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hey everybody welcome to q a i am the
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company's expert
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and today we're going to talk about how
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to get hired
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despite having a resume gap or an
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employment gap
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or basically just a gap in your work
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history
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okay um now today sue
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has sent in a question and sue is asking
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okay three years ago i was in hospital
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for a couple of weeks
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with six weeks off after six weeks the
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doctor said i could go back to work
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i went back to work for six months but
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found it difficult
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i was not ready to be working yet so i
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quit
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after being off for two years i am now
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ready to go back to work
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what do i put in my resume for the
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reason i have not
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worked for almost three years good
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question sue
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i have said unemployed semi-retired
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and medical leave but i'm not getting
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calls
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one person called when i was using
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medical leave
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and she was more interested in my
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hospital stay discussing my recovery
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and when i was able to go back to work
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rather than the job i was going after
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then she said i was not a good fit ooh
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for those of you who don't know when
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they say you're not a good fit
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that's code for we've eliminated you and
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we're not going to tell you why for a
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variety of reasons
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so that's that's what that means if ever
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you get told that
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i'm sure most people do get told that
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when they're doing a job search
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okay uh one person called when i said
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semi-retired and wondered why i was
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looking for a full-time position
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i did not get that either i'm at a loss
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i'm qualified for what i'm looking for
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my medical history has no effect on what
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i'm looking for
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i've decided to go for both part-time or
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full-time
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uh both both will work for me at this
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time
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can you give me some advice as to what i
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should say in my resume
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and how to answer the questions okay
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thank you for sending that in sue that's
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a great question
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and uh this is kind of a relatively
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common scenario too so
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i think a lot of other people would be
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interested in what you do here
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okay now a couple of things okay
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uh first of all a couple of concepts
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recruiters
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are risk averse okay recruiters by
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training
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are uh not in all honesty despite what
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they say they're not really interested
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in really searching for a great
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candidate
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instead what they're in the business of
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is looking for red flags and eliminating
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people
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based on red flags uh because those
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could be a concern
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they could they make that candidate more
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risky
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okay now this definitely falls into that
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category
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okay uh if you have an unexplained work
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gap
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their first thought is okay maybe this
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person hasn't been working
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because there's something wrong with
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them that uh you know
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that i can't see and uh if nobody else
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wants to hire them
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maybe that's telling me that i shouldn't
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hire them either okay
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that's what they think okay they're
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they're trained to think in this
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risk-averse way and uh that's the first
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thing you got to know about them second
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thing
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is that in all honesty not all but most
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recruiters uh they are ill-equipped to
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judge
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who's a good candidate and who isn't so
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they have to resort to criteria like
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this
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okay because they really don't know and
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i can say this i've taught recruiters in
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university
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um now i've done a previous video
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on resume gaps employment gaps having
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gaps in your work history and how you
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overcome those okay
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um i'll post a link to that video uh
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in the description and hopefully at the
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end of this video too
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but if you can't be bothered to watch it
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the bottom line was that
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if you have a workout okay and if it's
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over one year
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and it's right now it's it's between now
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and the previous job you had okay you're
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gonna have to show
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some professional experience during that
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workout
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that's what recruiters are looking for
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okay now by
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professional experience what i mean is
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you've got to show uh that you went back
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to school
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um you got a show maybe you took some
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training uh
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you could you could show that you did
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volunteering
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uh you could show that you did
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consulting okay all of those
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would likely justify the workout they
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would help explain it away
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and it would alleviate their concerns
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that it's going to be a problem okay so
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if you can say any of those things
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great say it write it into your resume
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and uh don't have like a gap
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you address the gap and you say what you
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did during that time
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now if you can't say you've done
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any of those four things okay you didn't
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go back to school
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you didn't take any training you didn't
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volunteer and
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uh you didn't um consult okay
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if you if you can't say those what i
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would recommend
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is that you then you now
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go and take some training okay online
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just take some online courses
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preferably in an area that's related to
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the jobs you're going after
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okay so that you can say hey you know i
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haven't just done nothing the last
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two years i've been taking some training
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and i've been
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taking training in this particular area
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of this field
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that i've discovered i'm quite
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passionate about and i've learned a lot
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about it
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and i've also learned a bit about it
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outside of the training too i've just
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read up on it and um that's reinforced
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my passion to work in this area
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and i feel i have a lot more abilities
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now that i can bring to it
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so if you can say something like that
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that would be really good so my
