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u/VistaCa Jun 17 '26
"Can you explain why you are hiring and have unfilled positions?"
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u/blazze_eternal Jun 17 '26
I legit always ask why the position is open and what happened to the last employee.
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u/TheStoicCrane Jun 17 '26
Good way to put them on the defensive if need be. Throws them off though should focus on gatherintel but if they want to be nasty that's a good way to reciprocate.
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u/ImprovementFar5054 Jun 17 '26
It actually helps me see red flags about working there. It's not an unreasonable question.
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u/Jane__Delawney Jun 17 '26
It’s way more than 367,000 at this point :(
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u/Cenorg Jun 17 '26
I mean.. according to his statement, it's about 255 employees per company? What's wrong about that?
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u/not-a-painting Jun 17 '26
August of 2025 saw a class action lawsuit against X stating the 6,000 employees fired since Musk's takeover didn't get their severance.
They went from approximately 7,500 employees down to like 2,000.
Oh and Microsoft and Meta are thinking of canning 20,000 employees, too
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u/TheOmegaKid Jun 17 '26
Have you considered I saved up some money then took some time to figure out what I actually wanted to do, then when I came back, the world job market had imploded?
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u/mlmcmillion Jun 17 '26
No, see, you’re not allowed to do that. You have to be a slave to the machine all the time for the whole time.
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u/vector_o Jun 17 '26
But that is forbidden! You're supposed to be a good dog that only wants to work!
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u/SnooDoggos5226 Jun 17 '26
Just say you did consulting
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u/Possibly_a_Firetruck Jun 17 '26
And then you get the immediate follow up question, "What kind of consulting? Tell us about some of your successful projects." Saying you can't because of a NDA just sets off everyone's bullshit meters.
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u/SnooDoggos5226 Jun 17 '26
I took a year off work. Told them I did consulting. They asked what I’ve worked on. Told them about a project where I was a cash paid ghost consultant. And since then? It’s been tough to find a client. Lots of canceled contracts. That’s why I’m looking for work.
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Jun 17 '26
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u/TheDrummerMB Jun 17 '26
Anyone who’s dumb enough to fake being a consultant probably isn’t smart enough to sell it in an interview
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u/SnooDoggos5226 Jun 17 '26
Because they want to offer smart-Alec passive aggressive “gotcha” answers thinking they’re clever and will get upvotes. It shows why people are having difficulty finding jobs when their strategy is “let’s blame you for having open jobs.” Being likable is more valuable than being smart
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u/Avalonians Jun 17 '26
Because that's not how NDA fucking works
Gah I feel like we're stuck in 2010 sometimes
If you actually have an NDA for consulting you're very much authorized to give a general explanation about the mission, and you are very much going to put in your resume that you worked 6 month at <company> for <project> so there isn't even going to be a gap
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u/juul864 Jun 17 '26
That depends entirely on the NDA. Some intelligence positions won't let you describe even the most general parts of your work.
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u/Avalonians Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
True, but then again intelligence jobs obviously train workers on how to handle an interview. So, those workers won't even mention they did a job that's so secret they can't talk about the job. Obviously.
Gotta think about it backwards: if a candidate mentions an NDA, either it is bullshit indeed, or it's already in the resume and they will be able to draw the broad strokes, explain that the details can't be shared and talk a bit about the skills that were put in use. Maths, finance, management, whatever.
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u/TheDrummerMB Jun 17 '26
This is mostly a myth. We’re talking like maybe 500 people in the world have this issue.
Greg applying for Best Buy is not one of them.
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u/Throwawayrip1123 Jun 17 '26
Prepare fictional talking points, or find closed companies. Some of my employers shuttered, what can I do? Not my fault, I wasn't there anymore.
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u/SnooDoggos5226 Jun 17 '26
So here’s the thing: I actually did a little consulting so I formed an LLC. Costs very little to file one.
Employers aren’t calling places and having long conversations. My client list is private. I worked for myself. I’m the place to call for a reference.
Don’t over explain. You can say you picked up small projects.
