Maybe I'm alone in this. But I think be honest, you don't have to go into details. I have family and friends that have been (or still are) in bad depression. Based on the stats nearly everyone you talk to will as well.
I have being on the hiring side too, and if I asked you about that gap and got an honest reply about depression, that would tell me a lot. 1. you have identified an issue and worked to resolve it. 2. you are aware of it and may see it "coming" early next time (if it comes again).
I have been burnt too many times from people misrepresenting themselves in interviews (not being real to themselves to "sell" themselves) that I really value open and honest people. I think they know themselves, better, therefore their weaknesses and strengths too.
Could you hit rock bottom if I hired you? Sure, but it wouldn't be a complete surprise, and we could work together to prevent it and make sure you have the help needed before things got bad. (As if I hired you, it was for your skills and drive and fit and I'd want you to stick around to continue that).
Employers and employees can work though a lot if we both are honest and both are bringing something to the party (a job someone wants and the skill/desire to learn/perform).
Note I do not work in the US, and this is my experience.
This. Depression is a lonely place, I have been there myself a few times. If you have sought help and you recognise the early symptoms you are more likely to control it before it becomes a problem, to you and your employer.
Answering honestly will either result in:
a) Your employer appreciates your honesty and hires you according to your skills. They will be considerate if you begin to relapse and help get you to a better place by familiarising themselves with the condition, or;
b) Your employer will discriminate you based on your mental illness (assuming your skills are not a factor). They will see it as a risk and be unwilling to help you and help manage your condition regardless of what you can contribute.
You do not want to work for company b), so consider them a dodged bullet. Although they aren't likely to disclose depression as a factor, you may be able to see it their reaction when you tell them. Subtle body language such as leaning back in their chair and looking away may indicate they have already made their decision.
If you were to answer dishonestly you will be at a greater risk of working for an apathetic employer. If you were to relapse you might find explaining your condition difficult and they may think you're disgruntled and let you go.
I don't work in the US either, I don't know how aware people are of mental health and how tolerant they are there. I like to assume people in the tech industry are very familiar. Speaking from experience I know a lot of developers (including myself) who suffer from depression from time to time and are empathetic to one another. Your potential employers should be very familiar already.
Definitely be honest about it. I would focus on the courage it takes to confront the condition and the stigma associated with it, and get the help you need. If you can frame the conversation to focus on management and positive outcomes I think that will help.
A hiring manager that is human, that can relate and empathize will be your ally. You're only going to connect with those people by engaging them honestly.
You might be surprised by the number of people that share a similar experience.
THANK YOU ALL FOR THE REPLIES! This has been very enlightening. I've been learning the last couple of days that opening up to people is not so bad. Ultimately, I think I'll give more details if my gut deems it necessary and the gap comes up. Otherwise, I'll just state that I was burned out and that I had to take some time off for some medical reasons. Cheers everyone!
Interestingly I have the opposite experience in Melbourne, Aus. I used to stand/walk/chase down empty cabs trying to get home but none would stop or just say things like "not far enough" or "i'm not going that way". This was true even at cab ranks.
Now I stand waiting for an Uber for a few minutes and 1. it turns up 2. they never complain about distance or direction and 3. I get home safely.
I do however mostly avoid crazy surcharge periods.
I used to stand/walk/chase down empty cabs trying to get home but none would stop
Not sure about Australia, but in many parts of Europe it's uncommon stopping a cab by waving your hand while standing by the street. Some even charge higher fees if used this way. A common way is to order it by phone or app and wait for notification that it has arrived.
Same here in Melbourne. Tried to get a cab from cbd to office last week. Thought it would be easy to get a cab as so many around. Nope. None would stop. Uber it was, arrived a few minutes later (and $13.50 vs usual $25 for cab).
Work Christmas party last week used a cab app as Uber was surging to ~2x. Did have to offer a $10 tip in the cab app to get one to accept.
