Experience – Linear vs. Non-linear

Are resume gaps really that big of a deal?

As I start looking for jobs again, one thing I’ve learned in a “buyer’s” (employers) market is that any sort of imperfection on one’s resume seems to automatically result in a ding. Mine specifically is having a gap in my resume of about a year from my last gig (Director of Analytics at PS). A conversation with Grok last night gave me a reason that a resume might get filtered out where it said “No recent job interviews? ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) hates employment gaps over 6 months—flags you as “stale.”

It got me to think – why are gaps in experience such a non-starter? In the past, this “may” have made sense because maintaining skills/upskilling was much more difficult in a world without the internet and the tools we have today. Therefore, the only real proof of an employee staying up-to-date would be through “real” jobs that generated a W2.

However, I’d argue now that not only is a job gap not a bad thing, but could actually be a great thing!

The path to wealth now is much easier than it used to be – side gigs, social media influencer accounts, stock market/crypto, remote work – these are all wealth building tools that barely existed 20 years ago. So while employees take a break from corporate life, it is easier than ever to “float” for a while with alternative revenue streams while searching for the next great gig. Besides, how many impressive people have you met who’ve worked at the same company for 10+ years?

There are three big reasons why the current workforce take career breaks:

1. Layoffs
2. Burnout
3. Family care

Layoffs: In my prior field (gaming), companies have laid off thousands of people over the past 3 or so years (the subject even warranting its own Wikipedia page) with more likely to come. Studios are shutting down at a rampant rate due to increasing development costs and extreme direct competition (mostly from titles 6+ years old which hog 67% of current user playtime) and indirect competition (YouTube, Meta products).

Burnout: An article I wrote last year covers this so no need to rehash: https://vampirefinancial.com/2024/08/05/why-are-workers-burning-out/

Family care: As millennials increasingly become the next big “sandwich generation,” many of us are having to step back (temporarily or permanently) from our jobs in order to take care of our parents as they age. As we wait longer to have children (likely due to skyrocketing tuition and housing costs, among other things), we are in the position of having young kids while our parents are older. With the average age of birthing continuing to increase, it’s possible we’ll be placing this burden on our future children as well (unless Tesla Optimus robots come to save the day which I’m bullish on 😁).

There are many reasons for career gaps – if I was a recruiter, I’d be giving these folks a second look (or at the very least, not filtering them out right away) 😉 At the very least, they can likely offer some great perspective that workers with a more consistent (see: nonstop) history may not be able to. These workers may also have a layer of resilience that the can’t stop/won’t stop crew may not have.