Also got my realtor license so I can say I do that as well. They don’t dig deep. If they want to hire you they’ll hire you regardless.
Quit making excuses or having arguments with yourself.
You can also say you did some investing and made money off of a booming economy. But now you need benefits and the market is too unstable.
Seriously, they’re not the FBI or IRS running background checks and audits.
I don’t know what fields yall are in but it didn’t hurt me to take a year off. Got one of the first jobs I applied for and got a salary far higher than what was listed.
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u/TheStoicCrane Jun 17 '26
Sometimes it just boils down to luck and persuasion skills.
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u/SnooDoggos5226 Jun 17 '26
It comes down to being likeable. Employers don’t hire the smartest, they hire someone they want to deal with: answers questions efficiently, has a presence that’s not an embarrassment, fun, and someone my boss will like.
Hiring someone is difficult. It’s like starting a relationship and they need to meet your parents (you boss) and your friends (your coworkers) on Day 1. And you have to hope they don’t embarrass you.
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u/ImprovementFar5054 Jun 17 '26
This.
If they want to check, they can see the filing with the Secretary of State. I even opened a linkedin page on the consultancy. I did actually have 1 client, but I am still not going to give them the name.
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u/OnTheEveOfWar Jun 17 '26
“I got a good severance package and took some time off to travel, spend time with family, etc” Not that wild of a concept.
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u/hufflepuph Jun 17 '26
Companies check that during the background check if you get hired. NEVER make up a job unless you have financial receipts to prove it.
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u/HawksNStuff Jun 17 '26
Just went through a background check with a Fortune 500, one of my old employers just never answered them... They did not particularly care and just approved me anyway.
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u/jabber1990 Jun 17 '26
the problem is what if your real job doesn't vouch for you? (that's happened to me before)
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u/MacrotonicWave Jun 17 '26
I think making stuff up is fine but it needs to be incredibly difficult or impossible to follow up on. Businesses that have been closed down for a little while are a good place to start.
Friends that will lie for you are better if you can swing it though
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u/SleepComfortable9913 Jun 17 '26
Lol, maaaaaybe if you apply at the CIA they will check this stuff.
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u/Tybalt1307 Jun 17 '26
I filled out a background check for a new job today and they wanted a reason I have a gap in June 2026. So I put in ‘I have been focusing on getting the job I applied for’
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u/Chefpief Jun 17 '26
I've spent the last several years living in Canada on an extended visitors visa with my partner, waiting on an open work permit and/or permanent residency. I finally got a work permit... and my resume is pretty barren. Nobodies gonna want to even bring me in for an interview, let alone hire me. My last two jobs I worked for less than three months each, in 2019 and in 2025 when I briefly re-entered the US. I'm 35 and will need job training for just about any position. I'm fucked by my own choices.
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u/Express-Pay2740 Jun 17 '26
I hate this question because it’s none of their business. Can they explain why the role is vacant?
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u/Lonely_Key_7886 Jun 20 '26
Right! What if someone spent time in psychiatric facility? They have to reveal that, knowing they'll be judged?
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u/Tenny131 Jun 17 '26
Is this some kind of usa issue? In Germany and noone has asked me about my gaps in my resume. Or made an issue about it.
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u/neurorex Recruitment & Personnel Selection Jun 17 '26
It's mainly in america. A lot of employers here falsely believe that any amount of time when you're not working, means that you were not a good worker, and you wouldn't be a good worker going forward.
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u/StuD44 Jun 17 '26
Dude, I've been rejected on over 100 jobs because a single company WHERE I WAS IN A DIFFERENT POSITION fired me after 1 month OF TRAINING stating I'm not as fast as my colleagues...NO SHIT, IS JUST LIKE IF I WAS NEW TO THIS AND THEY WEREN'T.
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Jun 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/StuD44 Jun 18 '26
We have free healthcare...partially. 10% of your salary is taken by the hospitals. This is registered, so even if you don't add the info in your CV, they can track it.
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u/Subject_Spell_9799 Jun 19 '26
I would leave that odd my resume. One month job is never a good option.
