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I'm going to offer a broader perspective. It's not that companies are discriminatory but they have a large pool of candidates to pick from. It's an employers market and if you are the hiring manager, would I choose someone with recent work experience or someone with a gap of 2 years? Same way you pick and choose the best looking apples at the supermarket, employers are going to be picky.
My advice is to look at relevant tech and courses in your industry to add to your resume to reflect your own growth and reach out to your network from your previous roles for openings. It's a hard market and you need to find a way in or to stand out.
Personal experience - it took me 6 months last year to land my new gig while actively searching. It's not easy and you have to hope that things come together while.you keep your head up and in the game.
Thank you for the reply! What do you think about also (occasionally) adding recommended contacts via LinkedIn and possibly reaching out to the via the messaging function? I'm aware it may be slightly too forward and out of the norm/strange but at this point I'm thinking how else I can grow my network.
Recently had a couple interviews where they seemed to go well, but it's very discouraging to not have any replies after despite the usual ending of "I'll let you know by e.g. next week". Is that typically done at most places nowadays? I recall seeing some posts about others experiencing getting ghosted. It's too bad this practice of at least sending a general email to let the candidate know for sure is not more practised in Singapore.
keep searching, and personally contact people who you know. ask them to put your name forward.
Want to re-enter that line of work that I did after my degree, but it's very worrying to have sent out many resumes and most either ghost or reject - even when I am perfectly qualified for the role! I'm talking entry-level roles where I'm even ok to take a slight initial pay cut below market rate because of the gap and the ad says '0-3 years of experience/fresh grads welcome' which I have. I have even experienced all the tasks listed in their job description. So I know high chance they don't even give a chance is mainly because of the gap.
Who could imagine companies can be so discriminatory just because someone had a gap in the resume? I'm aware that a few years is not a short gap, but at least some of these ads could definitely have given me the chance for an interview. I am not dull just because it's been a few years. Also, many jobs -including those in my line of work- that aren't extremely specialised can be taught on the job. Skills can be learned and acquired on the job and via courses etc. That was how I learned after graduation too. It is not impossible and just senseless if the ad says they welcome even fresh grads but rejects an experienced one because of a gap - so they're ok to train a fresh grad, but not someone who already has some relevant experience and might be able to learn faster? Any advice on what more can be done for a jobseeker to overcome this senseless discrimination?
VP Strategy 1’s feedback does provide some insight about Hiring Manager’s thought process.
I am in the same predicament as you, I’ve been getting responses but mostly screening calls.
Even though I did mention about what I’ve been doing during my career break, actually I switched to seasonal / part-time, it did still affect my applications.
It could be that it was a different line of work or the order of my resume. I mean it could be worth a try sending out a functional resume instead of chronological.