5 ms·

I work at a big company. Long break on your CV is a red flag for HR and Hiring Managers. It might be a different at smaller companies.

vinylkey 10y ago
What's the reasoning behind this? If someone wants to take 6 months off between jobs to travel/spend time with family/whatever, why is this seen as a negative?
- PerfectElement 10y ago
  Maybe because you are not being a good cog in the machine. Do anything unusual and you may be seen as a risky hire. Of course, it depends on the company, but this is what I recall from my corporate years.
wkoszek 10y ago
Never really understood it. I think people are afraid that CS/EE people after chilling out for 3,6 or 12 months will forget everything? Do you know the reasoning?
- samfisher83 10y ago
  If you have 2 candidates one that has been working and one that hasn't which would be less risky to hire? Despite what you hear on HN we get plenty of resumes to pick from.
  - wkoszek 10y ago
    I would argue that there's no correlation. This exercise is pretty easy: If I gave you money for a year to keep you and your family alive, and gave you free time to do whatever you want, do you really think you'd come back as a worse expert after a year? Some people will take a year of and do nothing; some people will be bored to death after 3 months of doing nothing and for the next 9 months will learn tons of skills, new programming language etc. I'd not disqualify them because of that.
JSeymourATL 10y ago
> Long break on your CV is a red flag for HR and Hiring Managers. To the contrary-- I've known many people come back from a sabbatical/garden leave scenarios. Universally, the reaction is 'I wish I could take extended time-off like that'. It helps to have a great cover story like hiking the Inca Trail or spent time developing an extra cool project. *Providing care for an elderly loved one also gets understanding nods.

vinylkey 10y ago

What's the reasoning behind this? If someone wants to take 6 months off between jobs to travel/spend time with family/whatever, why is this seen as a negative?

PerfectElement 10y ago
Maybe because you are not being a good cog in the machine. Do anything unusual and you may be seen as a risky hire. Of course, it depends on the company, but this is what I recall from my corporate years.

wkoszek 10y ago

Never really understood it. I think people are afraid that CS/EE people after chilling out for 3,6 or 12 months will forget everything? Do you know the reasoning?

samfisher83 10y ago
If you have 2 candidates one that has been working and one that hasn't which would be less risky to hire? Despite what you hear on HN we get plenty of resumes to pick from.
- wkoszek 10y ago
  I would argue that there's no correlation. This exercise is pretty easy: If I gave you money for a year to keep you and your family alive, and gave you free time to do whatever you want, do you really think you'd come back as a worse expert after a year? Some people will take a year of and do nothing; some people will be bored to death after 3 months of doing nothing and for the next 9 months will learn tons of skills, new programming language etc. I'd not disqualify them because of that.

JSeymourATL 10y ago

> Long break on your CV is a red flag for HR and Hiring Managers. To the contrary-- I've known many people come back from a sabbatical/garden leave scenarios. Universally, the reaction is 'I wish I could take extended time-off like that'. It helps to have a great cover story like hiking the Inca Trail or spent time developing an extra cool project. *Providing care for an elderly loved one also gets understanding nods.