
Ask HN: How to explain job gaps on the resume? - jobgaps
I&#x27;m interviewing with several companies for SDE roles and have a gap of &gt; 12 months since my last job. Is this a career killer and a huge red flag for any hiring manager?<p>The real reason for a break was medical but then got out of hand given i had enough savings to support myself and sort of slacked for a while (like 3-4 months).<p>Now i feel completely healthy, refreshed, passionate and ready to rock again.
What is the best way to mitigate this issue when applying &#x2F; interviewing?<p>Do you have any advices learned from previous experience or caveats i should be prepared for?<p>PS. My total work experience is 5+ yrs.
======
mcv
A gap in your resume is called a sabbatical. You spent a year doing something
else that's more important to you because you can afford it. Medical plus some
recovery time is a great reason. But just playing around with some new tech,
investing in your education, or even spending time on your other interests,
work for charity, or see something of the world, are great reasons. Slacking
off may not sound great, but many employers are unlikely to care that much
about the gap, and if they do, there's always a more interesting way to phrase
it.

~~~
juanuys
Also, if you had good reason to take time off, but the future employer still
has a problem with it, you probably don't want to work for them anyway.

~~~
repsilat
I think this sort of statement is thrown around too lightly. It's a bad sign,
but there's a limited amount of signal in it. It may not correlate strongly
with employee experience, and lots of other positive factors might outweigh
it.

Maybe it's just one recruiter's resume filter. Maybe the company actually has
a great medical leave policy, or pays really well, or works on something the
OP is super excited by. Or maybe the company is just really, irrationally
weird about applicants having gaps on their resume, but is otherwise perfectly
normal, and it doesn't matter ever again after OP signs an offer.

Sure, given two offers from otherwise identical companies OP should count this
as a mark against, and sign an offer from someone who doesn't care. Given
offers that _aren 't_ otherwise identical, though, what's it worth? $5k in
salary? More? Less?

~~~
mlyle
> though, what's it worth? $5k in salary? More? Less?

Maybe a huge amount. If an employer has a negative predisposition towards you,
and you already have a small negative signal on your own resume (gap)-- they
have the potential to really screw things up for you. The amount of suck you
might endure is unbounded, and the probability of your recent experience on
your resume becoming _worse_ is too high.

~~~
DavidSJ
I think this answer misses the point, which is that this information is only a
weak predictor of the problems you describe, thus must be discounted
accordingly.

~~~
mlyle
How do you discount "personal catastrophe" appropriately, though? Surely the
volatility in outcomes is very important, and not some simple expected value.

A 5% chance of my house burning down is much more costly to me than 5% of the
economic cost of my house burning down. Indeed, there's not really a
(reasonable) discounted price I will take for a chance of my house burning
down.

Of course, this kind of aggressive avoidance of risk is exactly the thing we
are annoyed with the employer for... But most employers do not have their eggs
in one basket to the extent that someone returning to their career from a gap
does.

~~~
DavidSJ
You normally wouldn’t discount linearly. But that doesn’t mean you can’t put a
price on it. There’s a limit to how much you’d pay for insurance, for example.
Some risk is part of life.

~~~
mlyle
I didn't say one can't put some price on it. I said "maybe a huge amount" in
comparison to someone saying that perhaps one would value it at $5k.

$5k this year is small compared to future potential career earnings; not much
of a difference in probability of losing those is required to far exceed $5k.
Just strict linear expected value could be bad, let alone when one weights the
risk and volatility.

------
cbanek
As 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. And once you do
get a job and get back in the workforce, if you don't like it, you can switch
again. And you at least won't be in the middle of a current gap.

I'd just definitely have a a go-to answer when you interview, and medical is a
totally fine answer there. I don't think any competent hiring manager would
ask past that due to legal risk (although there's always someone who asks
illegal questions at interviews anyway).

Best of luck!

~~~
lainga
Can I bring up the converse question - who would actively look for job gaps?
And why?

~~~
Gustomaximus
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.

~~~
another-dave
> Or a month or 2 gap after every job can indicate they are getting the boot
> as most people swap one job for another.

Or it's a chance to take a stress-free break after finishing up one job as
you've already another lined up.

~~~
Gustomaximus
Possible. I try to do that myself every change but typically I find/see
companies wants you ASAP (especially if you have a decent notice period
already) and is flexible with a week or few, not a month or few unless
executive level.

------
geocrasher
The 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.

~~~
sneak
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 about your health unless it’s good.

