“you don’t seem desperate enough… that might mean you expect more than slave labor, which complicates things for our company.”
If you have enough financial security to be able to not work for a year, then the company may not want to hire you. Ideally it needs you to depend on it for everything, because this ensures you’ll be a well-behaved slave for an extended period of time.
Yep. They want desperate people.
… but not too desperate; clients might be scared off if the parking lot is full of rusted out 90s econboxes…
Depends how you frame it—gap sounds bad, took time to learn/reset sounds way better 😅
“I enjoyed life for a bit, focused on hobbies, family and so should you”
The care about compliance. If You go “I don’t give a fuck about the norm” You’ll have a good time while you say it and then probably a rejection.
I agree that they shouldn’t care but they do. Unless they are cool.
‘Entreprenuer’ is just a way of saying unemployed to make rich assholes feel smug about it. Writing a resume is just recoding every event so its written correctly for rich assholes to feel smug.
“I signed an NDA”
Oh fuck, that’s an enjoyable response. Unless theres something they can check about that. I dont know enough about employment.
NDAs are almost never all-encompassing. It may not even be legal. Usually an NDA is something like “I worked for [defense contractor] for three years as a mechanical engineer. I can’t tell you about the projects I worked on, but I can elaborate on my responsibilities.”
Unless they want your fingerprints, they probably aren’t going to check your tax history and that is how they’d find out you lied. If you worked somewhere, you’d have been paid and that means taxes. Some US states protect your tax info from background checks, but not all.
They’ll use anything to reject you. But I don’t think they “care”.
“I’m sorry, I can’t talk about that. I signed an NDA.”
You can even create your own NDA to sign so it won’t be a lie, if you care about that sort of thing.
Narrator: I didn’t.
This is the best answer by far.
Second best is “independent researcher.” Make up the metrics. You produced numerous 20,000 word reports for a small group of peers? Great, I have also barfed up a wall of text at reddit.
First rule of signing your own NDA is you don’t talk about signing your own NDA.
Signing an NDA with oneself sounds like fay trickery 🤣
The NDA trick no longer works, employers caught onto this, and now they have a secret “We employed these people under NDA” list to verify it, and the worst ones don’t upload it there to punish those who dare to leave
It’s not that they keep a list of who was employed under NDA, it’s that [the fact that you worked here] isn’t what’s actually under NDA, it’s the actual project you were a part of.
NDAs just aren’t the blanket defense people think they are.
The NDA can include the whole employment, otherwise, if you were employed for a specific time when a project happened to be run, you can be connected to the project
Any source for that claim?
They signed an NDA so they can’t elaborate
It’s more like people have suggested it to me to avoid the NDA trick in the future.
I googled it. If you’re under NDA for the company name how are they going to ask the company?
I signed a non disclosure agreement about that period of time and am not at liberty to discuss it.
Well ZILtoid1991 said you have to tell us with who and we can ask them to use the secret non disclosure disclosure mechanism, who was the NDA with.
The counter party is covered under the terms of the NDA, I can’t disclose who they were either.
Checkmate
No, this could work in a way that all companies just submit names to the same list, and if someone says NDA they check the list.
Problem with this is that small companies or companies from other countries won’t give a shit or won’t be allowed to even submit anything. Of course, you could say small companies don’t use NDA, but that is not true and defeats the purpose really
I’ve had gaps, and no employer has ever asked me anything about them.
“Sabbatical.”
*taps sign*
One must speak the language of the bourgeois to win his favor.
“Took a sabbatical to learn [skill]”
I have a “mental health break” line in my resume for a 4 month hiatus. I don’t know if it’s a flex or not, but it’s honest about what it is. At some point, a potential employer asked about it with some stern reservation, which allowed me to avoid a toxic workplace culture. Win win.
My answers to “Would you explain this gap in your resume?”:
- Relevancy: “I only included relevant experience on the copy of my resume that you received.” Hiking experience isn’t relevant. Couch experience isn’t relevant. Time spent as the forgotten pawn in the machinations of capitalism isn’t relevant.
- Privacy: “I am not required to disclose medical information, and will not be discussing this matter any further.”
- Fuck 'em: “No.”
I am not required to disclose medical information, and will not be discussing this matter any further.
Why the combative/legalese tone though? Why not just say “It was for medical reasons, I don’t want to go into it” like a normal person? The interviewer would go “Oh ok fair enough” instead of thinking “What’s wrong with this guy, did he get out bed with his left foot today?”
