What is wrong with having an employment gap? (cover letters, apply, profit)

[criminaljusticegrad]

All those post above are just sugar coating a simple and obvious truth. 'People' generally look upon gaps with disdain because they believe it allows them to classify people into three categories. These categories are 1) lazy sods 2) people society has made dogma for them to resent due to rejecting the cookie cutter chronology of life and 3) active dreamers or caregivers. How applicable those labels actually are, regardless of the specific circumstances of the person, is not fully taken into account. People simply tend to listen to the surface and generalize characteristic from it that they use to disqualify based on wild instinct.

Edit: Think about it for yourself. If you hear someone has a cycle of five years working and five years off, what's your immediate thought? I'm not talking about that politically correct stuff that comes up later, bu the true core nastiness. The world of the average person is more assumptions instead of facts.

[annerk]

Originally Posted by criminaljusticegrad

Edit: Think about it for yourself. If you hear someone has a cycle of five years working and five years off, what's your immediate thought? I'm not talking about that politically correct stuff that comes up later, bu the true core nastiness. The world of the average person is more assumptions instead of facts.

Please speak for yourself. It would make me want more information. Hopefully they would have had the common sense to explain in a cover letter so there was no surprise by the time I got to the resume.

[sware2cod]

I took a year off on purpose. Then worked another year and took 6 months off. Each time, I did not have problems finding work. Am afraid to take more than a year off because then the gap gets too obvious.

One interview when they asked about the year off...I explained that I got a great severance package at my prior employer and had worked 10 years there and planned to take 1 year off. I explained that I traveled and visited friends and family. This is all true.(I also got into fitness and lost weight . This took a lot of dedication and time, but I did not want to mention this in an interview. Sure, it meant I was not lazy, but I didnt want them to think I was unhealthy at one time, because this is a big negative. I also did some major home renovation and bought furnitire and such. had time to shop the sales during the week. Oh... It was a great year off. ).

I dont understand why you are categorized as lazy if not working. I was busy all the time. And I didn't go to school and I didn't volunteer for charity and I didnt sit on the couch and watch TV or play computer games. Life can keep you very busy and very satisfied and you brain can be growing, even without working.

During a group interview, I had to hold my glow as much as possible when asked about my time off, because that year was great. The others on the team all say "that's nice, we wish we could do that". I got hired for that position.

The 1 year off was within a couple weeks of being exactly 1 year.

The next time off was 6 months because I really no longer needed to work and my plan is to work half the time and be off half the time. In my line of work you cannot find part-time work, but you can find work that is full-time but for 6 months or 12 month stints. So I do this now. The reason for leaving is that the contract expired. This makes it easy to explain.

In reality, I am semi-retired. But I can never, ever say this in any interviews because the word retire makes you sound old. And I am far from being old. Actually am not even in the baby boom generation. Just saved enough money that I dont need to work for a living. But I do work because I love, love, love the type of work that I do. It is massively exciting and so fun. I dont lose any skills and am able to immediately jump in and be productive when I go back to work. because I am energized from taking time off, i find I can work at a very fast pace and my brain is fresh and can go full speed. I think I am a better worker because of the time off.

However, taking time off is also fun. But I do have to hide this fact. Oh, i do a lot of stock trading when taking time off work. I make enough on this that I dont need to work and I enjoy it. But you cannot say this in an interview, they will think you will trade at work. I never ever trade stocks at work. When I am in periods of employment, I do my stock research and trades on evenings and weekends and then the trades kick in when the market is open.

One thing that helps hide the gaps on my resume....I only put the years (not months) on the resume.

[lifeexplorer]

Originally Posted by criminaljusticegrad

All those post above are just sugar coating a simple and obvious truth. 'People' generally look upon gaps with disdain because they believe it allows them to classify people into three categories. These categories are 1) lazy sods 2) people society has made dogma for them to resent due to rejecting the cookie cutter chronology of life and 3) active dreamers or caregivers. How applicable those labels actually are, regardless of the specific circumstances of the person, is not fully taken into account. People simply tend to listen to the surface and generalize characteristic from it that they use to disqualify based on wild instinct.

