How do I justify my career gap?
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.
Apply as fresher. Don't even tell them u worked for an year and half. Actually 1.5 is same as 0 for recruiters.
Over 2.5-3 comes in different category. Anything less than 2.5 is 0
Thats like the worst advice ever. 1.5 YOE can never be equal to 0. Just tell them you did freelancing, they can’t understand your situation unless they themselves are in it. I had left my last job bcos of toxic environment and was on notice period. A recruiter asked me so I said I’m looking for new opportunities and on notice period. Her first reaction was shocked that how can you leave a job without another one! 😂 Such is the mentality of Indians, where they feel everyone is living paycheck to paycheck and wont have food to survive
Bhai usko job ni milri because of this mentality only na. Toh better ha ke boldo koi experience nai ha
Don't lie about what happened. Be honest but make sure you are steering the conversation and perception, not the recruiter. If recruiters are ghosting you, that means that they aren't convinced by what you're saying. When you say "I tell them everything", are you just dumping literally everything that happened, at an uncomfortable level of detail? You can usually get away with just 2-3 sentences about what happened. I was severely unwell and hospitalized, I was not able to work, and I am now looking for work again. Focus the recruiter on the context of your past experience and what you're looking for in the future. Also you're better off looking for roles that align very closely with what you were doing previous. Recruiters are indexing high on prior relevant experience right now