I have some relatively minor and common chronic health issues (fortunately
well-managed). The day my clients or upstreams hear about any of them will be
the day they are invited to my funeral—not before.

~~~
muzani
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.

------
halfjoking
Those are rookie numbers. 12 months is nothing. Try an 8 year gap - after an
initial 3 years experience working as a .NET dev.

I lived below US poverty level for 8 years with a CS degree and did the bare
minimum of shitty contract jobs because I didn't want to be coding for someone
else... eventually I realized I suck working for myself. (and now I have a
normal 6 figure dev job)

The main thing you have to have is a story. I lied and said I enjoyed coding
products in SecondLife and made tens of thousands of dollars coding inside a
videogame, even though the truth was I only made a couple thousand. I also
made my contract work sound more important, and went through the various
startup ideas I tried and had a good story on why they failed. As long as
story sounds plausible, it seems like you learned things related to the work,
and you seem like a good person someone will give a shot as contract-to-hire
even with an 8 year gap. So I think a one year gap won't be a problem at all,
you shouldn't even need to do contract-to-hire.

------
LargeWu
Just 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.

~~~
jobgaps
Do you think the vague `medical` needs further elaboration?

I sure do know my medical is not related to mental health. Is it reasonable to
somehow indicate that or it should be better left for an interviewer to
inquire?

~~~
darkwizard42
In the USA I am pretty sure it is actually illegal for a company to
discriminate based on health issues, so a smart recruiter will NOT push this
issue further than Medical. It would violate a few things and not be great if
you sued and used that in court.

~~~
LorenPechtel
Legally, they can't, but the fact that you were out for months for an
unspecified medical issue suggests you're likely to have more medical issues
and thus would be a reason to be less likely to hire you.

------
SamWhited
I'd just tell the truth, I've taken off plenty of time and I generally just
put it on my resume to save them having to ask: "took of some time for health
related reasons and then decided to use my savings to spend some time with my
passions" or whatever it is in your case. If this is a problem for a hiring
manager, that's probably a red flag for you as well. I hope it doesn't end up
being a problem for you; it's never been one for me, but every company is
different. Best of luck!

~~~
jobgaps
Thanks! I'm still a bit hesitant to add a section describing the nature of the
hiatus to a list of previous work experiences.

Seems a bit unprofessional to me as if the work experience is sorted in
descending order — the gap is gonna be at the top.

So i'm at crossroads here: risk and add the medical section or prepare an
answer if a follow up question even occurs. With former i'm blatantly throwing
it to the face, with the latter i'm more moderate.

~~~
throaway193023
Contrary to what most people are saying here, I would advise to not mention
medical issues. People are weird: they will be understanding and have
sympathy, but when it comes to who gets the job, there's a good chance this
will work against you. Not openly (it's illegal, after all), but
subconsciously. Don't see this as lying; remember that it is your right to not
mention this. Of course, you shouldn't conjure up some fantasy story of what
you did during that time either, but in my opinion, labeling this as a
sabbatical is OK.

~~~
jobgaps
Thanks for adressing this as this is a very valid point.

I was at the start of the process with two major companies in their respective
markets just weeks after i got hospitalized (which echoed back my 12 mth
hiatus later).

At the initial screening i have mentioned the reason of reschedule to be the
hospital stuff. Words of support and `i know a person who have had the same
problem` type of stuff came along. Next thing i know i'm out of the loop with
both HMs.

One can only question was this a coincidence or an assesment i wasn't going to
fit due to health troubles.

~~~
throaway193023
I'm going out on a limb here, but I'd say this was not a coincidence. For HR,
possible medical issues are _always_ a red flag. This is the reason they're
not allowed to ask about that stuff. Frankly, I'm a bit astonished by the
other answers in this thread who say it's fine to mention this. Ask yourself:
If there's another applicant with similar qualifications but without medical
issues in the past, who would get the job? What can you possibly gain by
mentioning this?

------
mltony
I had a 5 years gap in my career - all medical. Recently, right after that
gap, I was intervieweing with multiple companies - most of them didn't even
ask me, even though I was worried as hell. In the end I got almost all job
offers I wanted. The only notable exception that didn't even grant me a phone
screen was Amazon, their recruiter told me that ML has advanced so much in
those 5 years that all my prior experience is totally irrelevant to them
anymore. Oh, really. Whatever. In the end I ended up joining Facebook.

So with your 12 months gap and your prior experience, I would say nothing to
worry about.

~~~
gervu
> ML has advanced so much in those 5 years that all my prior experience is
> totally irrelevant to them

Most people involved in hiring are either not involved with the work being
hired for, and thus have no idea about that side of things. Or else they're
total amateurs at hiring itself who have, by virtue of having some measure of
authority over it, deluded themselves into thinking they are awesome at it.

Arrogance and bias will lose you an awful lot of qualified applicants.

It's not even that _hard_ to work around that problem, if you're willing to
shut up and listen. You can easily factor an objection as a concern instead of
shutting them down entirely, which lets the applicant either show you that it
isn't a major problem after all, or respond in a way that confirms that maybe
it is.

~~~
Aperocky
I can understand if he's a PhD level scientist recruit. That it takes a while
to digest all the newest methodologies if he hasn't been following.

