Ask HN: How do I explain a resume gap after taking a sabbatical?
I've been off work for a year, and been doing minor projects/freelancing for some small companies as I backpack and travel around Asia.
Recently, I've been trying to find remote gigs/office jobs, and I've gotten feedback that my resume gap is troublesome.
I pass tech interviews, and I've gotten an offer or two that I declined due to not meeting salary/lifestyle requirements (but now looking back maybe I should've taken them.)
Should I just add a few projects I did on my resume? They're really minor and involve basic Windows sysadmin stuff that can be done in a week or two.
Or, alternatively, how do I re-word it so it doesn't seem like I'm desperate? I've had recruiters from the typical bucketshops of Apex, Cybercoders and misc say "you're a good candidate but that gap is troublesome" in not so nice words.
85 comments
[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 164 ms ] threadThere will always be people who are negative about X, Y or Z. Find your own way. If you start believing them that is trouble because it'll come across in any interview.
Be proud of the time you took out to travel around Asia. "I had a fantastic time, learning about new cultures, broadening my mind, meeting new people from all over" etc. On top of that you were resourceful enough to pick up projects/freelance work over that period. Many people will be jealous of this. Speak to this part of them.
Not sure if you had prior experience or just graduated. Either way I would put it on your resume along with your travel. Something like:
2017 - Travel around Asia while freelancing. Here's a list of freelance projects I worked on: - Sysadmin running servers.
2014-2016 - Software engineer, Midwest city - Regular software job
If you're back and not currently working, you could pick up freelance work or work on your own project or open source. This will give you something to talk about when talking to recruiters. i.e. What are you doing now? "I take freelance work and am also working on this great project which does X, Y, Z".
Also believe in yourself. You are valuable. When speaking to potential companies interview them to see if there's a fit. Be like I am really looking for the right opportunity and X, Y, Z. I'm not willing to jump on anything....(even if it is not the case, play hard to get. People want things that are hard to get.... not things that come easily)
When you start interviewing you'll see plenty of recruiters who think it's awesome what you did and will want to know all about it And you'll meet those who look down on it for some weird reason ("what do you mean you want to be free/control your own life?").
But the inspired ones will help you all they can to see if you and the company are a match. The best recruiters (IMO) are your temporary & one-shot career counselors: if they're empathetic and highly intelligent, then they are information highways between you and the prospect employer. You all have only to win in a situation like that!
Take a long look at the companies providing feedback around your time off being troublesome. Likely, you wouldn't want to work with them.
This ^^^^^ Was about to say it! So true.
It would be even better if you had your own company, then you could put "Backpack Consulting Inc." on your resume ;) Don't hate the player, hate the game :)
You can also add some of your personal or side projects as well.
The idea is to show them that you were somehow active during this period, either by doing small gigs, or by doing your own stuff or even by reading books or taking online courses.
I will highly recommend you read these guides
http://www.codespaghetti.com/cv-tips http://www.codespaghetti.com/interview-success
I really hop you will be able to find the kind of job you are looking for.
If a company only cares of the lines written on the resume, it doesn't really matter you filled it or answered really good in the interview, there will be problems later on.
But if a company knows, it's not just sum of the parts but as a whole who you're and how you approach life and work is that all matters, then there will be no problem telling what you did in these times.
You don't have to go to Asia... maybe you just want to focus on some other stuff or have some time off. But also you went to Asia, so you use this time for yourself, in a way you thought would be better for you. I think this is very important aspect of a professional. If you don't know how to allocate your time and energy, you're not efficient.
You did something most people even can not dare to think of doing it. Don't try to please people, be yourself and this way you will eliminate all the pretentious people/companies and will find a better match for you. Don't settle for what people say to you, just because they can't do it.
However a dinstinctly high frequency of changing jobs, say in the 90th percentile among candidates (and how many people take sabbaticals?), now that could be a red flag already. And for exactly that reason - it implies the candidate is relatively likely to jump teams again.
Hence it is not absurd to assume quite a few employers would prefer someone who worked at 2 places throughout the past few years over someone who worked at 5 - all other things being equal, obviously.
I am not arguing whether it's right or justified - or to what extent. That's another story.
I was actually considering chasing another job last week, which would have better pay and more responsibilities, but decided not to, because I've only been in my current job for 6 months. It really isn't a good look if you're constantly jumping ship.
