Easy questions have easy answers, right?
They want people who like to be abused.
They don’t want people with self-respect.
In principle they shouldn’t be allowed to ask that. if they seem to be giving too much weight to that they are just being lazy on trying to evaluate you and they will likely be bad employers who believe that taking time off for yourself is a red flag
Big if true
This question should be illegal to ask.
No I can’t. I signed an NDA.
This can also help you filter the lunatics from the normal workplaces. In an interview, I once explained that I couldn’t discuss specifics of my client work because of confidentiality and NDAs, and they kept pushing. It wasn’t even the same industry! There was no obvious competitive advantage.
Maybe they wanted to be ver very sure you weren’t covering a not-working period /s
The NDA: Dear me, I promise to talk about the fun times only with my friends and not with potential employers. Signed, me.
I tried to get the US-Citizenship. But then came the Macarena…
If i have to explain the gap (which clearly means I was not employed), it means you are incompetent, you fail my interview, I don’t work with incompetent bosses.
I spent some time in a mountain cave replica in a Nepalese themed restaurant, diligently honing my programming skills without the noise of the outside world. No internet, no mains, no toilet. Just me, my laptop, an angry manager who called the police and 60 charged replacement batteries that fell off a truck.
There I created the art of meditative programming where I learned to program not just my machine, but myself. As a result of this resume gap I am now able to function as a 13.6% more productive employee and have finally met the benchmark of 1.0x engineer. At my former employer I delivered a project which brought them in revenue totaling at least $12, giving me priceless experience because of this training.
<chef’s kiss>
My resume has a bigger gap than goatse
“I was consulting.”
It’s true, I was giving out advice left and right.
I totally had a guy catch and call me on that
“Those 3 months I did consulting for a local elderly care facility, helping them learn some computer basics”
“Sir, your parents don’t count” without missing a beat. I actually did help other people in that specific chunk he was asking about, but rude lol, and I think that might even be a big part of why I didn’t get that one tbh
It was my sabbatical, and be really smug when you say it, like I’m better than you.
“I inherited some money and could afford to pursue personal interests (getting high and playing videogames)”
Online and on video games.
Me: “I was moving in silence or under a NDA.”
That’s too much info. A simple “I can” answers their question.
In Germany, just ask them what the gap between 1933 and 1945 in their company’s history is as a direct response.
I am not sure drawing a comparison between your unemployment and the reign of the Nazis is the best move
But if you get a rise out of them it’ll be perfect.
I got really into table tennis and lost track of time.
I went runn-ing
Those were the times I was taking time off to argue with the voices in my head that were telling me to kill again.
Did you win the argument?
That’s what the interviewer asked too. The voices didn’t like that question…
For like 3 months out of the 2 year gap, yeah
