How do you get a job after a 2-year gap in your work history?

Long-time manager here.

1. Leave it blank on your CV. In discussion, say, "Then I took a break to help family during covid." That's all you need. Resist the urge to try to explain or justify it.

2. Explain what you did to "stay sharp": played with a side project, read a book, took a course, etc. Be prepared to answer questions on it just like you would if it were a job. If you didn't do squat, at least say "I kept up on the literature" and be prepared to cite some blogs or essays you found informative.

3. The reference from your last job is absolutely critical, make sure you have good ones lined up. Contact them to ask if they would be a good reference and remind them who you are and of good stuff you did, and then ping them again to say, "You should be getting a reference check from ABCorp soon, please emphasize my skills with [leadership, architecture, whatever]".

Good luck!

I would tell the truth.

Not sure if that's the best approach since the more I learn about the world the more I see it for the piece of shit that it is. Truth isn't valued and is often punished.

I usually "patch" my gaps in my resume by adding a period in which "I learned new tech, while doing a contract". The tech learned was React, Tessel.io microcontrollers, etc.

In interviews, that "contract was remote", and you can glide over it explaining "why you took some time off to learn these new techs, and how their were needed to expand your knowledge. Hope this helps :)

By "taking time off", i mean you put aside a full time job to make more room for learning with a contract.

I have no good advice for OP. I'm in a similar position having been umeployed since Q2 of 2020 after suffering from burnout. I didn't do anything to develop technical skills or networking-wise during long bouts of depression. I'm only now recovered enough to think about entering the workforce again.

My current plan is to get a simple job in the food industry or public health services and then use what remains of the day to attain book knowledge in programming, project management and negotiation. Starting to build a portfolio from now on and trying to make contacts within the industry, hoping that perhaps in a year from now, I will find a 'real' job in the tech sector. Not an easy feat at 41.

You just have to be able to explain it, that's all. If you want to be vague: "I was dealing with health problems that have now been addressed, and I'm excited to rejoin the workforce!"

Just lie. Seriously, I am not saying you need to say you worked for X or Y when you didnt,but if you worked 4 years for X company and you have now a 2 year gap , say you worked for 5 years, and you have now 1 year as a freelancer or something to that effect. Dont play naive with the companies when they are willing to deceive you all the way.

Start movement: everyone drop pandemic work history from resumes in solidarity with those excluded from economic participation by resume gaps.

Worker solidarity between employable workers and gap-scarred unemployable workers.

https://reddit.com/r/antiwork

Just be honest. There's more to life than work. Fuck any notion that you need to be in continuous employment.

1. Don't lie to the employer

2. It's an employee's market, so don't shy from applying

3. Don't lie to yourself - if there are strong underlying causes which will affect your work performance, perhaps you're not ready to re-enter the workforce

Be honest, as simple as that :) I got laid off start of pandemic March 2020 and could not start a job until Fall 2021 due to visa issues. My daughter was only 7 months old at that time. The first line on my resume is Full Time Parent and then I described in short that I took time off to raise her and worked on side projects and what I learned/implemented.

Many recruiters/managers appreciated the honesty and shared their own experiences, others completely ignored the time I was not working and directly talked about my experience before layoff, a few never got back due to long gap I am assuming.

I have long gaps between pretty much every single position in my resume. The only time I can recall anyone asking about any of them was over 15 years ago when applying for my third job. I told them I spent the time traveling, and that was the end of it.

My most recent gap was 3 years. The next job didn't ask, but if they had, my plan was to tell them I was retired but considering their gig anyway because I was getting bored and it looked like fun.

Easy. Tell a story how you tried to start a company.

I think we need more information in order to provide useful advice. What non-work things have you done with your time in the past two years?

I had a 3 year gap in my employment. What I did: Do substantive work for a volunteer organization, be valuable, and become an officer there. Put that on your CV. A lot of recruiters won't parse your CV enough to see the difference in that entry. If you're a coder, then that's enough for you to get a "just a job" job.

Make up a startup project that failed.

I've done it a few times (family obligations etc) and it hasn't been much of an issue as far as I can tell. I've done enough interesting stuff in the past to get a conversation and that lets the person satisfy themselves that I know what I'm doing.

If you’re talking about programming jobs in the US, and you’re a good programmer, no one will give a shit. They probably won’t ask but if they do you could say you were working on personal projects / studying some stuff you’d always wanted to study.

Without asking directly how you’ve occupied your time, and assuming you’re in a tech field:

Have you contributed towards any projects, be it your own or others’? What about schooling? Either can provide a partial explanation to your original question.

At one point I had an 18 month gap. I dealt with it my applying to jobs which were almost an exact match to jobs I had done before. They asked me more about those jobs than about my gap.

If you did volunteer work, pursued education or were a full-time parent, say so. That will help them understand what you were doing during that time.

I took a 10-month long vacations between jobs. Not quite 2 years but people had no problem with that on interviews.