Unpopular Opinion
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You do know you don't have to answer truthfully. And also the recruiter/employer doesn't really care except if it is one of a few things.
Answer in a way that doesn't make it sound like you were in jail or involved in a lawsuit, and you're good.
You left one position and used your severance for a few month trip to see your parents.
You volunteered at a non-profit to clear your head.
You had a non compete clause that was compensated for by your previous employer.
Whatever.
You would think that jail or lawsuit like you suggest is all that would matter. However, I went to Mexico a few years and spent 6 months in a Spanish school full time and I can tell you that not a single recruiter or hiring manager likes that I did that. They conjure up this notion that I am not a slave and that I might up and quit and go on a trip again.
So, like I previously stated they use their imagination to imagine the worst. Any time that is not at a job is a negative. Even school does not count.
Lol no they don't, you're being absurd
Nah, school does count. I've given dozens of interviews, I usually don't worry about having every month accounted for. School is fine, taking a few months and living off savings is fine too. If I'm going to have to work with this person I want someone cool, I'd respect someone taking time off for themselves.
6 months in Spanish school is a perfect explanation, a few years in Mexico though, you literally just glossed over years of your life. Are you younger and you were living with family? Were you running drugs for a cartel? The former is fine, the latter would be a red flag.
They just want to know what you've been up to, if you refuse to account for years of your life that's weird, I don't know why that's such a problem
Because it’s none of their fucking business, that’s why. What does what I do outside of work have to do with my qualifications to do the work?
Oh, ok then
Think of it more like you're meeting a new friend, you're just hanging out and taking. Would it be a problem for someone to ask about your time in Mexico in a social setting?
Employers are not your friends. Employers are people who want you to do as much as possible for as little as possible. Regardless of one's political views, employers are not friends. It is an uneasy alliance at best and an outright war at the best of times. Wanna be friends? Help me unionize this workplace, bro.
Damn, you must have had some terrible bosses or worked some really shitty jobs for you to be so jaded.
It's not being jaded. It's a reality. The employers base interest is creating wealth for the company, the employees base interest is generating income for themselves. These two conditions are fundamentally at odds. That's why we speak about "negotiations" when it comes to wages. We are attempting to balance the two sides. The employer wants the employee to perform the most amount of labor for the smallest possible compensation, the employee wants the largest compensation for the least amount of labor.
I'm not suggesting all employers are bad people, or that there aren't people who are employers who are friends with their employees. I am saying the employer, in their role as employer, is not a friend to the employee. Their interests do not align, and if they did, either you have a masochistic boot licking employee, or an employer who is going to fail and take their business down with them.
My mom ran a successful business for 25 years, was good friends with her employees outside of work, but in her role as the employer occasionally had to do things that went against her nature, by the simple fact that her business needed to survive more than her friendship did.
I ran a successful business for 5 years before illness took it from, and likewise, in my role as employer, I could not make the decisions I wished I could have. Had I known about worker's cooperatives at the time, I likely would have transitioned it to that to save the company when we were no longer able to do the work in the same way. C'est la vie.
This isn't about being jaded, it's about understanding how our economic system works at it's core. A small, but significantly powerful group on one side, a large but mostly powerless group on the other. Each has their own interest, and the balancing act is figuring out how to get the most out of the other.
Recruiter: "So, tell me about this gap in your CV."
You: "I'm not permitted to answer any questions about that period of my life unless the files are declassified. I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."
Recruiter: "Ha ha."
You: "No. Seriously. Let's move on."
Real secrets have cover stories.
"I can't discuss that beyond saying that I signed an NDA"