A data engineer should have no such problem. Anecdotally, when I was recruited
to Amazon, all of the people who made the shots are either SDE or SDM. It
could also be a way of telling you that "This role has already filled", as it
is likely with all of the people lining up for data/machine learning roles.

------
kabdib
I 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.

~~~
Ididntdothis
"If they don't like it, you probably don't want to work there anyway."

That's always important to remember.

~~~
ken
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.

~~~
kabdib
Not complicated. It means, "you probably wouldn't want to work there."

Interviewing is a two-way street. If your potential employer is intensely
interested in your leisure time then that's an interesting signal, because
it's unusual (I've never had a single follow-up question to why I took nearly
a year off) and could point to a bad culture (lots of possibilities here,
including the company being a modern sweatshop or doing very close monitoring
and metricization).

------
loftyai
I can't speak for every company out there, but for us, we've discovered that
resumes and whiteboard challenges are bad predictors of great engineers. So,
we simply come up with a small project that's related to what we would have
you work on if you were hired and give you around a week to finish it. You can
use other people's code snippets online as well as any libraries you see fit.
As long as the end result is good enough, we'd move you to the next step,
which is to just test if you're a good culture fit. I know quite a few other
startups are doing this as well, so maybe the method is becoming popular. I
would recommend you research the companies a bit and see if it's even
something they'd care about first. We wouldn't even ask you to explain a gap
in the first place.

~~~
iso1631
So if you have a years worth of work todo, and 50 people apply, you get the
work done for free?

~~~
viraptor
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 match the internal
style, and also waiting for the solution itself which may not even arrive any
time soon. It's not like every (or even most) candidates will produce
something you'd want to keep.

~~~
iso1631
2 hours sure. A week not-so-much.

OP wasn't clear how big the task was.

~~~
viraptor
Even worse. A week long task without internal context or being able to chat
with people who know it would be next to impossible to prepare. I've seen some
projects which were thoroughly specced and handed over to a consulting agency.
Half were not usable, the other half need heavy fixing. It was never a happy
outcome.

------
dougmwne
First of all, I've done plenty of hiring. You should not worry about a 12
month gap. It will have a minor negative impact on getting callbacks. You
might have to work slightly harder at your applications to compensate. If
you're already getting calls and interviews, you've already passed through the
filter since a gap is most likely to hurt you while a HR recruiter is sorting
through a large pile of resumes.

You can still do things with your resume to make it more likely to get through
the resume pile filter. Did you do any personal projects, classes or open
source that can show continues professional interest and passion? Try putting
something on your resume about it. Or if you've really done nothing but
relax(which is OK!), now can be a good time to start working on professional
development, then you have something to speak to when asked what you've been
doing with your time.

~~~
austincheney
To what degree does Army Reserve experience hurt? I have a lot of military
time that overlaps with my years of employment as a corporate software
developer and am considering taking it off my resume in the future to see if
there is an uptick in interest on my resume.

~~~
ryanmercer
I've never been in HR, or even in a position to hire, but if you put 2 CVs in
front of me that were identical with the exception of one having
guard/reserve/active duty military experience I'd always take the military one
because it tells me they have are more likely to have discipline (even with
knowing how big of screw ups several of my friends that served are).

And if there was a degree, i'd just assume the military was the way it was
paid for as I've got probably a dozen friends that got their 4-year degrees
via their military service.

------
patio11
“Took some time off to explore projects. Exited to get back to work.”

No answer to this question will be cited by the hiring committee/etc as a
reason to thumbs up a candidate; many answers will be cited as a “red flag.”
Give the minimum amount of signal and move on.

------
rossdavidh
The main thing would be to explain that it was medical, that it is over now
and you are healthy again. The fact that it went on a few more months than
necessary isn't really relevant, although saying that you took a few extra
months off at the end just to refresh yourself does reassure that the health
issues are, in fact, all over.

It might be worth practicing, alone in front of a mirror or something,
explaining this. It may or may not get asked, but if it is you want to have
your verbiage ready. But health issues are not rare, and wanting to take time
off because you have the money to do so, is not something most people would
have any problem understanding. I've known several people who did that, and
they all got employed again later, without too much trouble.

------
jedberg
"Family medical emergency".

It's not a lie (you are your own family) and they can't legally ask anything
more.

------
ken
I stopped putting months on my resume. Nobody cares what month you joined or
left. A gap of less than 2 years won't even be noticed.

"Job X, 2000-2003; Job Y, 2004-2008." I guarantee no interviewer is ever going
to say "So you left Job X on December 31st, 2003, and started Job Y on January
1st, 2004? I don't believe it. How long was this gap, really?"

Job hunting often takes months, and software engineers make enough money that
they have enough saved to not need to work every day to make rent. If they
give it any thought at all, interviewers are going to assume you quit in the
fall, spent a few months on vacation, spent a few months on job hunting, and
started again in the spring.

It's become an industry joke in my circles that software engineers never 'take
vacation'. They work hard for 6 to 18 months until their startup goes bust (or
their consulting contract is up), take a few months off, and jump in again.

