For a long time there was one interview question I dreaded: what were you doing between May and December 2021?
I never had a good answer. I’d stumble, over-explain, and get frustrated, even a little annoyed, because I wanted to talk about where I was headed, not defend a few months on a timeline.
The honest version
I spent almost three years at Quibi. The app went dark on December 1, 2020, and I stayed on through the wind-down into May 2021. Helping close out a company that launched with that much attention was its own kind of education.
After that, I took a few months to reset, and I was picky about what came next. I wanted to own the data side of talent work, not just the hiring load. The Flowserve role was exactly that, and it started in December.
That’s it. That’s the whole gap.
It’s more common than it feels
When LinkedIn surveyed nearly 23,000 workers in 2022, 62% said they had taken a career break at some point. More than half of the people who took one, 56%, said they picked up new skills or sharpened existing ones along the way.
The fair counterpoint: the same research found that about one in five hiring managers say they would reject a candidate who took a break. So the stigma is real. It’s also shrinking, and how you tell the story matters more than the gap itself.
Two sentences, then move on
My read, having sat on both sides of the table: the gap is rarely the problem. The nervous five-minute explanation is.
If you have a stretch you’d rather not explain, try this:
- Say what happened, in one plain sentence.
- Say what you were looking for next, and how the next role gave you that.
Then stop talking and let the interviewer move on. Researching what to say and practicing saying it are two different things, so say it out loud a few times before you need it. It took me longer than I’d like to admit to learn that one.
What’s the question on your timeline you’d rather not answer, and what would the two-sentence version sound like?