
Ask HN: Is it okay to have a short gap of unemployment on your resume? - jressey
Here&#x27;s my specific scenario: I&#x27;m moving to a new city with my spouse who just got a university position.  I&#x27;m a Rails and Java developer with about 5 years experience.  I have a job now at a large corporation and 1. they won&#x27;t let me work remotely, and 2. I want out anyways.  I&#x27;m pretty sure I have a job lined up in the new city, but haven&#x27;t been able to apply to and interview as many companies as I&#x27;d like to have, and the move date is approaching. Is it ok to have a gap of a few months on your resume?  I&#x27;d like to move and be able to take my time choosing a new position. Thanks!
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enrmarc
Serious question: what's the problem with résumé gaps? Is it a big deal in
USA? I'd say that in Europe it's not such a big deal. Nobody is going to ask
you why you have, for instance, a 4 month gap in your résumé if you have been
working 3 or 4 years in a row. Almost everyone would guess that you took that
time off, and that's not a bad thing precisely. Perhaps you took that time to
learn new skills, to read a ton of books, to travel around the world, to be
with your kids,... a lot of activities that do more good than harm. Most of us
are going to work until we are 60 or so, so what's the big deal with having a
few months every 5 years or so in our résumé? They give you a medal if you
finish your career without gaps?

Imagine this scenario: developer A has been working in a time span of 10 years
without résumé gaps. Developer B has been working for 9 years and has been
taking gaps of 4 months every 3 years. Do you really think there is going to
be a big difference between the two developers in terms of skills set? 10, 9,
8 years, it doesn't make a difference at all in terms of accumulated
knowledge. But developer B has been doing "something else" during a whole year
(3 gaps of 4months each). Maybe he travelled the world and learned a little
bit of a couple of languages, and I'd say that's a valuable non-technical
skill to have.

As I've said, I see more good than harm in taking a few month off from time to
time.

Going back to your question: if it's just for a few months I see no problem at
all, and if recruiters ask then just explain what you have post.

~~~
J-dawg
I did this in the UK and it felt like a huge deal. I wasn't yet a developer at
the time, but I think my experience is still relevant. It seemed to really
have an impact on interviews. The interviewer would end up asking a lot of
questions about why I left the previous job (it was for quite innocent
reasons), rather than the stuff I really wanted to be talking about, which
puts the whole thing on a downer from the start. It affected me a lot, which
meant I started to become very nervous before interviews, so performed badly,
got even more nervous, etc. I pretty much have a phobia of interviews to this
day (almost 10 years later) because of it.

I think the answer to the original question depends enormously on what type of
person you are. If you're extremely confident in yourself, and in your skills,
and you're naturally positive and optimistic then you should be fine.

If you have the sort of personality that tends towards introspection and self-
doubt, then think very carefully before doing this. Think about how you'll
feel after your 10th rejection, or when your savings are starting to run low.
Will you still bounce back?

Finally, I've heard that some recruiters use your current employment status as
a filtering criterion. So your CV might not even get looked at. This is
insane, but I've heard it enough times to think it might be true.

~~~
switch007
This is my experience too in the UK. 6 months is border-line unemployable –
expect at the very least a salary low-ball offer. I don't know many people in
our industry in the UK who would take 3 months off and not worry about their
career.

Most you can hope for is delaying the start date in a new position. But,
again, they likely will ask your notice period and your end date, and be a bit
suspicious of a a delayed start date.

~~~
pyb
I have the opposite experience in the UK. I have god knows how many gaps in my
resume... for all sorts of reason. Probably part of the reason why I became a
contractor ; as it's kinda part of the job. Anyway, interviewers have never
raised it. Perhaps it's just that we don't apply to the same type of tech
companies.

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hijinks
Few months is no big deal.. If they ask just say you moved because your spouse
for a new job and you helped manage the move and the new place so you took a
bit of time off.

I've hired a lot of people and I wouldn't even question a few month gap.. Life
happens. I would question more then a 6-8 month gap.

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davismwfl
Yep, absolutely fine. If anyone asks, just tell them the truth, you moved,
left one company and are learning the new market and who's there.

My only comment, if you let a few months turn into 5-6+ months, you may want
to explain up front versus them seeing a 6 month gap as you may not get in the
door for a competitive position. You can do this in your intro email/cover
letter, mention that you recently moved to the city, took some time to
vacation and get to know the city a little and recently saw their position
advertised and felt it might be a good match. Or something along those lines.

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JSeymourATL
An asterisk on your CV time line will suffice: * Transferred to New City with
my spouse. Took some personal garden leave during the transition.

Should anyone probe further, tell them ... I'm not a job-hopper, I've been
very selective on my search looking for a good company match. Things that are
important to me are the quality of the people, interesting work problems to
solve, and obviously a good compensation package.

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probinso
I have two (5+ month) gaps in my resume; one was so that I could party, the
other was so that I could work on a personal project (that would definitely
not make money). When people ask what I did during those breaks I tell them
'personal time' and that I wanted to explore a personal project in more detail
(respectively). I do not seem to be any less employable.

(USA - North West)

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audleman
I had a friend who was looking for Administrative Assistant roles with a 2
year gap on her resume and it was a problem. The companies could always find a
younger person to sit in the chair and do the menial tasks, and somebody with
no gaps is more likely to stay put. They also marked her down in interviews
for not knowing the latest Excel version (even though she knew Excel and had
been using it for years, like anything significant had changed in a year). So
jobs like that are kind of shitty to applicants.

But you as a programmer? I cannot imagine it being a problem. You are a high-
skill worker who earns enough that you can easily afford to take the time off.
Just say you were exploring personal projects in your spare time. That sounds
awesome.