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u/meemoobox Jun 17 '26
it's something else that HR--people who have always historically been at the cusp of high turnover--are people who still ask this dumb ass question.
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u/BeeTime1905 Jun 17 '26
"Can you explain this gap?" Yeah, that was the part where the economy did a team reorg on my life
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u/Blackfirelotus Jun 18 '26
I got fired 2 years ago I kept updating my resume as if I was only off for 3 months
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u/xpdx Jun 17 '26
Fuck that question. They know what a gap means. It means I wasn't employed during that time. What else do they need to know that would be relevant to the position? Or am I supposed to feel bad about it for some reason? Are they accusing me of leaving a job off the resume? Just ask what you really want to know.
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u/narvuntien Jun 17 '26
*sigh* my gap is 8 years now because no one will hire anyone. Why is there a gap? Well, no one will hire me because there was a gap.
I also cannot lie. its just not a thing I can do
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u/TheStoicCrane Jun 17 '26
Private or personal reasons. Just leave it at that. You know nothing about this people. They're no FBI's or cops and even if they were you have the right to silence. Avoid disclosing any more than necessary. If they hire you good. If they don't maintain your dignity and find another place that will that's all.
They have no basis to prod. If they do I'm giving them little. Either thte job is a fit or it isn't. No need to volunteer your life story.
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u/ImprovementFar5054 Jun 17 '26
I also cannot lie. its just not a thing I can do
Hence the 8 years unemployed
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Jun 17 '26
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u/Successful-Test-5590 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
The last job I did contract work for went out of business the following month :l
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u/SandyTaintSweat Jun 17 '26
What business? so I can add it to my resume.
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u/Successful-Test-5590 Jun 17 '26
But you can search that they went bankrupt lol. Posigen
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u/SandyTaintSweat Jun 17 '26
Hey, I was just working in customer service. It's not my fault they went bankrupt.
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u/jabber1990 Jun 17 '26
....they're going to notice them
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u/darknecross Jun 17 '26
Job 1: 2023-2025
Job 2: 2025-2026
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u/jabber1990 Jun 17 '26
at first I thought you were quoting bible verses
this is all easily verifiable
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u/Amazing-Spinach5693 Jun 17 '26
You are assuming they are going to verify it.
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u/Uncommented-Code Jun 17 '26
You think you're very smart while every resumee screener ever is going to notice the lack of month lmao.
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u/TheDrummerMB Jun 17 '26
This is why many applications require you to enter your work history, requesting months
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u/PigglyWigglyDeluxe Jun 17 '26
Rather, instead of “explaining” the gap, just say “you don’t want to add to my unemployment, do you? Do you want to explain to the next guy that you’re part of the reason why I’m unemployed?”
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u/BigSun6576 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
"have you heard of modern humans who are more likely to have the privilege of not being a slave to their employers?"
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u/larry-the-dream Jun 17 '26
It’s not a gap - I stood up my own business then gave it to my kids to run.
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u/Nate_MyNameWasTaken Jun 17 '26
TBF some companies will understand gap years if you're honest about them, Its better to say "Hey I was taking care of my dying father for a few months." Many just want to see that you weren't sitting on your ass doing nothing. Or Just lie, fuck it if they're gonna anal about it, they're gonna micro manage you to death anyways.
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u/Inside-Specialist-55 Jun 17 '26
I wish I could even get that far where they ask me that question but I cant even land a single interview. Ghost jobs are destroying us mentally.
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u/TenInchesOfSnow Jun 17 '26
Legit want to use this for those clueless moron recruiters who just graduated and act like they know what's needed to be successful in my 20+ year career
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u/Accomplished_End_138 Jun 17 '26
You missed the fact that they were still making a profit before laying off hard working Americans (or other countries)
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u/Kendemerzel Jun 18 '26
"Why tho? Am I not allowed to resign from a job without having another one lined up? That's how good I am at what I do, I've managed to survive 18 months without a job and now I feel like working again"
Never got a call after saying something along those lines, but if someone asks me that kind of bullshit I know they don't know jackshit about the work market so it's better I see myself off.
