer before that. I just have that lingering Christian guilt that’s like “omg you’re doing something wrong! This is your conscience! Behave!”
I had a 6 month gap and I said I was taking a sabbatical (which was the truth). No one batted an eye.
I can’t tell you, I signed an NDA
Oh. I’m bookmarking this. Great idea.
In Germany, just ask them what the gap between 1933 and 1945 in their company’s history is as a direct response.
I am not sure drawing a comparison between your unemployment and the reign of the Nazis is the best move
But if you get a rise out of them it’ll be perfect.
An idiot asked me that once when I had just finished my masters. Like did you read my resume?
I think they do that to:
-
Judge your reaction to being asked stupid questions.
-
Check that you know what’s written on your CV, to see if you’re lying on it or something?
C) Because someone else chose the candidates for interview.
Based on the context and my own personal experience as a person who has interviewed hundreds as a hiring manager --not syaing I do this, just that I understand-- they said “HEY FRANK WE NEED YOU TO SIT IN THIS INTERVIEW IN 30 MINUTES. K THANKS” and Frank showed up and tried to pretend that he knew what was going on.
Sounds about right, I’ve had interviews where the boss has forgotten.
Granted it was just bar work, still pretty funny to see the dawning of realisation spread across their face.
Also these first impression moments are good because you can predict how they would treat you if you worked there. I walked away super annoyed and didn’t care that I didn’t get called back in. I was way overqualified for the position but was also desperate for one since I had just moved back to the country and needed to sponsor my spouse for residency.
-
FMLA is always a safe bet. Only one available to care for a dying family member buys sympathy and is an area they can’t legally ask any follow-up questions.
Source: former corporate shill and interviewer
This question should be illegal to ask.
Haha, as if anyone actually asks that. A gap gets you automatically rejected by the employment AI, long before humans see it.
Can someone confirm from* a recruitment standpoint.
What does one put on the resume then?
You use the other AI to fill it in on the resume.
That’s why my resume is just a QR code.
lies
Secrets and Lies. Secrets and Lies!
Time loop
I could have been in that gap once, twice … a million times … we don’t know
A dozen times, a hundred, it’s impossible to tell.
I was told one way is: I singed a nda and I’m not allowed to answer that
My refusal to answer is proof that I’m trustworthy :3
You’d still be asked to provide start and end dates and place of employment if your work was confidential. If the NDA prohibits you from disclosing your employment entirely, it will typically include a restriction against disclosing the existence of the NDA itself.
“I legally cannot tell you what I was doing from 20xx-20xx”
I’d still ask follow-up questions. Was it in the public or private sector? What branch or industry? Were you in a leadership role, part of a team, or working as an individual contributor? What skills did you develop during that employment that would be beneficial to your employment in this role?
“I cannot answer any of those except the last one, which is that I learned how to avoid questions like these”
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Was singeing the NDA the reason you didn’t keep that job?
If i have to explain the gap (which clearly means I was not employed), it means you are incompetent, you fail my interview, I don’t work with incompetent bosses.
“Those are line breaks. You see it’s easier to read if you break up blocks of text into paragraphs separated by a whole empty line.”