Had to reply, could not agree more. People may hate it but there is an art to writing a resume and it's focus, just like a company needs to focus, so do you to get a job.
It's a fact of life that resumes are crucial and that structure makes a difference. But I've noticed that people often disagree about approaches.
This particular resume is based on a template that people in a channel liked. I've received a number of compliments IRL regarding both the layout and the content.
The only thing that people IRL seem to agree should go is the part about reasons for leaving.
The resume does need a new release. For example, I should start to fill in the years after 2009. But it isn't the resume that's the primary issue here. It's the fact that the market has shifted away from generalists, combined with mistakes that I've made.
FWIW, I've heard multiple recruiters and managers/directors compliment me on my resume style [1]. It's a bit more narrative and a bit less focused on bulleting out skills. This seems to attract more progressive forward thinkers (if you're into those sorts of companies).
At the same time, it does highlight my skills at the top of each area of experience, so some developers reading my resume may skim over the narrative part, focusing on the listed skills. So it works for them too.
It's also quite honest in a few areas that may turn off some people, but to me, it turns off the right people (those I don't want to work for).
[1] Check it out in my profile if you're interested.
That sounds about right. In my experience most recruiters are only capable of matching two words, with very little understanding of what the words actually mean. They have no idea that RDBMS / Oracle/ SQL are synonymous to a degree.
Be careful about trusting compliments people give you when they're physically standing in front of you. When people are looking you in the eye, they tend to tell you what they think you want to hear. Online communication creates a distance that makes people more likely to speak their mind.
I really want to disrupt the real estate market. Real estate agents in particular. I think it is a broken system, especially on the rental side.
Never dug into the law (here in Australia) but I want to make available the tool for people the manage their own properties, some standard rental contracts etc.
People already look for property online, then you have to deal with the agents, you should just be able to deal with the one - hopefully trusted - site. You search, find, go to a open inspection, apply online, get notified that you have it. Get sent contracts etc. Organise a meet for keys and signing. You'll then manage communication through that with the owner or a proxy.
You'd need to hire a bunch of resources that are vented to do open inspections and manage some calls etc. but on scale they'd be cheaper than a bunch on real estate agents.
Find the "international association of home inspectors" or the equivalent. Talk to them, talk to their members, about how much work you'll be sending them.
You don't need to hire them - just subcontract with them. Kinda like what Home Depot does for installation work - they have a vetted network of contractors around the country that they schedule...
I haven't written anything real in Go yet, but there is a lot of articles about it, and many parts of it do appeal to me. I like how they didn't write another language for the JVM, I like the c inspired syntax, I like the concurrency model they have, etc. It also seems to be getting a lot of praise in
web development circles.
But am I the only one that cringes at going back to writing & and * for passing parameters etc. for web development? I know there is sometimes a need for really managing memory but... I'd love a simplistic language built around the ideas of Go (small runtime, fast, type safe, compiled etc.) for building web apps.
Interesting, I'm in Australia and in IT and know many people in IT making salaries of 6 figures.
That being said I've heard similar things about US. Clearly everyone will experience something different. Also for Tech, US clearly has more (not that we have none) opportunities.
I have being on the hiring side too, and if I asked you about that gap and got an honest reply about depression, that would tell me a lot. 1. you have identified an issue and worked to resolve it. 2. you are aware of it and may see it "coming" early next time (if it comes again).
I have been burnt too many times from people misrepresenting themselves in interviews (not being real to themselves to "sell" themselves) that I really value open and honest people. I think they know themselves, better, therefore their weaknesses and strengths too.
Could you hit rock bottom if I hired you? Sure, but it wouldn't be a complete surprise, and we could work together to prevent it and make sure you have the help needed before things got bad. (As if I hired you, it was for your skills and drive and fit and I'd want you to stick around to continue that).
Employers and employees can work though a lot if we both are honest and both are bringing something to the party (a job someone wants and the skill/desire to learn/perform).
Note I do not work in the US, and this is my experience.