~~~
NameNickHN
> They also marked her down in interviews for not knowing the latest Excel
> version [...]

I've come to the point where I'm glad that interviewers show their cards this
way. If a company does stupid things like this, I really don't want work for
them anyway.

I know there are times when you can't be picky and have to be glad to get a
job but I don't believe for a moment that the work environment will turn out
to be great after they pull stuff like that in the interview.

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dhruvkar
It GREATLY depends on the narrative.

Yes, some companies will have filters for things like "hasn't worked in X
months => automatic dismiss pile", but by and large, I've found that it
depends how that gap fits in with the rest of your life/work story.

They'll wonder about the following Was that gap after 3 months working
somewhere? Was it after 5 years? What caused it? Boredom? Familial reasons?
Illness? With a tight narrative (e.g. reasonable explanations and a human
story), you'll be fine. The person(s) on the other end are also human beings,
and most recognize that life happens. It's okay.

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Zelmor
Just insert 'sabbatical' or 'self-employed' for the duration. Whichever you
can explain as the reason for a break. I tend to go with 'sabbatical' and
explain during interviews that I managed work-life balance poorly and that
needed sorting out. I might also mention how my relationship is for the better
after my break, and that I am now more able to stay consistent, without swings
in mood and existential crisis. I might also mention a hobby project I picked
up that keeps me busy in my free time, like going back to reading fiction,
woodworking, gardening, etc.

This usually creates the air of a real person during interviews. They find me
interesting and interested, and as such I stand a better chance of being
accepted into their community at the workplace.

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saluki
I wouldn't worry about it too much. Any chance you can obtain a contract
position or freelance work during that time so you can just list it as
contract position/work.

But I really wouldn't worry about a small gap especially when moving to a new
city.

Once you know you're leaving and getting ready to turn in your notice you
could ask HR if you could take unpaid leave so your last official day is a few
months out, not sure this is possible but if you're worried about your last
official day of employment or a gap it might be worth asking.

I think I've only had one company contact my previous companies HR to verify
my dates of employment. And one of my former companies HR staff called to let
me know about it and see if it was ok to give them information and say they
weren't even sure they can legally call up and ask for employee information
like that.

Anyway good luck landing a new gig.

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Artlav
A related question - is there an official job registry in the USA?

That is would the gap be known about from public record, or is it up to you
whether to specify it in your CV or not?

Also, how would you put the "tried a startup, failed" unemployment period into
the CV?

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siquick
I had a 13 month gap between my last job and my current job, because I went
travelling and then migrated to a new country.

It was absolutely no problem and I actually think it helped me because I spent
a decent amount of that travelling time developing skills I didn't have
previously (both technical and soft skills).

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RockIslandLine
As someone with gaps in my resume for various reasons, I have found a range of
responses by potential employers.

I have worked in two different career fields. When I made that switch, getting
the professional certifications took me about 3 months, during which time I
was not working. Almost nobody asks about the gap, though almost everyone asks
about the career switch.

I have a several year period in which I was working only contract employment.
There are gaps of up to 5 months between contracts. Most employers ask
something about that time, and most are satisfied with the simple explanation
that finding a new contract took that much time.

Some employers care more than others. IBM required me to write a letter of
explanation for every gap of 3 months or more. Some employers don't even ask.

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dudul
Yes it's fine. You could take advantage of these few months to do something,
like volunteering, OOS contributions, mentorship, etc to make it even "more
okay". But your scenario is valid explanation enough.

~~~
partisan
Agreed. In the worst case scenario, you could be consulting to a small
startup, yourself. Just be sure to improve yourself during that downtime so
that you don't come back into the search rusty.

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c0110
This is anecdotal -- but it seems like companies are more or less pretty
understanding if your reason is justifiable. I had a string of jobs (fulltime,
then laid off, then consulting for 3 separate clients). I interviewed with
over 20 companies this year and no one had a problem with the gaps in my
resume. They were more interested (concerned?) about why I had worked with so
many companies.

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mspaulding06
Having gaps on your resume isn't a big deal. If you're good at what you do you
shouldn't have any problems. I have two 6 month gaps on my resume and it
wasn't any problem getting my current job as a DevOps engineer. It can be a
smart move taking your time to find the right thing. The last thing you want
is to end up working somewhere just so you can have a paycheck.

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pyb
Yes it's fine. In this day and age, it's almost suspicious not to have any
gaps in one's tech resume. There are just so many sources of discontinuity in
a career nowadays.