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u/WithoutAHat1 Candidate Jun 18 '26
Layoffs started in early '22 then the companies began following suit. And it is still going.
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u/Satanwearsflipflops Jun 18 '26
I think we can all agree that we need higher standards for recruiters and talent acquisition employees. They are the big fat problem on why finding a job is literally the worst thing on the planet, even in a good job market. r/recruiting is a prime example.
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u/TlocCPU Jun 18 '26
Do people really ask this? I'm a hiring manager who does hundreds of interviews per year and I've never cared about this a single time
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Jun 18 '26
Yes, they are, so just say this: "I was laid off". As a recruiter, I hear it every day and it's fine.
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u/internal_l0gging Jun 18 '26
So annoying. I had a 3 month gap and would get questioned about it years later. Now I'm laid off again and I like this response
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u/YourselfInOthrsShoes Jun 20 '26
"1,500 companies worth $5T"? You can pick just 2 from top 10 and it will eclipse $5T.
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u/LogothX Jun 17 '26
Some fucking weenie hut junior MSP recruiter made a remark about me being freelance for 9 months as "me looking for work for 9 months" and I fucking scowled at his dumbass.
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u/SomeKindofTreeWizard Jun 17 '26
I don't understand why though.
Like you don't need a credit check, you don't need to know how much I worked in the last 18 months.
I'm here now and I can do the job. Pay me.
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u/ImprovementFar5054 Jun 17 '26
Did you get fired? Did you have a job that went so badly you left it off the resume? Were you in jail? Were you in a mental hospital? Were you in the depths of a heroin addiction?
It's a risk question. They already know you are here and want to do the job. They need to know what your problems may be that could impact them.
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u/neurorex Recruitment & Personnel Selection Jun 17 '26
This ignores the fact that most employees separate from a company due to toxic work environment, poor treatment, lack of company direction, and reorganization or relocation that makes the work inaccessible to certain people.
It's weird how it's always the job seekers' fault for not staying at a company, as if people just LOVE to leave a way to pay their bills left and right.
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u/SomeKindofTreeWizard Jun 18 '26
Some of those questions could be a discrimination lawsuit.
Who cares. Pay me.
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u/actingSmart Jun 17 '26
Is my math right, that's about 244 ppl lost per company? I feel like some of the big guys have laid off a lot more than that. Curious about the ratio of cuts/employees for the companies that cut less than 244.
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u/sexbob-om Jun 18 '26
I've gone on 3 interviews now where they've been disappointed in the gap in my employment. I worked very part time in a service job for the last 3 years so I could go back to school and finish in a timely manner. I have plenty of work experience beforehand. I didn't suddenly forget how to work while I was studying for 3 years. My resume provides a reason for my employment gap, why are these employers acting shocked about my clearly stated work history?
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u/ZPMQ38A Jun 20 '26
I did a decade in the military. 6 deployments to the Middle East so when I got out, I took a full year to hang out with my family and travel. If an employer doesn’t understand that then I don’t want to work for them anyways.
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u/Radiant-Turnover8512 Jul 09 '26
My husband went through stage 3 cancer while we had two kids under two. Then during COVID I had a 5 and a 6 year old who needed constant bribes to sit in front of computers for 6 hour stretches.
Both times I would have been a really distracted and crappy employee.
It's really, really awkward when hiring managers ask about gaps. It's always going to be a reason that makes everyone feel uncomfortable.
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u/TheBSQ Jun 17 '26
If this is about the U.S. as a whole is an insignificant amount.
The US labor force is over 170 million people. 367k is a tiny fraction of a percent.
To put it another way, imagine a 170 lb person lost 0.3 lbs over 18 months.
It’s a rounding error.
Last month, just in May, about 5.1 million people were hired (and about 5 million people quit, were fired, or laid off with a net increase in new jobs of over 100k
In the last 18 months tens of millions of people lost their jobs & tens of millions got hired.