~~~
anon73044
All the Dev jobs that have required security clearance all wanted exact hire
and termination dates. For some of those from years ago, I'm giving a date in
good faith, but if they really care, they'll catch it in the background check.

------
WWLink
I 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.

~~~
badams2527
Have you been part of the hiring process before? It's very time-consuming,
stressful, and hard to make a choice.

From the interviewers perspective, there's a higher chance that the person who
hasn't worked for 12+ months simply isn't good enough to find a job, and it
could be a waste of their time/resources to interview them instead of the
person who has been consistently working.

~~~
pm24601
> Have you been part of the hiring process before?

Yes for decades.

> It's very time-consuming, stressful, and hard to make a choice.

Yes

> From the interviewers perspective, there's a higher chance that the person
> who hasn't worked for 12+ months simply isn't good enough to find a job

This is called sexism.

Women are most likely to be the person who raises kids takes times off to help
parents.

You have just justified sex discrimination. In you are interviewing, step up
and do the job properly. Interview the candidate not your stereotype.

------
tqi
1) Personally I don't think you need to explicitly address it on your resume.
I personally know lots of tech people who have taken 6-24 month off to travel
and had no problems getting interviews / jobs.

2) The main place I could imagine this gap coming into play is the sourcer
stage (ie the recruiting person who reviews all of the incoming resumes),
since most hiring managers doing resume reviews will mostly be looking for
technologies / job experience. To avoid this you can lean on your network to
see if you can get a referral to roles or look for head hunters who can skip
you to the initial screen.

Good luck!

------
wtracy
TBH, I'm in a similar situation but with three years since I worked in the
industry. I burned out, moved out of the Valley to be close to family, and
worked odd jobs, mostly IT.

The odd jobs are getting old, and I miss programming.

------
k__
I did a sabbatical in 2014 and nobody cared.

I was 16 months without a job. Learned an instrument, tried to built a video
game, studied a bit of CS.

Probably a question of how you frame it.

------
crtlaltdel
I echo folks in this thread who suggest being honest. In my opinion it says a
lot about you and how you communicate, as well as a lot about how the org
thinks about their employees. i mean, you essentially took a sabbatical
(regardless of the reasons) after more than 5 years in your career.
individuals may quibble about the length-before-break, but several companies
have a sabbatical-like perk built into their comp plan.

------
jobgaps
Wow! I really didn't expect the topic would get that much traction.

Props to the commnunity.

I'd like to summarize the points that stood the most strong to myself and that
were most common among the commenters.

The obvious:

* _Don 't lie. If you don't feel like being completely upfront just keep back._

* _Build confidence. You should not feel guilty for taking a break._

* _Don 't put the hiatus at the top of your work experience on CV._

The not so obvious:

* _If you have been on medical, think twice if coming up with this is worth the risk. You may get chewed._

* _Sabbatical is always a safe bet. Elaborate if needed on the achievements, personal growth, projects that you 've been up to._

* _Be prepared to get lowballed if you have no other offers at your disposal._

* _Express eagerness to get back into the game._

The impalpable:

* _Don 't bring the break into focus unless the hiring manager brings it up._

* _Prepare a good answer if being asked on the nature of the gap. Don 't overburden with details, be brief and concise._

Feel free to add points that i might've missed. And thanks again for the good
advice.

------
Techonomicon
Just be honest. Seems fine. As someone who speaks with many candidates a week,
I'm more worried about people who average 1 year at various jobs across 5
years (such as someone working 4-6 jobs in a 5 year span) than someone who has
a year gap that is likely more reasonably explained.

------
erichurkman
Gaps are fine, and normal. Things happen (personal medical, family health,
kids, breaks, personal pivots, ...). Be prepared to talk briefly about them if
asked so you do appear to be caught off guard. Just keep it simple,
consistent, and move on with the conversation.

------
gjmacd
I wouldn't want to work for a company that frowned upon a gap in work
experience based on a medical issue. If the topic comes up, tell the truth. If
they balk, you should run fast and hard from that company.

------
Simulacra
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.

~~~
tabtab
I did this also. I usually had examples or actual websites to show when they
asked for details. Unfortunately, none of my start-ups took off, meaning I'm
stuck in the middle class. 1 or 2 maybe could have if I had devoted full time
to them, but couldn't at the time.

------
toomuchtodo
"I required time off to provide care for a loved one". No further explanation
beyond that is owed.

~~~
wcchandler
And that loved one can be yourself.

~~~
Techonomicon
Yea don't lie. That won't go well if you get hired and now you have to
remember to keep some lie consistent.

