No job after some gap... need help

[ashish]

Hi all

Asking this on behalf of a dear friend.

He had to leave his last job in August 2017 due to severe family medical issues and later he too went into depression and himself suffered some medical setbacks.

He has overall 8 yrs of IT experience and very good at communications and technical skills pertaining to his expertise.

Since 2-3 months he is looking for job now and he is just applying applying but hardly gets calls. Even if he gets any call the skills match partially. Rather than sitting idle he joined some classes too for upgradation during the period.

Now one of his referral friend told that any gap more than 6 months and no company considers such candidates.
Hearing this he is mentally shattered, worried & stressed a lot as he is the only person to be working in his family and all his savings were spent on medicals bills etc. More to that he is married.

Want to know how true is it that companies dont consider candidates with so much of gaps.
Shouldnt cos consider his 8 yrs of valuable experience?

If anybody working in Pune can help him grab a job or refer to your company portal for jobs matching his skillets it will be great!

 

[Crapmypants]

I was in a similar position having a gap of a year but i explained the situation and was able to still secure employment, so hope is not lost. I'm sure companies that require your friends skill-set will look past the gap.
One odd thing i noticed is that i learnt of many more possible job opportunities from my new colleagues after i took the job offer. So, internet-based job hunting is not as effective as i thought, networking is still a solid way of finding work.
Plus, the job market isn't in the best shape right now so, do let your friend know that the problem is not really on his qualifications. Things are picking up so tell him to hang in there, he will get a job.
P.s. Chennai.

 

[mutant]

I think companies will look past that if they need a candidate with his skills. Most probably, he needs to just hang in there and keep trying. If he was in Kolkata, I could have helped.

 

[gopal_agrawal]

If he has good skills then its not difficult. Ask him to contact his previous companies and managers, they can easily hire him if had good relations earlier.
I had 11 months gap and got into my previous company.

 

[nRiTeCh]

Whats his age? Off late it seems cos. hesitate to hire people who are jobless after 32-33 yrs of age. One of my friend is 35 yrs with 9 yrs of experience in his IT field & jobless since 10months due to personal family reasons.
He can kick a$$ at any interview if given chance but sadly he is done applying to almost all mncs where the JD is near to 90-95% matching his skills and expertise but what they all reply is this:

Spoiler: Rejection reply:

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for taking the time to consider the role of Sr Tech Support Engineer ( Req # xxxx). We appreciate your patience through the decision making process.
At this time, we will be moving forward with other candidates. We would like to keep your resume/CV on file as other opportunities may arise within the organization. We encourage you to visit our Career Site. You can also stay connected via Facebook and Twitter. Thank you again for your interest in xxxx!

Worst experience, he even went via direct referrals and still his cv never got shortlisted. This was way too shocking for him.

He too is married and is the sole bread earner for his family.
Now is is miserably hunting for job in any small firm.

Seems all these mncs literally lie and fake about their shit policies which are just for show-offs stating we dont discriminate between ages, caste, creed, color, region, medical conditions etc. In reality all cos are biased internally.

They should at least take the courtesy to call the matching candidate to at least hear them if their technicalities are matching with the job. Instead what these cos. do is just a mass hiring show-off by conducting a weekend useless mass interview round and then selecting some idiots who abscond in no time or one who knows only basics and invest them with training etc for the hired project.

 

[afuol]

8 years of IT experience is a big thing. Unemployment is a serious issue in this age. I recommend you to do freelancing. Forget about looking for a job. There are amazing sites for it. There is nothing to worry about. The first two months will be hard but after that everything will look up.

 

[ashish]

An update.

Since a week this friend was engaged in set of rounds with an mnc. He cracked technical telephonic round and a skype client round successfully on a highly positive note.
Yesterday he was called for a F2F discussion final round.
Now that this guy is good at technical and already cracked previous rounds he felt this wasnt going to be any rocket science.

But he was shocked. As the interview literally turned into a interrogation.

The interviewer himself wasnt sure for which profile friend was getting hired & told this opening is for linux and yours is a windows bg. Friend then explained that the JD is for some clients windows project and that all rounds were on windows. The person wasnt pleased and dialed someone to verify and got reply "yes its windows.
Then the fellow was staring at his cv suspiciously as if it was out of this world or some ISIS activity.
He kept asking for reasons for switching jobs and my friend politely explained him why he switched jobs with valid reasons as he mostly worked on C2H basis, projects went off, hired project completed and he wasnt been able to placed on other projects etc., no growth in some cos. and so on.

He switched 5 cos in 8 yrs and he really had no option as he worked always on contract on all jobs and once the project was done he was either released or put on bench or have to look elsewhere.

But the interviewer kept pressing him on stability and then asked to sign a 3 yrs bond. Friend readily declined stating if this is for all employee commonly then he was ok but only for him then for a year he was ok. The person said its only for you.
He then said yours is a different case and needs to be discussed with HR panel before going further.

Friend returned home fumingly disheartened and feels this is a case of pure candidate harassment, exploitation, humiliation, discrimination and insult. He was being looked upon as if some criminal and forced to sign some bond. Or if the co. is doing a great favor to him by offering job.

