This is great advice, coming from someone who pondered using the "Mother was really sick and had to manage her illness and passing" excuse if I ever went back, as it was true for me too. (I'm sorry for your loss, it's a really painful life transition, I know.)

I ended up taking a slightly different approach. I worked in IT project management before I retired early. My LinkedIn resume shows me currently employed as an "IT consultant" and will until I decide I need another job or I kick it.

Honestly, a lot of people lie or at least embellish during the hiring process. Hell, company can mislead you about the company culture, scope of responsibilities, and room for advancement. So, it really is in your best interest to put forward the best version of yourself, even if it involves filling in the gaps a bit, as long as it is within reason.

I have worked in a hiring position in the past. How many times do you think the company actually checked or attempted to confirm certifications or degrees? It didn't happen.

So yes, do what you have to do to get the job. So long as the job gets done well and everyone is happy.

I'm very sorry for your loss.

I had to lie to get jobs too. I left home at 16 and worked full time through high school/college to support myself. After getting my degree, I watched as all my classmates got good paying jobs while I didn't. Eventually after 20 or so interviews I lost my cool and asked why I was getting turned down. "Well, we don't want a laborer handling our accounting records. Maybe work as a receptionist or executive assistant for a few years to prove you're capable of office work?".

So I started lying. I took all of my previous work history off my resume and advertised myself as a fresh college grad. It worked... At first. Once I started talking about basic work things in the interview they knew I was lying and wouldn't go further. So I took a different tactic: lie about my unofficial title being higher than what a background check would say, but "admitting" that I couldn't get promoted because I was a nepo hire.

Oddly enough that worked REALLY well. Everyone loved the idea that I got jobs through connections instead of my own hard work. They loved that I walked, talked, and dressed like someone who breezed through life. My only guess is that I came off as one of the "popular kids" and they wanted me at their table. In just a month I had a dozen offers across the industry.

I absolutely agree with you. If you're trying to dig yourself out of unemployment or poverty, lie, lie LIE! Interviews are notoriously bad at determining whether or not you're a good employee. Do everything you can to play into people's biases and let them fill in the blanks.

Never tell the truth in an interview. Tell them what they want to hear.

As someone who is taking a break from the workforce to care for a baby (lol childcare costs), I’m already struggling to not feel shame when I admit it to acquaintances. I’ll definitely be bullshitting if/when I come back.

Wage labor is dehumanizing in it's current form.

I've only ever had one company call any of my references lmao

How is the import/export business these days?

On top of justifying your employment gaps, laying through your fucking teeth is a mighty effective tactic in job interviews in general.

You have the experience they're looking for. Where did you get it? Toys r us, sears, choose any company that went bankrupt. List your friend (coach them on what to say) as your manager at that place.

You love overtime when it's necessary. You don't have anyone at home waiting for you so if there's work to do you're happy to get a bigger paycheck instead of being bored all night. It doesn't matter if it's true because that guy told you "we don't ask for overtime often, we work well". Both of you were lying, it's fine.

You need a certification from a bullshit company like AWS or Azure (not actually useful certs like forklift mind you, please do stay secure). Don't fucking pay for it, tell them you had the opportunity to follow the classes but we're too busy with work to pass the exam! Sure you don't have the paper to show for it but you know what you're talking about! And you're such a great candidate why would you like to them about that?

Lie through your teeth everytime you get the chance, because they're doing it too. Worse case scenario? They find out and never call you back. Oh no! The thing they were going to do if you didn't lie!

I don't know what industry you're in but I'm sorry this happened. The same happened to me and I found a job within two weeks; my hiring manager told me that I had excellent values.

Just say you signed an NDA /s

Wow, that's fucked. Not that you're recommending this, but that it's necessary at all.

I've twice now just claimed to be employed, and refused to give a reference because I didn't want to fuck up my job if I didn't take the new offer. Worked both times.

I started an LLC a few years ago for a couple hundred bucks and I use that to fill the necessary gaps in the same way you're referencing.