~~~
DoofusOfDeath
IMHO another reason to not lie is that it further erodes the character of the
lier. Lying gets easier with practice. The self-discipline of facing
consequences rather than dodging them weakens. Justified guilt accumulates and
weighs down the pyche, at least for some people. It gets harder to trust
others, as it become more normal to assume _they_ are lying to you.

------
oftenwrong
I once took almost 2 years off for no good reason. I traveled, visited friends
and family, relaxed and generally did whatever I wanted. It was a great and
memorable time in my life.

When I started looking for work again, I simply told them that in full
honesty, and explained that I had enough money to do it.

Every interviewer reacted positively. Pretty much all of them said they would
love to take a long time off like that and asked about my travels and about my
projects.

------
slumdev
> 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?

~~~
jobgaps
First of all it is time. Some things heal slow. I thought that for any issue 3
months is just enough. I was wrong.

Second of all - medication. Takes at least six months to see any difference
feel-wise and tests-wise.

> And can you keep this up while working 40 hours a week? Sure. I’m as good as
> new.

~~~
slumdev
Cool. Nobody has any right to pry into your business. But from a practical
standpoint, they would just want to know that it's not going to happen again
because you're taking care of yourself now. That's all.

------
ravenstine
I always just tell the truth. I'd rather work for a company that doesn't think
it's bad that I chose not to work for 9 months. (I've even been asked by
curious interviewers how I was able to take that much time off)

When I was last interviewing, I just said that I took time off to work on side
projects and refresh my mind. I never had a problem. My work experience was
just a little more than yours currently is.

------
grecy
I put my two year travelling gap at the top of my "work history" section. I
listed the skills I learned during that time - I taught myself Spanish,
handled tricky logistical situations (shipping vehicle from Panama to
Colombia), & learned to think on my feet.

Nobody ever talked about it like it was a bad thing, they just wanted to hear
stories from the road! I have no problem getting a Software Engineering job.

------
JDiculous
I recently took 2 years off, and it took a grand total of 2 weeks to interview
at the company that I ended up getting an offer at and working for. I just
told interviewers honestly that I had taken a sabbatical to fulfill one of my
life goals of traveling the world. It didn't work against me as much as I'd
expected it to. Of course I still had to pass the technical interview, which
ultimately companies care most about anyways.

Most companies care primarily about your technical competence and don't really
care about that other stuff. This "job gap" scare is vastly overrated (perhaps
large corporations might be more anal about job gaps if they're just looking
for obedient corporate drones, but there's plenty of work outside those kinds
of companies).

But if you're really worried about the job gap thing, you could say that you
were playing around with new technologies, working on your own side projects /
startup, or freelancing. But if you have other experience, I don't think most
employers really care so long as you're competent.

------
n0cturne
As a longtime hiring manager I have zero issues with a break for health
reasons (or any other reasons). I will ask questions about the break to
understand the circumstances. My concern is how likely it is to reoccur. If
you can show that it’s unlikely to affect your work on our team, and your
skills are otherwise impressive for the role, then it’s no issue at all.

------
techstrategist
Thanks very much for submitting this and to the commenters offering advice.
I’m also trying to come back after a gap and finding it very discouraging. The
positive comments here are really helpful to change my mindset and get back a
positive energy to discuss the meaningful things that I’ve done, even if they
weren’t paid full-time jobs.

------
eternalny1
I have had this happen, twice, due to medical.

I tell them that one was medical and the other was a sabbatical to take time
to learn the latest technologies, as I do not want to scare them off with too
many medical "vacations".

Yes, technically it's lying but it's the only real way I've found to properly
navigate what is a ridiculous system.

------
sawmurai
If the company rejects you for the truth it should probably not have been your
employer anyway. You can use it as a filter.

------
maxk42
I hire and manage developers for a living.

Why on Earth would you not just say exactly what you said here?

I'm sure you could phrase it a little better but, "I had a medical problem for
9+ months and then took several more months to rest after that" is not going
to be viewed unfavorably in any way if your skills are up to date.

~~~
pm24601
.... because I have had a friend that was discriminated against for his
manageable medical condition by a medium-size tech company in the Bay Area.

(Name of company withheld because the litigation is ongoing)

------
renierbotha
I have a similar situation - although my gap is much smaller (~4 months) it
still is big enough to raise questions. But it hasn't. In the last 3-4 months
I've interviewed with over 10 companies (multiple stages) and not one hiring
manager was interested in the gap.

However, that doesn't mean the recruiters who rejected my CV didn't care about
it. And that's why, to avoid any confusion about the gap I added an item on my
resume which indicates what I was up to. In my case, I travelled to India to
do my yoga teachers training course. So I added the course certificate with
the date clearly on my CV.

So to summarize: the best thing to do IMO is to remove the possibility of
confusion by adding any descriptive piece of information on your resume.

------
gnicholas
Medical-triggered gap is joy a big deal. One thing I would worry about as a
potential employer is if the candidate worked somewhere and is trying to hide
that employer so that we can’t talk to them. But if you didn’t actually work,
it’s not much of an issue in my book.

