It's been a year and a month since I've been unemployed.
I had a chronic illness which lasted for 2.5 years ( yes I was working when I was sick - worst decision of my life ) .
I recovered from it in September 2023, since then I've been looking for new jobs in frontend domain.
In my previous role , I was working as a support engineer for a service based company but wanted to work in frontend. During my illness period I also joined a cohort and also did a certification in React development.
Now, when I apply for jobs, I'm getting no calls, when I do get calls from recruiters, they ask about my career gap I tell them everything that happened. After the call they just ghost me.
How am I supposed to justify my career gap so that I can proceed further with the interview?
Do I lie about it and say that I did freelancing, I've heard most people do these kinds of things when they have to justify any kind of career gap.