Probably not - all I'm saying is that a single gap year doesn't carry the same weight as a one job switch decision. The conversion rate cannot be, and isn't one-to-one, so to speak; unless we're going ad absurdum
Your parent compared one (1) gap year in a resume being a red flag for the explicit reason that they might leave again, to someone else having switched employers atleast once, for the exact same reason given by GP.
It's a totally apt analogy. Leaving is leaving.
Your further reasoning doesn't change this analogy. Many employment changes in a resume is no different to many gap years, in regards to the initially stated premise.
The willingness to do former indicates lesser degree of dependence (or sense of dependence) on an ongoing employment than mere willingness to trade one job for another. That's why the "leaving is leaving" line of argument doesn't speak to me.
That being said, the red flag is how recruiters see this. And no argument on the internets will change this perception. Recruiters spend a lot of time and money hiring tech workers - the last thing they want is any indication that the guy is not 'stable'. Its a demand/supply problem.
The only 'solution' to this problem is if everyone starts taking sabbaticals and it stops being a big deal.
That said, I should note that the two primary things I did during my sabbatical are pretty much the antithesis of screwing around. I started a very successful non-profit and released a very well received update to an open source consumer-focused app that gets used by a couple hundred thousand people. So, YMMV.
You're almost guaranteed that someone you're hiring will leave after some time.
As a hiring manager, I've stopped talking to bucketshops entirely. They may have a bunch of names, but they add zero value beyond that, and are certainly not worth the fee.
By all means, list the travel on your resume, list the small projects you've done.
There, fixed it.
Do you have any pictures or journals from your travels? If so, build out a long-form article or better yet a small site. Explore why you went and what you learned, how the experience changed you, etc etc. You can reference this new destination on your resume rather than leaving a blank spot.
List it like a job, what you've done and achieved. How does that break make you different to the others?
All else being equal, I'd hire the one who's took a break from their environment, learned new cultures, and made the most of live.
The chances that someone working for 10 years non-stop needs a break and might be burnt out, is higher than someone who worked for 10 years, had a break, and is now looking for work again.
A red flag that work and being productive is not your top life priority. Obviously, an employer would prefer to only hire people obsessed about work if possible.
I've also been unemployed for about year (wife was ill), but I used that time productively and took it as an opportunity to retrain.
I look for someone who's self-motivated.
I would be more suspicious of someone who doesn't know how to have a break. That would be my red flag... "so you spent your year off in front of a computer?"..."um, yeh, I am self-motivated". Red Flag blows in wind.
Don't listen too hard to recruiters, when I got back I started wondering if it was an issue, and then something came along.
(That feeling of "will I work again" seems to happen every time I'm between contracts, after the first month or so).
Here's the section of my C.V. from when I went travelling + coding my own projects:
Dec 2014 – Jan 2016 Travelling + Open Source
Audiovisual work and creative coding - many improvements on the creative coding environment Shoebot.
Prototypes built included a midi mapper, music visualisers and simple VJ tools, culminating in using them to VJ for a band in Taipei.
Submitted fixes to OpenGL/Shader tutorials as I completed them. Implemented Vext to make it easier to use graphic and gui packages with virtualenv such as Panda3D, Gtk and Qt, it broke 100 downloads within 3 months of being uploaded to Pypi.
I've changed jobs and interviewed some afterwards: some employers make a big deal (negative) about these gaps. While others seem mildly impressed that I did something somewhat different. They tend to pay less attention now that a few years have passed. I think it is also because such gaps are more common these days and because losing employees to other companies is probably bigger problem than sabbaticals.
Be prepared to discuss any issues that arrose at your last job that encouraged you to take the time away.
Hopefully you have a positive reference or two from your freelance work or prior jobs.
A year of travel is an understandable and common activity in our field. A company who understands this is also a company that might understand when you need personal time down the road.
When you see a gap, what do you really think happened in it and what does it signify or mean?
Did this and found a remote job no problem here in Germany.
If companies are actually filtering based on a year off (what recruiters say definitely deserves a filter), that seems like it could be super troublesome if not legally, then ethically for sure. That’s a filter that many parents would become trapped in.
"1 year sabbatical, backpacked around Asia."
If I saw that on a resume I'd think it was awesome. (...and I've hired dozens of people).
“I’ve always wanted to get a true world perspective on things and decided to get it out of my system while I’m young. Now I’m ready to refocus on my career and apply what I’ve learned to the right company.”
Unless you are poverty stricken, would you really want a role that says "Only willing drones wanted"?
Yes, being smart and getting things done is important. I have no idea how this correlates with a polished "employee" image.