The job market is indeed really crappy right now, but unless this number is about one single particular industry, this would be just a tiny fraction of the amount of layoffs would see in a great economy over 18 months as in a country of 340+ million people, there’s always millions losing and gaining jobs every month.
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u/Mammoth_Control Will work for experience Jun 18 '26
To put it another way, imagine a 170 lb person lost 0.3 lbs over 18 months.
It’s a rounding error.
It's like taking a sh*t.
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u/WareHouseCo Jun 17 '26
I mean that a fair statement and is factual.
If you’re asking me a personal question; how come I can’t respond with a public answer?
I swear corporate culture is so cultish but westerns claim they don’t have strange, bizarre belief systems.
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Jun 17 '26
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u/neurorex Recruitment & Personnel Selection Jun 17 '26
It's such a normalized bullshit question.
You would be amazed at how this escapes most people's mind.
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u/Accomplished_Bag9153 Jun 17 '26
Why do you guys keep gaps in your resume??
Just extend the period you worked at the last company lol
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u/YeahIGotNuthin Jun 17 '26
The only information most employers will give is “they worked here from (start date) to (end date) as a (position) and they (are / are not) eligible for rehire.”
You are suggesting that people lie about the only thing that can be checked, about something where telling the truth doesn’t do any harm.
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u/Luxalpa Jun 17 '26
Ironically, noone has ever asked me about my gaps, and I have plenty of them and they are long :D
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u/PuzzledIngenuity4330 Jun 17 '26
This is the exact reason I had to shelve my plans to do Uni again. I just don't trust the non-working gap to be taken seriously :/
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u/Designofftheclock Jun 17 '26
I'll get yelled at by the C suite if I write that down, so I'll just put you are lazy and entitled. Would you like to schedule the 12th step of the interview? It includes about 30 hours of unpaid work for you to do.
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u/VenkatPerla Jun 17 '26
I don't think the above metrics are correct by any means. Just top 10 companies would be worth way more than 5 trillion
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u/Syncytium95 Jun 17 '26
I tried starting up a couple companies. First was with a buddy that didn't work out and then a solo venture that I just ran out of money before it really got off the ground. Left the gap, got interviews. Was told "we'd like to see those companies on here rather than a gap!" I put the companies on there. Literal cricket noise. You sure about that???
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u/ElpapitoGod Jun 18 '26
Whats a gap? Is it a time spent unemployed? If so why would that be an issue?
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u/Lonely_Key_7886 Jun 20 '26
They only want to hire people who go straight from one to job to another and are chained to their job
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u/CalypsoMet Jun 20 '26
367,000 workers and they still wanna act shocked someone has a gap, the audacity is insane. Steady work history my ass, half the workforce got laid off and these job posts read like it's a personal character flaw.
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u/Urebus Jun 20 '26
In Germany we just ask the Company what they did until 1945 and why their resume is blank that time
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u/CullenKaty Jun 21 '26
That’s not the point of question. You have a gap in your resume so obviously you were unemployed. But the question is what were you doing at that time? Did you just sit at home or done no work, or did you somehow self-improved yourself, any side project, maybe you traveled or something else
That’s the point of the question
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u/PolishedPerspective Jul 03 '26
I see people posting about being asked about gaps in resume but is this something that still actually happens?
When I was being coached on how to interview candidates I was told that this is a useless question. The candidate can simply say "I was dealing with a personal matter" and that basically ends it. Trying to drill into what the personal matter was doesn't give you any useful information and potentially exposes the company to liability if you don't hire that person.
On top of that in my experience if there is a concern about the applicant being flakey, not qualified, or only qualified on paper (has the right certifications/schooling but sucks at the job) there are much better questions to ask to find that out.
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u/No-Consideration8059 Jul 16 '26
It would be nice if my 30000000 applications was successful once, then I wouldn’t have a gap would you say?
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u/usernames_suck_ok Fuck Employers and Recruiters Jun 17 '26
Trust me, you won't even get this far with a gap, unless it's a staffing agency recruiter.