No2 will make any interviewer exclude you as they don’t want to hire a “lemon”
Lemon is right…but not because they have medical problems. I’m left as hell but I’d get so annoyed if an interview candidate snapped back like that. I’d think “this person is going to escalate any minor inconvenience”
Yeah it’s much better to begin with a more polite “It was medical in nature and I’d prefer not to discuss it.” And only pull out the “hey, legally you can’t ask about my medical issues” if they continue.
Thank you. You’re one of the only people in my replies who gets what I’m saying lol
Other people are acting like the interviewer is demanding answers.
Lemon is right…but not because they have medical problems.
It’s because they have boundaries.
No, it’s because of how they choose to respond to a tiny bit of friction.
They’re the type of person who wouldn’t take 2 minutes to help you with something that’s not explicitly outlined in their job description.
They’re the type of person who wouldn’t take 2 minutes to help you with something that’s not explicitly outlined in their job description.
Yeah.
Boundaries.
A completely inflexible person.
Someone who isn’t willing to be taken advantage of.
Acting their wage.
It depends, I know people that would be glad to help on the work but will not tolerate out of work pondering. Gaps on the résumé are sort of more of the latter, imo
You know what I do when someone casually asks me a question I don’t want to answer? I keep it vague and give them a chance to pick up the hint. I don’t give them a stone cold “I’m not going to answer that.” like a defensive weirdo.
Feels like a lot of people in this thread don’t realize an interview is a conversation. Or they just don’t know how to have a conversation…
Seems like they think conversations involve certain spells and invocations to force it to go the way they want. Like if you have a legal right, you must aggressively invoke it so your opponent realizes you’re a legal mastermind and hands you the job to avoid lawsuits.
Feels kinda like that advice for interacting with cops that sounded more like “how to be legally right while escalating interactions with the police”. Or the sovereign citizen version that drops the “legally right” part entirely.
It ignores the reality that anyone can judge you for any reason and that it’s practically impossible to prove or even know why they reject you after an interview, so it doesn’t even matter if they did it for an illegal reason as long as they didn’t outright tell you (or each other in writing if you do try to sue, which btw if you sue someone over how a job interview goes, few will want to even interview you if they know about it, even if you’re completely in the right).
Its a conversation that determines whether you can collect enough credits to have food and shelter. Defensiveness seems like a natural reaction, no?
I think a more productive and empathetic approach would be to probe such a person on practical job-relevant hypotheticals of a similar nature, in order to actually get an idea of how they would handle those situations - if that’s really what you’re worried about. Why be so quick to label people negatively based solely on personal boundaries? Do you think it’s better to skirt one’s way around an issue than to address it?
I would hate to be interviewed by you, asking for respect of medical privacy is “snapping back”? No wonder it sucks so fucking much to find a new job.
Legalese style “I will not be discussing this matter any further” in an interview does give off future lawsuit vibes.
Yeah, a much more normal way to say that is “I was dealing with a medical condition. It’s no longer an issue, but it’s a bit personal, so I’d prefer if we didn’t get into more than that.”
I wouldn’t even say that much. Any interviewer asking about a ‘gap in my resume’ is already coming off to me as a micromanaging cunt.
I mean, you asking to explain my medical history is lawsuit vibes.
“I didn’t know this gap was for medical reasons” Why the fuck are you asking about a gap in my work history in the first place? What I did 5 years ago is irrelevant to this interview today.
It’s so weird to draw weapons in response to that. Do you really always assume the absolute worst intent when someone asks open-ended questions? If so, it’s hard to feel bad for you. You are one of the worst kinds of coworkers to have.
“Hey tocopherol, do anything fun this weekend?”
“How I spend my weekends is none of your business and I’m offended that you even though asking was appropriate!”
“Ok dude have fun sitting in your car at lunch”
What are you talking about? You’re the one assuming the worst and being weird by not respecting a simple request in an interview! You just told me you assume they are going to escalate minor inconveniences because they requested basic respect.
Throwing a boilerplate legal defense in response to a question that’s most likely being asked casually is a total tone shift. No one’s going to think, “wow, this person really knows their rights!”
It almost makes you sound guilty of something. Preemptively defensive when you haven’t been pressed in the slightest
I didn’t assume it had to be stated like a legal disclaimer, whatever kind of response a person makes it’s good to match the interviewers tone. I agree with you that you don’t want to come off confrontational, I didn’t read it that way.
Yeah, casually asking something on a job interview
A professional interview in which personal questions are being asked inappropriately is not even close to friendly banter between co-workers.
It’s the same type of person ready to pick a fight over any perceived transgression. They pick stupid fights with their managers and make it a worse place to work for everyone.