~~~
eq_sd_
I never hid my previous employers but I really don't want companies reaching
out to my previous job. My manager was toxic as hell and actually told me to
give up when I tiptoed into telling him about some mental health issues that I
was working through. He also told me everyone on my team disliked me.
Eventually I did "give up" and stopped trying to impress anyone. I was also
the only woman and felt extremely excluded by default. I ended up only being
there for 6 months.

There isn't really a productive or healthy way to share this with a recruiter.

------
sebdeharlez
I would just be very honest with what happened. My personal opinion is that
every experience, and this includes job gaps for any reasons, can shape your
personnality for the best. If the guy in front of you don't see what's
positive in there, then, it migth be a sign that you should look somewhere
else. This job gap probably had a huge positive influance on your life, since
you now feel healthy, refreshed and passionate. I personaly had a burnout and
had to stop working for a couple of months. When I came back to work, my
employer tried to convince me to leave the company. But when he realized I
wouldn't, he finally abendoned the idea. That year, I surpassed all my goals!
Good luck!

------
motohagiography
I mainly consult and contract, so 2-4months on the bench is normal.

Anyone who asks is just trying to get leverage.

~~~
blaser-waffle
> Anyone who asks is just trying to get leverage.

How so? As in, "you're out of the job market for a while, so you seem sketchy,
and thus I'm going to pay you less"?

~~~
motohagiography
Handle it delicately, but yes.

------
dougb5
I would tell them exactly what you've told us and not try to mitigate it. And
emphasize that you feel rejuvenated. Having taken this break, you may be in a
better spot now than many people who have been (formally) employed
continuously for the same time.

------
fredgrott
I suggest a different route..find something new that you explored, if its
reading up on something and compose a mini-thesis of what that subject can
bring to the table as far as you applying it.

IE instead of excuse you are showing added value...much better position for
you

------
Ascetik
If they don't hire you because you decided to take a year off then they're not
worth working for. It's easy to be in the corporate mindset when you interview
someone that this person must be somehow not a "team-player" or "go-getter"
because he actually values life above working like a slave robot. Work for
someone who understands the human element of life and doesn't treat another
human being like an object or projects the reliability and uptime of computers
to the human element.

There is a huge lack of empathy in corporate environments today which is
incredibly dangerous, I think that's why work satisfaction is at an all-time
low.

------
sneak
I wouldn’t mention it; I presume because you are posting here that you are
working in technology and, compared to most people, make a lot of money.

One nice thing about that is, of course, that we don’t have to work all of the
time to cover our expenses.

That seems obvious to most people working in our field, I think.

I wouldn’t worry about mitigating it. If they ask, I would say something along
the lines of what the other commenters mentioned re: sabbatical, but I don’t
really assume anyone will ask. It’s not the red flag that it would be for
someone working closer to wage slavery (where a gap might mean something more
dire due to the necessity of constant work).

------
GoToRO
Your 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.

------
ajkjk
You just do it!

I took 3 years off between two jobs to burn through my savings. I just said "I
took three years off to burn through my savings" to people and they were like
"cool, fine, as long as you can still code".

~~~
copperx
I don't get the rationalization. You did not want to have any savings, so you
took the time to burn them off?

Surely I'm missing something here.

~~~
ajkjk
No, I had savings, and didn't want to work, so I didn't work for the amount of
time it took to have no savings left.

------
hkiely
Often times recruiters are not allowed to probe any further once you bring up
a medical issue. The difficulty then becomes, being able to draw upon relevant
and timely situations to answer questions in an interview.

------
aramcobrat
There are two major issues employers have with employment gaps.

1\. Were you in jail. 2\. Did your skills decline.

As long as you weren't in jail and you can show in the interview that you
still have the technical skills, you should be fine.

Also, it's none of your employer's business and you could tell a innocuous
white lie. If you don't want your employer to know your business, just make
something up. After you start the job, it won't ever come up again.

Something everyone should take to heart: Fake it, til you make it. Just get
through the door however you can and then perform. That's all that matters.

------
sonabinu
I had a 12 year gap. Went back to school, did entry level internships and then
got a grad level internship which later became a full time position. You need
a story and also talk to what you did to get back. There will always be folks
who see the gap before they see anything else, but there will be others who
find your passion real. Also network a ton, find mentors. After every
interview do a retrospective with self and ask yourself what went well and
what didn’t. This helped me a lot to perfect my story to an elevator pitch
under 2 minutes.

