this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2024
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me_irl
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I mean, I get both sides of it. Most people don't quit without a job lined up, so odds are you were either fired or got into it bad with someone at your workplace and just quit outright. Ive had several gaps before but had no issues with answering - quit to hike the AT once, and quit to take care of my first child for 3 months (they only provided 1 week, I told them I was taking a month, and if they didn't like it, they could go pound sand. Turns out they really didn't like it and tried to contractually prevent me from leaving their company with insane non-compete and other such BS - so I just quit outright and told them it's their loss).
Just know how to answer that question, because I guarantee that it will come in every interview.
Or, you know, you got laid off due to company “right sizing”…. So yeah, plenty of people are out of work without a job lined up.
Yeah, I was working contract, contract ended abruptly and now I’ve been out of a job since September. Despite the amount of layoffs happening in tech, it seems a lot of other industries are holding on to people.
I think I read the stat that in 2022 LinkedIn had 1 job posted for 1 person searching, in 2023 they had 1 job posted for every 2 people searching according to their research team. Companies can be more selective with an over abundance of applicants, miss qualified ones with floods of resumes, or just straight fly “just in case” postings.
This has been the roughest few months of my life, and I’ve done a combat tour in Iraq.
Really?
Maybe it varies by field, but the further out I've gotten from my longest gap, the less often I'm asked about it. In fact in my last two jobs, they never even brought it up in the interviews.
Ah, let me clarify better. It'll come up in every interview you have directly after that gap. Yeah, no one's going to care if it was 1-2 positions ago, I agree.
It could also be a temp job that ended. Some people work several temp jobs while trying to find their permanent opportunity, and it's not uncommon for them to have gaps in between jobs.
That's fine. I mean. The question is still going to come up. I would still say that you should have a decent answer for it. Like, you wanted that time off, or you needed time for a family emergency or something. I wouldn't say that you "just couldn't find anyone that would hire.". It looks bad.