So, how do you guys disguise the holes in your resumes? It took me a little over 2 years to complete my MA because I was slightly unstable here and there, but never fully psychotic, so I managed to complete the grad program…a bit late. The interviewer lady nailed me on what the heck, why didn’t I finish in 2 years? She was actually pretty cruel about it. I won’t go into detail, as she was like the worst, least empathetic, most cold person I’ve met in a while and I’m glad I won’t get a call back because I’d hate working with that woman who kept mocking me and, at one point, apologized for laughing at me (and my “failures”). The whole ordeal took 2 interviews; one was fine, the other was like I was being interrogated for an hour by a person who dismissed my accomplishments as failures because they weren’t “on time”.
So anyways, I had to explain why I haven’t worked full-time since I graduated, why there’s a gap between jobs, why did it take me longer to finish the Master’s program…I thought I did okay without disclosing my disability, but it got me thinking, this woman thinks I’m a Normie. She wants me to explain myself like a Normie would…but I’m not a Normie and I have a hidden disability, so I didn’t know what to say. How can I navigate around the resume holes for future employers?
Maybe you can make up some white lies if you wanna pass as a normie.
Such as you took time to travel, you took time to find your passion, you had a sick family member,
you were doing part time jobs to survive while studying.
I initially papered over my gaps by saying that I was caring for a critically ill person in my family at the time, but the need for that has since passed. (I didn’t mention that I was the critically ill person I was caring for – superfluous detail, that).
Thanks for the reply! I definitely will be mentioning how I had to “take care of someone who was very ill” and that interfered in my studies and job search.
I dislike lying, it stains the soul, but this is true enough and it does no harm in the bigger scheme of things. If you can do the job well and add value to the company at the end of the day, that’s what matters.
Edit: If you’re pressed for details, simply say, “it was a very painful time and I still have difficulty talking about it to others. The important thing is that this is in the past.”
When I go back to work, I will be returning to my previous employer and they are aware of my disability. I think going forward from there I would be able to hide the gap in there.
To be honest, I lie on my cv and say I have been working as a freelance copywriter which couldn’t be further from the truth. I haven’t been able to work in 7 years. I’m 28 now. I get really down about it…
Also one thing you must not do is to let unexplained the hole in the resume. I once did this error. I have been asked about the reason of this hole and I answered that it was personal. Then I have been very quickly discarded. Afterwards, since I had now to explain the hole to other companies and I couldn’t say it’s a mental illness, I felt I had no other choice but to lie.
I have a 6 year hole in my resume. For the last year I’ve been some sort of caregiver. I think I want to own my own business someday. I have schizophrenia. I don’t think that stigma will go away.
a fib is better than the truth. I tried the truth once during the interview process but they said that i’m not qualified for the job or the other one said that they needed someone who was healthier
I also say I was caring for a sick family member. It’s close enough to the truth, and nobody questions it. Now, I can also use my brain injury as an excuse, as long as I clarify that I have made a full recovery.
If the gap between jobs is 2 to 3 months, I think it is still acceptable. You can mention any part-time or volunteering jobs as well. If your family runs business, you can also mention that you “assisted in family business”.
This is how my latest resume looks like (with holes in resume)
In between temp jobs I always say I took a break… with regards to taking time with your MA, can always say you were doing it part-time because as @anon82948922 said you were taking care for a critically illl person in the family at the time…
I’ve cherry picked a few that I will be using next interview, all were great, some were uber great for me in particular:
traveling abroad, taking care of sick grandma, living as a stay-at-home girlfriend, and tried to start an art novelty vending business but didn’t get too far with it (last one is also true)…as far as the MA program, I’m going to say I had to juggle several part-time jobs through my grad program (true) while going full-time (True) and while trying to master a foreign skill that exceeded my unit requirements for the degree (true, I tried computer programming, but got a D in algorithms class, so I couldn’t progress after that)…while taking care of sick relative (me).
@Zoom resume upload was very helpful, thank you for thinking of that!
This thread explains why it is so important to have some job-- any job is better than no job on a résumé. They really don’t like to see gaps on a résumé.