------
sprashanth
FWIW, in some places, even employment status is a protected category:
[https://www.foxrothschild.com/publications/new-york-city-
now...](https://www.foxrothschild.com/publications/new-york-city-now-
prohibits-discrimination-based-on-unemployment-status-over-mayors-veto/)

I remember my employer mentioning how questions can no longer ask what the
candidate is working on, but can only ask the candidate's experience (no
pointers about timeline of such experience).

------
idbytes78
I have a similar background as yours, a gap of 1 year, 5 years of experience
and I joined a startup 2 days back. I dint really felt any difference in the
way companies treat people with or without a break, if you are technically
sound nothing else matters. But, a few companies might negotiate for salary as
you don't have any offer in hand. It's always good to do small projects and
upgrade your skill set during the break. Anyways you have medical reason, so
it shouldn't be a problem.

------
scarejunba
One guy I hired just had it listed there as hiatus on his resume. His company
was acquired and he took some time off after vesting. Didn't stop me. It
didn't actually work out in that case, but I don't think it was because he
took the time off.

EDIT for reply since I'm rate-limited:

> The period was slightly over a year. The resume described what he did which
> was roughly (without going into detail that would de-anonymize) "spend time
> in a tropical country relaxing". He described what he did to me verbally.

~~~
jobgaps
Was the hiatus period large?

Did the resume provide the explanation to hiatus or that was communicated
verbally in a talk?

------
jimmont
I personally don’t answer questions about this or salary. The discussion is
about working together now into the future. Saying no and why is this question
important to you (if it’s really of interest) seems the most ethical thing to
do without more info. As I recall one State recently and finally made it
illegal to ask about prior salary, and in Oakland about criminal record for
housing. These one sided concerns are bad for the economy short and long term.
Competition and focus drive innovation.

------
bluGill
"Personal reasons" or "health reasons" \- if they probe farther they get into
questions they are not legally allowed to ask. Just remember that the law (at
least in the US) protects you from answering details - if they have been
briefed at all about how to interview legally they will instantly back off
that line of questioning.

Try to stay at your next job for at least 2 years (5 is better) so your next
resume can just show the year you started/stopped working there thus hide the
gap.

~~~
inetknght
> _Just remember that the law (at least in the US) protects you from answering
> details - if they have been briefed at all about how to interview legally
> they will instantly back off that line of questioning._

It's been my experience that interviewers do _not_ back off of that question.

It's news to me that it's a legally protected question.

~~~
bluGill
See a lawyer for legal advice.

They need to be very careful about probing. Personal reasons quickly leads to
family status which is illegal to ask about. Likewise health can mean a
disability that they are not allowed to ask about. For both of these it is
important to remember the courts will judge with hindsight - given a sensitive
situation was the cause of being out of work how can the deeper probing not be
an effort to find out about the situation they are not legally allowed to ask
about? Thus extreme care must be used in probing farther to ensure it is clear
you are not asking about anything illegal.

Bottom line: it is legal to probe but you better have a lawyer do the probing
because the questions too quickly can be something it isn't legal to ask.

~~~
tropo
It's perfectly legal to ask.

It is however an invitation for legal trouble, because it will change the
presumption of discrimination. If the question isn't asked, then the employer
doesn't know, and thus it isn't possible that the information could have been
used in a way that harms a protected class. (like race, religion, over-40,
Vietnam veteran, sex, etc.)

Yes, you can ask about all that stuff. You can ask if somebody is a Mormon or
a Jew or whatever. Your boss will probably be unhappy, because then it becomes
an uphill battle to show that you didn't use the answer to discriminate
against a protected class.

------
xzel
Like a lot of the comments here most people don't even notice the gaps if
they're less than a year. I've taken 9 months of due to significant other
starting a grad program and 6 months off to live in another country. No one
has ever asked me in an interview. Mind you this is over about 5 years so I've
only worked about 3.6 of the 5. Since then I've done quite a large number of
interviews (had a case of bad job fit about a year ago).

