Reasons why you should NOT HIRE people with a BREAK in resume

When one is out of job, it is extremely easy to get the next job in India. I mean what could go wrong? You only need to send about four hundred odd emails and applications to elicit around forty responses, out of which twenty five are system generated regrets, ten are assurances, and five are actual show of interests. Let's work with the five. shall we? Three might lead to an actual interview and if very lucky, one of them may convert. Piece of cake of course, but should you be feeding this cake to the qualified yet unemployed individuals? I do have some glaring reasons why you should not.

1. THEY MIGHT ACTUALLY TAKE THE JOB WAY TOO SERIOUSLY ! So you are used to many employees that treat a job like a place to chill for five hours or so, and been projecting your workplace as the coolest place next to Disneyland. Woe betide someone coming with a hungry stomach in there! Just not the right fit! They will probably work way too hard to prove themselves and bring down the mood !
2. THEY MIGHT JUST BE TOO PASSIONATE ABOUT WHAT THEY WANT ! Work is worship and all that ! This goes completely against the values ingrained in us since we were born - "Beta, Drink the milk even if you are lactose intolerant - it will do a whole lot of good". "Beta, do engineering, life will be set right after !". Who even cared that we wanted to be an anthropologist ! Think of it, this person may have given up a job they disliked and were miserable in, just to actually hone the skills for what they want - that is so not a part of our culture.
3. THEY MIGHT HAVE MADE A MISTAKE IN JOB SELECTION THE FIRST TIME. Oh this is a cardinal sin of course ! I mean, aren't we supposed to know exactly what we want right from the time we choose our friends in kindergarten? Trial and error - so irrelevant and passe. I mean we advise woman to stick to abusive marriages because you know - the seven circles around fire and all that. Why would anyone even think of correcting a mistake they made the first time. The only way to validate a mistake is to keep making it, isn't it?
4. THEY ARE THE WRONG GENDER. As women, we have the liberty to take a break to be a wife, a mother or simply to take a much needed break to pursue our passions - and we come back to see advertisements posted by companies bending over backwards trying to improve the gender ratio. "Work for women with a break in resume", "Opportunity for Women Entrepreneurs" . But men? Oh if they took a break, they are weak, inconsistent and unreliable. A fatherhood break is nearly unheard of. Let us not even think of taking a look at that one page resume he may have dared to send, let alone actually interview and find out what went wrong. Of course. Because hiring a man is never equivalent to screaming "My company promotes Gender equality"
5. THEY MAY HAVE IDEAS OF THEIR OWN. We are looking for conformists and safe players here - said no Company Presentation ever ! We want dynamic, hardworking and bright individuals - on paper. Why on earth would someone want to hire anyone who has the head and the determination to turn the tide - to Go big or go home ? These people are surely going to sit and toss ideas over how to do something better - that is risky!
6. THEY MAY HAVE A STRONG RESUME. Seriously, a shortlisting based on just that? Definitely a struggle. Shall we ask them why they have been out of job? No, of course not. That is two extra sentences worth of talking. Why ask when assuming is the best available option? Sudden health issue, or family trouble or a serious issue in the last job they were at - we don't talk of all that here. We don't look at the experience either. All we are concerned with is that small gap where they might have been on a covert mission to invade Mars for all we know.
7. THEY ARE EAGER. A job is a lot like dating of course. If you are eager, you are automatically unattractive to recruiters. You definitely don't want someone who has probably stayed up the night before learning all about the company you run and the industry, and the competitors, and the value chain, just to ace this interview. Does he get the interview? No. What if they are actually good because right now any relevant job is their dream job, and they are struggling to support the family. The classic case of having to hate chocolate to get chocolate.
8. THEY HAVE NO SPOKESPERSON! No one is expressly recommending their skills, so they don't exist. Let us not waste time being the person that gives chances - let us not even give them a trial period, or a contract period to showcase what they are capable of. That three month gap tells their whole life story straight up. A person who sat at home automatically falls into the reject pile of resumes - shoot them before we ask why.

While there are a lot many reasons for not hiring anyone who was forced to take a break from job or chose to take a break from job, these I felt may be some of the key ones.
On a serious note, it is a daily struggle to even get the resume noticed, let alone land an interview. I have been lucky to meet people at the right time who reached out to help selflessly. There are many who are not this fortunate, and are struggling every single day. My aim is not to hurt sentiments but to seek a solution here. Is there a chance where one can look beyond the gap, into the kaleidoscope of possibilities that a candidate might bring to the table - and give them the benefit of doubt - at least till the interview? Every race horse gets injured once in a while, and makes a comeback. If you are someone with the power to help, can you at least put them on the starting line instead of yards behind it?
-Written by, Rajashree Banerjee
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