Edit: Think about it for yourself. If you hear someone has a cycle of five years working and five years off, what's your immediate thought? I'm not talking about that politically correct stuff that comes up later, bu the true core nastiness. The world of the average person is more assumptions instead of facts.

Hmm, nooo.

The first thing that comes into my mind is that whether or not the gap would affect their knowledge and skill as required to perform the job. If the answer is no, then I would be just curious as why the gap. Regardless what the answer is, it wouldn't matter much unless the candidate goes "I have been looking for job for years but nobody wants to hire me."

[hopefulone]

Ok all of you in position to hire someone, what would be some acceptable reasons for a gap? I already know that "some" hiring managers will reject you no matter the reason, but for those that really care about others what are some acceptable reasons?

[lifeexplorer]

Originally Posted by hopefulone

Ok all of you in position to hire someone, what would be some acceptable reasons for a gap? I already know that "some" hiring managers will reject you no matter the reason, but for those that really care about others what are some acceptable reasons?

I haven't met a hiring manager who would reject you no matter of what. They have already seen your resume and known there's a gap. So it's not the mere presence of the gap got you rejected - you wouldn't be invited to explain the gap if that were the reason.

I highlighted the part that is important for you below.

"The first thing that comes into my mind is that whether or not the gap would affect their knowledge and skill as required to perform the job. If the answer is no, then I would be just curious as why the gap. Regardless what the answer is, it wouldn't matter much unless the candidate goes 'I have been looking for job for years but nobody wants to hire me.'"

In my line of work, stuff get old very quickly. I'd like to hear:

- I went to school to get educated.
- I studied by technical certification and got them

[annerk]

Originally Posted by hopefulone

Ok all of you in position to hire someone, what would be some acceptable reasons for a gap? I already know that "some" hiring managers will reject you no matter the reason, but for those that really care about others what are some acceptable reasons?

Took a "sabbatical" type break/leave of absence between jobs to write a book, see the world, do charity work, tend to an ill relative, tend to personal illness, stay-at-home with my children, take classes, train for the Olympics, etc all work for me, however I don't hire for any technical positions where a year off my really affect the ability to do the job What I don't want to hear is "I sat around in my tighty-whities and played Age of Empires" all day for a year until I had the top score in the Universe. Um, yeah.

If the white space is due to a lay off, I want to see something like: Took online classes in A-B-C to expand my skill set, volunteered at XYZ (and what you did, hopefully it was in some way relevant), participated in "insert name of networking group here" meetings and activities to expand my professional network.

[hopefulone]

Originally Posted by lifeexplorer

I haven't met a hiring manager who would reject you no matter of what. They have already seen your resume and known there's a gap. So it's not the mere presence of the gap got you rejected - you wouldn't be invited to explain the gap if that were the reason.

I am talking about those that look at a resume and see a gap in employment, even if there is an explanation for it in a cover letter or even on a resume and decide to not even give that person an interview or chance. There are some hiring managers out there like that even if you have never met them.

[hopefulone]

Originally Posted by criminaljusticegrad

All those post above are just sugar coating a simple and obvious truth. 'People' generally look upon gaps with disdain because they believe it allows them to classify people into three categories. These categories are 1) lazy sods 2) people society has made dogma for them to resent due to rejecting the cookie cutter chronology of life and 3) active dreamers or caregivers. How applicable those labels actually are, regardless of the specific circumstances of the person, is not fully taken into account. People simply tend to listen to the surface and generalize characteristic from it that they use to disqualify based on wild instinct.

Agreed.

[annerk]

Originally Posted by hopefulone

I am talking about those that look at a resume and see a gap in employment, even if there is an explanation for it in a cover letter or even on a resume and decide to not even give that person an interview or chance. There are some hiring managers out there like that even if you have never met them.

There are also hiring managers that won't look at the resume from anyone named Michele because that was their hated college roommates name. There are managers who won't hire anyone from BIC because they had a problem with a pen that leaked ink on their shirt 15 years ago. There are managers who won't hire anyone who went to Duke because they went to UNC.

You simply can't win them all.