------
Finnucane
"That's classified."

~~~
tabtab
"I worked for _Men in Black_ , which is now _People in Black_." Or, "I worked
in Area 15, helping dyslexic aliens."

------
lucozade
If it's your only significant break then it should be ok.

You should try to be reasonably up front about it i.e. make it clear on your
resume that the break was for medical reasons. You shouldn't need to get into
details. It's conceivable that some recruiters may have issue with it, but
they are just as likely (if not more so) to have issue with an unexplained
gap.

If you're asked about it just be positive: you're completely healthy now and
raring to go.

------
bduerst
Be honest - just talk about what you did if they ask about the gap. Say you
planned for it, saved a good amount of money, and took time off to improve
yourself. It's becoming more common these days as sabbaticals or what not.

Be sure to also talk about what you learned during that period too though,
specifically how you grew as an individual, etc. It doesn't need to be work
related per se, but an improvement of some sort.

------
ahnberg
You can explain it either honestly with medical issue during an interview,
phrase it as a sabbatical where you focused on something else or yourself for
a year to figure out what you wanted, and did projects on the side instead of
working.

Or a "fun" way is to claim you worked for any government agency who would
never verify or deny that you ever worked for them. :P

------
vl
Most will not even ask for liability reasons: interviewers at large companies
are trained not to ask questions that can expose company to a lawsuit, which
basically includes all personal questions, including medical, etc. I.e. most
simple example, interviewer asks candidate about age, candidate doesn’t get
hired, files lawsuit about age discrimination.

------
dean177
I 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?

------
Rounin
You could just say what you just told us - that you took a break for a medical
reason, and then chose to take some extra time off. There is something to be
said for not trying too hard, but focusing on going to interviews and enjoying
the experience. Having 5+ years of work experience is said to be a huge
advantage as well.

------
jfoster
This sounds to me like the type of thing an employer would look for to have a
reason not to hire. If potential employers are looking for this, something is
already wrong. It could be market-driven (eg. too many people to choose from)
or they already don't want to hire you, or something else.

------
pm24601
If you feel it is really significant - invent a startup idea that you were
exploring. It didn't work out. There are so many failed ideas in tech.

This gives you a way to put your outside learning in a "work" situation.

Don't overexplain. "The idea was X. We explored it until we determined the
idea was not viable."

------
grumpy8
I'd just say I worked on personal projects for a year to learn new
libraries/languages/frameworks.

------
zentiggr
I've recently gotten back into a programming job after 8 mo out of work and
ten years before that doing desktop support instead of my original focus on
coding.

Getting back into the flow is certainly doable.

Be honest about the basic situation, don't answer discriminatory questions,
and the right companies will give you a shot.

------
jczhang
A lot of interesting responses here. While I agree with being honest about it,
one issue is that the resume might be overlooked because there is a gap and
you never get a chance to explain it. I am basically having to solve the same
problem currently so @jobgap if you'd like to discuss pm me.

------
gumby
Nobody has ever asked (then again perhaps someone has declined to talk to me
for that reason?). In my cases the answer (had anyone asked) would have been
easy: I took multi-year gaps to look after my kid. But it has literally not
been an issue (note: my work experience is over 30 years).

------
TidyChemistry
Or you could just lie like companies lie about job responsibilities. Use your
friend as a reference.

------
tdhz77
“I want to talk about something that some may say is a weakness. I took a Sab.
But, I want to talk about my strengths and why I’m a good fit.. “

Always start with your weak points and finish strong. Setting the bar low
early will make them think highly of you.

------
erokar
Make something up. Say you were traveling, pursuing some art project, a
startup idea, etc.

~~~
lucasmullens
I would much rather hire someone who took some time off than a liar.

------
contingencies
Tell them you founded a job applicant filtering startup that ultimately failed
because it couldn't parse whitespace. Then wait for them to laugh. Then if
they don't laugh, get up and leave: _I think we 're done here._

------
grawprog
If it was something like a 5 year gap I'd probably have some questions at
least about what was going on in that time, a year or so and I probably
wouldn't notice as long as everything else on the resume looked good.

------
thih9
Be honest about it. You’ve done nothing wrong, on the contrary. It’s perfectly
fine to rest when you feel you need it.

To your employer it’s an asset, you’re full of energy and you can start work
on short notice.

------
esaym
"Took 12 months off for self directed sabbatical"

------
pkaye
I think gaps are not a big deal particularly for heath reasons. If you have
some solid references from previous jobs it should alleviate any concerns.

------
TomVDB
If you don’t want to tell the truth (and why would you not?), tell them you
were caring for a sick family member. Nobody’s going to question that!

------
viggity
1\. Just shorted your dates worked from Month+Year to just Year. that'll hide
gaps 2\. Say you were working for yourself, consulting, etc.

------
ctdonath
How about a mother with a 10-year gap raising kids?

------
Trias11
Don't leave gaps.

Add "consulting".

You may consult anyone for anything and as long as the reader could verify it
(in case it gets to that) you're good.

------
minblaster
Short term, follow the advice here.

Long term, work toward financial freedom so you don’t need to contort your
life to appease some HR gatekeeper.

------
joncp
I spent a few months one summer just reading and perfecting my gin and tonic
recipe. Nobody gave a rat's patootie.

------
thom
Just tell the truth. You don't want to work somewhere that doesn't understand
basic human stuff.

------
gdsdfe
Just say exactly why you wrote above, I don't see why you need another thing
to say

------
iampims
Just say you took a sabbatical.

------
hkiely
When returning to the workplace, the issue quickly turns to references.

------
kevin_thibedeau
You resume will be tossed in the reject bin by the scoring algorithm.

------
qwerty456127
> Even if it is a red flag

Why is it?

------
dominotw
tell the truth but use hipster words like , restoration, elevation,
inspiration ect.