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recommendation is to uh
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like this is your first option to go and
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take training now
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and um and then be able to say that
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stuff
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okay so if they ask you about it that's
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what you say
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that's your first option okay there's
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kind of three options i'm gonna lay on
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you here
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um the second option is if you're able
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to say
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uh you know when you justify your
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workout if you're able to say that you
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did something
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personal okay for example caring for
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a sick family member okay i was off work
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because i was caring for a sick family
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member
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okay but now that's that's over and i'm
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ready to come back to work
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okay because it's a personal nature
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they're probably not going to ask too
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many more probing questions about it
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and it does justify your work out okay
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it alleviates concerns
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uh the only concern they could have is
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that if that were to happen again so you
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say
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it's over it's over now okay another
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example of that would be saying you know
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i
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had to care for small children maybe
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you're a new mom
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or maybe some relative dump their kids
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on you i i don't know
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but something like that that would help
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justify having a work gap okay so if you
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can say those things
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say them those are good answers that
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alleviate recruiters concerns
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about this stuff okay um that's your
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second option
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okay um now you have a third option
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and in all honesty this is the one that
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i would recommend
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for a lot of people uh if you've if
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you've
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never done this or never learned
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anything about this
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and it's the hidden job market okay the
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hidden job market
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can bypass this entire issue okay
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because if you get a job in the hidden
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job market
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the interaction is a little bit
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different first of all you don't go
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through a recruiter okay you're dealing
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with a hiring manager
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and secondly the nature of the
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interaction is that they're
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asking you to come in an interview for
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the job so they tend to
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believe more of what you say they're not
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quite as skeptical
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when you talk about stuff like this they
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may not even bring it up a lot of times
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um now the the caveat the problem
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here is that a lot of people it seems
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i'm judging from youtube comments
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uh haven't heard of the hidden jaw
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market and still other people
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seem to think it's some kind of uh
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conspiracy theory or something it's not
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okay uh you don't have to take my word
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for it um
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go read up on it this is very real um
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so if you've never heard of a hidden job
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market you don't know how it works
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okay i've done a video on it i will put
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a link to the video
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in the description and also at the end
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of this video i'll put a link to it
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uh i've done a i've got a playlist on
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how to do specific things in the hidden
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job market like how to find employers
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around you and
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apply for jobs and things and then if
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you want to really go deep
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i have a course that describes
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everything how to do it
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how it works so um
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i would if you've never heard of this
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you know
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i would highly recommend that you learn
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um
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this will benefit your career for the
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entire rest of your life if you know
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about this
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okay if i haven't said it already
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70 plus of all jobs
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that are out there are in the hidden job
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market all the jobs you see
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posted those are only around 20 of all
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the jobs that are actually out there
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okay and if you don't believe me don't
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take my word for it
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read up on it uh what i've noticed
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though uh that i think is kind of
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interesting
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is that a lot of people who give career
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advice
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uh including some youtubers they
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themselves
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are recruiters so i imagine it's a bit
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of a conflict
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for a recruiter to tell you to bypass
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recruiters
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so maybe that's why this isn't talked
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about more than it actually is
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um but it's to your benefit to
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to learn about it okay um don't
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necessarily listen to me listen to a
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variety of
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sources on this okay it's very real um
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so you go after the hiring manager okay
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you think who would be
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the boss you would like you find those
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people
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okay and you contact them through social
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media
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and you give a professional message you
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say hey i'm here
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and uh i have talents in this area and
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i'm looking for something for a job in
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that area
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and if you ever need someone that can do
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this let me know because i love to work
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for you
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and that's it you just you just send
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that out
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and uh you know statistical probability
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is that you know that's gonna
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land with someone who's looking to hire
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somebody
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that has what you have right at this
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time
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and um that's how that works and then
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they contact you and they say yeah you
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know i was gonna
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i'm looking for somebody you should come
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in and let's talk
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that's how that works so uh so those are
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three options to address this issue
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and um you know definitely do option one
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or two and then i'd highly recommend
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also maybe on the side doing option
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three
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so hopefully that makes sense thank you
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very much for your attention don't
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forget to subscribe
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and join my channel because i have a i i
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have uh members only videos i got one
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video coming out
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on friday so check that out and uh
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each and every one of you is awesome i
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say that a lot but i mean it
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and uh if you really put the work in
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it's gonna pay off thank you very much
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and i'll see you on the next video
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take care