What they care is pure stability minus serious technicality and communication. He had nothing to do about friends career achievements and appreciations he received till date or his in depth technical knowledge and first class communication and accent.

If the co. had stability issues then why was he even shortlisted and pushed further for the rounds? Didnt he HR or the technical panel went through his resume before initiating interviews?

Its like the war was won 80% and you have to back down.

Friend wants to complain to some higher authority of such exploitation and discrimination.
What can be done about that co. and to whom can such cases be reported.

 

[mutant]

An update.

Not sure if anything can be done in this case, the friend should write a review in Google, Glassdoor, Facebook etc, that alone should move some heads. Other than that, I don't think there is any legal remedy here.

 

[6pack]

It means the interviewer has some personal friend (or friends friend/ brother/ sister/ etc) of his slotted for that job and wants to slot that person there irrespective of qualifications.
You can't do anything in such office politics. Best to find another company to work for. Lets say your friend complained to HR and somehow got the job, he will become the target of that retarded interviewer now for standing up against him. Does your friend have enough time to work and play such games or he wants to work and keep to himself? I think its a blessing in disguise he got away from there.

I seen and experienced such nonsense a lot too. So I feel your friend dodged a bullet.

 

[Lord Nemesis]

Its not difficult to find a job after taking a short gap like 6 months if you have good skills. However, Job hopping is not taken to kindly by companies that require their employees to be stable with them at least for a while. This is especially true of Product based companies and in some cases, services based companies too. I have colleagues who were rejected interview calls or even rejected in the first round for having 4-5 job changes in 7-8 years while stating that very reason for the rejection.

In fact, when I do interviews, I too probe into reasons for gaps which I mostly ignore and more importantly into job hopping. Often, job hopping can a result of bad attitude from the employee in which case I would not like to hire them at all. Asking somebody to sign a contract that has different terms than others is not something my company will do. We just decide to either hire or not hire.

Your friends experience reeks of poor coordination between the HR and the manager who is hiring. This is a very common problem and I have seen this happen at my company too. I have on rare occasions been asked to do an interview abruptly with 5 min notice after the candidate had come in. Then, I have to take a look at the candidate profile and the JD to understand whether its a C++, Java, C# or Web developer role and whether its an entry, mid or senior level role and then do the interview accordingly.

Do note that job hopping does not always mean you have no chance at all of landing a decent job later. I have a class mate who switched 11 times in 14 years and he too got the same line at some companies. But he still keeps landing jobs. He is currently with Microsoft for last 9 months, but was looking to switch again as he is not satisfied.

 

[adventureguy]

An update.

Since a week this friend was engaged in set of rounds with an mnc. He cracked technical telephonic round and a skype client round successfully on a highly positive note.
Yesterday he was called for a F2F discussion final round.
Now that this guy is good at technical and already cracked previous rounds he felt this wasnt going to be any rocket science.

But he was shocked. As the interview literally turned into a interrogation.

The interviewer himself wasnt sure for which profile friend was getting hired & told this opening is for linux and yours is a windows bg. Friend then explained that the JD is for some clients windows project and that all rounds were on windows. The person wasnt pleased and dialed someone to verify and got reply "yes its windows.
Then the fellow was staring at his cv suspiciously as if it was out of this world or some ISIS activity.
He kept asking for reasons for switching jobs and my friend politely explained him why he switched jobs with valid reasons as he mostly worked on C2H basis, projects went off, hired project completed and he wasnt been able to placed on other projects etc., no growth in some cos. and so on.

He switched 5 cos in 8 yrs and he really had no option as he worked always on contract on all jobs and once the project was done he was either released or put on bench or have to look elsewhere.

But the interviewer kept pressing him on stability and then asked to sign a 3 yrs bond. Friend readily declined stating if this is for all employee commonly then he was ok but only for him then for a year he was ok. The person said its only for you.
He then said yours is a different case and needs to be discussed with HR panel before going further.

Friend returned home fumingly disheartened and feels this is a case of pure candidate harassment, exploitation, humiliation, discrimination and insult. He was being looked upon as if some criminal and forced to sign some bond. Or if the co. is doing a great favor to him by offering job.

What they care is pure stability minus serious technicality and communication. He had nothing to do about friends career achievements and appreciations he received till date or his in depth technical knowledge and first class communication and accent.

If the co. had stability issues then why was he even shortlisted and pushed further for the rounds? Didnt he HR or the technical panel went through his resume before initiating interviews?

Its like the war was won 80% and you have to back down.

Friend wants to complain to some higher authority of such exploitation and discrimination.
What can be done about that co. and to whom can such cases be reported.

sorry to hear that. probably that guy already has someone slotted for the job as said by someone here and that is why he was hard on your friend. Its okay man, one step at a time. Ask your friend to apply for other companies too. OR if your friend is desperate and bond amount is low, sign the bond, work for a year and then break the bond and pay this fine. This is really sad who these IT companies exploit our engineers

 

[dpandey]

But the interviewer kept pressing him on stability and then asked to sign a 3 yrs bond. Friend readily declined stating if this is for all employee commonly then he was ok but only for him then for a year he was ok. The person said its only for you.