Lots of people don’t struggle to find jobs. Maybe you could take 5min to reflect on why some people would call this “snapping back”, rather than post a snarky comment.
An interview works both ways. If that’s how they consider humans, then you dodged a bullet.
Another good one is to mention there being health issues in the family that necessitated you take time to help them with.
Only a very nosy employer will question that further. If they give you grief for helping your loved ones in such a situation, they probably aren’t worth working for
How have these answers been working out so far?
Pretty good so far. I haven’t had a job that makes me wish for a workplace accident in years.
I hire people where I work. Nothing fancy, just pest control, but I don’t give a fuck. If you’re licensed and seem decent as a human I’ll give it a go. Worst case scenario is you suck, in which case you’re fired pretty quickly on your own merit and I hire someone else. There are so many smaller companies out there in nearly every industry and they’re ran by normal people with normal fucked up lives like most of us.
I’ve been fortunate to end up where I am and what I do but all my employees have fierce loyalty to me simply for being normal and treating them like maybe they’re normal too and I hate seeing things like this because even these big corporate jobs are still being ran by people going home and having normal human problems. I don’t understand why so many jobs have entry barriers that exclude shit like, “shit happens, sorry for being poor?”
Hope that makes sense. I’m rambling but I also had a shitty day with work and came home and drank. So fuck judgement.
Hope your day/night gets better mate. Cheers
Cheers. Appreciate that. It’ll be fine. Just the ebb and flow of life and whatnot.
Cheers, man. This, too, shall pass.
Like Ive never said, when life gets you down, be optimistic. Not sure what kind of jokes you call funny or dark, but when I’m down I just figure I’ll hang out near an elementary school. Odds it’ll be over goes way up for me.
~sorry for the dark joke, just hope it made you laugh
Oh man… I live in America so that joke is awful and makes me feel bad that I didn’t think of it sooner.
I actually laughed at that. I shouldn’t, but fortunately I graduated long before I wasn’t physically able to.
Thanks
I’m around 50 miles south of Nashville, lol. Spent 29? Years in Florida where I was born. If you want dark, wet, muddy or why can’t I breath, it’s what I know lol. But seriously do take care. If you want to vent, type me a dm and I’ll promise you to read it and respond or never respond if you say, but sometimes a blather about B’s is good. Rather you send it to me than if you actually get drunk and send it to your sibling, lol. I’ll respond, or just end or start with don’t respond, and I’ll read . *Promise
I’ll take you up on that. Much appreciated. I’m about to fall asleep but it won’t be my last shit day I’m sure! I grew up in Dallas and Oklahoma, so I know kinda how you feel lol. These days I’m in California, and despite the difficulty level of basic survival, I love it here. Lots of natural beauty and all that, but honestly anywhere you go it’s still the same bullshit mostly. I appreciate the empathy, I really do. Honestly, I’ll probably send you random messages occasionally just to get it out. Feel free to do the same, please. Seriously, thanks.
Thanks, please do. If I have to I’ll ramble about some shit about blowing up a bottle of homemade wine or something and making the kitchen ceiling peppered lol. I didn’t even do that in my really dark days of drinking, I just was making a few bottles for fun and the sugar apparently got around the rim snd “sealed it”. Which normally you let it breathe while covering it for no bacteria going in. Exploded worse than the videos of mentos in diet coke. Coated the ceiling walls everything I was wearing for about 8 feet in EVERY direction. I still haven’t figured out how to clean the ceiling other than painting it. Lol.
Seriously, just blather when you need. No judgement and I’ll either tell you something I’ve done or input if you want
I have had to do a decent amount of hiring over the years for my own corner the corporate meat grinder. I personally don’t care about a gap unless the gap is too big. A big gap allows for a lot of rust to build, so it becomes a bit of a calculation of how much rust needs to get knocked off and if it’s fine for this position if it takes longer to get productive. If they’re still pretty sharp then the gap is no issue, and if they’re really rusty then that can be a problem depending.
I interviewed a guy not long ago with a 3-year gap. No fault of his own, the economy sucks, so I didn’t hold it against him. But despite knowing there was a technical interview coming up and knowing what skills we were looking for, the dude didn’t put any effort into studying before my interview and he bombed pretty darn hard. Which is a shame because on paper he would’ve been an amazing candidate otherwise.
Anyways all of that is to say that sometimes a gap brings other stuff too, so a gap to me is a sign to look for that other stuff.
“I had to provide end of life care to a close relative” doesn’t get followed up by a lot of questions.