I just said the truth that my Dad had cancer and I went home to spend time with him and then take care of things after his death (1y gap). Kinda annoying how they still ask me that even 8 years later, but at least there is usually some sort of apology or regret after I tell them.

I don‘t know why it didn‘t work for you, maybe it only works on compassionate people and I got lucky. Good advice though, no need to be truthful in interviews.

Nah, no "gaps" need to be explained at all. What even is a gap? It takes easily from weeks to months and even years sometimes to find employment and that's not something for the worker to grovel for.

5-year break from working? That can even be a life goal and not a gap.

I prefer the tactic "I signed a non-disclosure agreement" - I can't talk about it because of that NDA

Great advice. I've also had success with embellishing the truth, or even just putting a positive spin on the truth. I didn't leave my last job to look after a dying relative, I was a freelance on-call PA working 12 hour days. I wasn't forced to leave my home and spend my life-savings driving cross-country to live with an old friend who was kind enough to let me stay with them and only asked I help out at a soup kitchen they work at, I was expanding my mind with travel, networking, and filling my free time volunteering for a local charity whose goals I felt strongly about.

It helps get you in for an interview. Although in my location jobs are fairly easy to come by these days, which wasn't always the case.

I've also seen people say, "that portion of my career is covered by a non-disclosure agreement". This one has varying levels of success.

Everyone says it's a great idea, but I'd say these counterpoints:

• If you're going for any type of "business manager, sales or leadership" role, failing at a startup isn't a winning look. Yes, I know it's normal to fail at startups and later succeed, I've done it, it's true, but it's still selling a loss rather than selling a win.

• You better be well-prepared to completely describe that failed startup and why it didn't work out.Ideally you can describe well the lessons learned from it, and how they could have been overcome with better luck, circumstances and another chance

• It's just lying and not great, I'd rather polish whatever the truth is than making something up.

I really hate how it's "frowned upon" to take a few months to rest and recuperate after working for a number of years. I'm usually honest about why there's a 1–2-month gap.

If they don't take me because of this, then so be it, probably not a good company to work for.

This is actually really helpful. I had been telling people I was caring for a sick family member because that seemed more palatable than the truth that I just had plenty of savings and didn’t want to spread Covid to people I live with who have high comorbidity factors. Then those people got forced to return to work.

I’ll just tell them I was trying to start up a freelance career instead.

Absolutely wild and extremely accurate advice. Hats off to you-- and extremely sorry for your loss. Baring the pain is hard, and harder to lie about.

HR knows everyone lies, but really it's a thing about how to market yourself... and we all know marketing's mostly wading through vaguely legal BS anyway. Any proper white collar job these days wants a golden goose employee that eats crap and craps gold-- them's the works.

Adding onto the YSK, any personal project can be properly spun into a good employee gap as long as you can at least back it up. Podcast, github project, spin up an LLC, started selling porcelain dolls locally or something. If you're no good at spinning up a story, just being able to make the person on the other end of the line believe that you have 1. a fast capacity to learn, 2. are flexible with learning, and 3. are willing to take extreme duress and go-gettering, it gives you a bit more rope to work with than otherwise.

Again, sorry for your loss. One can only wish we lived in a world where even the slightest employment gap wasn't looked at with a microscope. Hopefully with the years we might live in a world where this lessens. The HR at my current company I consider pretty solid, hopefully the 'european model' spreads.

this is actually a good idea. take my upvote friend.

The #1 red flag to an employer is "I don't NEED a job." before my VA pension got bumped to 100%, I was looking for a bs job to keep busy and you could see the switch in their head flip everytime when I'd explain "I'm retired, I'm not scrambling for money I'm looking for a good fit."

Employers lose their gdamn minds if you aren't exploitable. They know that means if I schedule time off for a trip or concert, I'm not going to cancel with two days notice to cover some shift. They know it means I'm not going to stand for 3 managers blaming my entry level ass for their mistakes and/or incompetence. It's garbage and really speaks to the core of capitalism.