Why did your friend refuse?

I have many gaps in my resume (have been laid off thrice, have taken two long breaks). If I was out of job for six months, I would happily sign a three year bond. Three years is a blink. Besides, how do you know that your friend wasn't simply being tested?

He was being looked upon as if some criminal and forced to sign some bond.

Wrong. Completely wrong conclusion.

Or if the co. is doing a great favor to him by offering job.

I will repeat. If I was out of work for six months and needed money to live, any one hiring me is doing me a favor.

What they care is pure stability minus serious technicality and communication. He had nothing to do about friends career achievements and appreciations he received till date or his in depth technical knowledge and first class communication and accent.

Hiring is a non-standard process. Technical/comm skills testing is a small part of the interview. You are joining a club. They are also checking if you will become "one of them".

Sometimes, the interviewer can develop an instant dislike for the candidate.

If you or your friend know some senior (>20 years) successful people, do a few mock interviews to find out what your friend is doing wrong.

Friend wants to complain to some higher authority of such exploitation and discrimination.
What can be done about that co. and to whom can such cases be reported.

Just don't do it. Pick up your battles carefully. This one your friend will lose.

 

[Lord Nemesis]

Why did your friend refuse?

I have many gaps in my resume (have been laid off thrice, have taken two long breaks). If I was out of job for six months, I would happily sign a three year bond. Three years is a blink. Besides, how do you know that your friend wasn't simply being tested?

Not everyone is the same. Not everyone has to be desperate. If I personally were under the same situation, I wouldn't sign a bond like that after being told that its exclusively for me. And yes, how do you know if they aren't just testing to see how confident you are in your skills (best case) or alternatively in the worst case. how desperate you are to get the job so that they can then determine how much less of a salary to negotiate? There is no need to be desperate unless you really are in a desperate situation where you are going to starve or going to lose your house etc.

There are companies that do try to take advantage when somebody is out of a job. Accenture for instance tried to negotiate some people to join them for 50% of their previous salary after they got laid off. Nothing good comes out of being impatient. Many of them waited and got offers from other companies with anywhere from 15% to 100% raise.

Once you let yourself be devalued, they are never going to give you respect. You will see the effect of the same in everything from salary immediately negotiated to future prospects of promotions or raises at the company. It can also affect future prospects elsewhere as well once they know that you joined a company in desperation. That kind of information travels quite easily to HR people as at many companies, they collect a lot of information on the people they are about to hire.

Hiring is a non-standard process. Technical/comm skills testing is a small part of the interview. You are joining a club. They are also checking if you will become "one of them".

I agree about that. Technical skills are just one variable in the equation. Nobody is going to give a job just based on technical skills. Depending on company, Interviewers may look at various other aspects including job stability, attitude, ability to adapt etc.

 

[ashish]

Why did your friend refuse?
I have many gaps in my resume (have been laid off thrice, have taken two long breaks). If I was out of job for six months, I would happily sign a three year bond. Three years is a blink. Besides, how do you know that your friend wasn't simply being tested?

Good for you signing any bonds and As @Lord Nemesis said ,being a target for desperate joiners and then getting humiliated for rest of the bond period as you cant really get off the bond unless you are ready to pay hefty bond amount.

Friend obviously thought he was been tested for it and for his confidence and he did say he will sign for a year not more than that.

Wrong. Completely wrong conclusion.

Looks very easy to comment here isnt it ? But practically if it happens to you and you are discriminated from others and during the bond period when you deliberately face all shit harassment, politics and other work targeted stress then even HR or the CEO wont help you as you signed the Bond on your own terms.

I will repeat. If I was out of work for six months and needed money to live, any one hiring me is doing me a favor.

May be for you but out there are many who dont deal into favors but who still have and value their self-respect and values rather than licking such cos a$$.

Hiring is a non-standard process. Technical/comm skills testing is a small part of the interview. You are joining a club. They are also checking if you will become "one of them".

As per the co. the need to join was on a very high priority and the HR was also confident and already had prepared his joining formalities etc. for the very next day.

Also, his technology has different weightage: 60% technical, 40% communication. Rest reasons are purely baseless. If you need somebody to join on priority basis, better to focus on the important aspects which are actually needed for running the position at peak and smooth rather than what percentages in 10th and 12 and then this gap or hopping.

To add, maximum cos have either 60-90days notice periods & in todays world 95% cos want immediate joiners as if all employees are serving notice periods or sitting idly at home. Cos. are acting unreal.

And when they get such deserving candidates they make a joke out of it, seriously!!

Sometimes, the interviewer can develop an instant dislike for the candidate.

This is bulllshit and a clear bias against the candidate.

Just don't do it. Pick up your battles carefully. This one your friend will lose.

He already lost it just due to that managers lack of interviewing skills, stupidity and bias.[DOUBLEPOST=1537446570][/DOUBLEPOST]Also, friend was asked his ssc/hsc/graduation marks on which the interviewer wasnt impressed as per his expressions.
In short the interviewer was a total negativity right from when he met him in the lobby, throughout the process and while exiting.