How can I put my NSFW blog on my resume?
March 9, 2015 11:26 AM Subscribe
I have savings, and I hated my job, so I quit to start an unprofessional and NSFW business. The business "failed," and I've been unemployed for almost a year. So, now I need to account for this time on a resume and figure out what to do next.
This is long. There are a bunch of threads here. I think I'm asking these questions:
1. Are there positive and constructive ways to reframe my experiences below?
2. Are there careers or money-making opportunities that I'm overlooking?
3. How can I represent the last year on my resume?
Some background:
1. I have an engineering PhD (with a dash of neuroscience). But, I feel like an imposter, and I squeaked through doing the absolute minimum that I possibly could (due to health and, well, existential issues). I have no publications. My advisor and one committee member (both strained relationships) have and would give me good references, but I'm afraid to iteratively impose.
2. My only two professional jobs have been as a software engineer. I interview well, and I landed a six-figure job in Manhattan. My manager unsurprisingly informed me that my performance was a small fraction of the output of others on my team. Having saved every possible cent, I walked out at the eight-month mark because of deteriorating health. (I would have liked to stay past the one-year mark, but I just couldn't do it.)
3. So now my resume looks like this: PhD --> eight months of impressive-sounding software projects --> eleven-month gap
4. The health stuff is maybe 85% better. But I may always have less spoons than average. And, I could lose a bunch of spoons again without warning, which would mean months of stressfully trying to hide subpar performance.
Currently:
Upon walking out of my job, I decided to try doing exactly what I wanted to do: I put all my (minimal) energy into building a blog audience and then selling products. Critically, rather than looking for an addressable audience, I wrote about exactly what I wanted to write about:
the confluence of meditation, neuroscience, and sexuality.
My blog topic isn't exactly the above; It's much, much more specific. And, also importantly, the blog is, at times, dense, cryptic, rambling, ungrammatical, and very personal (including graphic details of my sexuality). It also cites a lot of peer-reviewed research.
So, it's unprofessional-seeming and cursorily crackpotty. There probably isn't a single post that I could share as a writing sample, without substantially altering it. (And, I wouldn't want to lead a hiring manager back to my blog!!!)
Here are some objective facts about my blog:
* I have about 70 combined Wordpress and Twitter followers
* 1.5 years old
* 100+ posts, maybe 5% are over 3000+ words
* 12,000 all time views
* 26 comments by readers
* In 2013 average 10 views/day
* In 2014 average 20 views/day
* In 2015 average 40 views/day
* I have made $260 in product sales. Sales have been $0 for months.
* Five-ish people read everything I write.
* A few people meet each week on google hangouts to talk about this stuff with me.
I realize this is laughably "modest," hysterically modest. (But I'm also ecstatic to have gotten to this place.) Basically, I've compromised almost nothing: There's a disclosed bright line between what I give away for free (yay!) and what I sell (boo!). I've only linked or marketed when there's a really good fit.
I never really wanted a business--I wanted peers, colleagues, intellectual freedom, and money magically appearing in my bank account. A few people are making a modest living via related topics, and one of them has said some of my writing and thinking is "excellent" and "important for the future of the community." He's retweeted some of my blog posts. This is a drop in the ocean, of course, but I respect him, and that was really exciting, and it really meant a lot to me.
Anyway, I'm not sure I can personally compromise my vision any further. I just don't feel comfortable making any strong, clear marketing claims or making my work more accessible (watering it down) at this time. (I've worked mightily to make my writing more accessible without watering it down, and I think I've reached some kind sticking point.)
So, I need a real job, unless someone can come up with a brilliant reframing that unlocks all of this for me. (On and off, I do therapy for months at a time; It's only been moderately helpful in the past, and I don't have the money--I'm on catastrophic health insurance--for it right now.)
The Future:
I think my career prospects are 1) tech and 2) medical/science writing. Both domains are very unappealing to me, and I have anxiety about being able to consistently function at an adequate level of performance. I realize I'm coming from a place of extreme privilege (education; experience; time and money, now running out), combined with real (invisible) health limitations and uncertainties, therapy-worthy issues, and work-history road bumps (I think).
My questions:
1. Are there positive and constructive ways to reframe my experiences above? And/or where am I being an idiot? Something about this makes me want to slap myself upside the head. But it's like I can't tickle myself--I need to hear it from someone else.
2. Are there careers or money-making opportunities that I'm overlooking? I still have well over a year of savings, but I'm getting more stressed with each passing month. It's time to do something different, i.e. get a job I don't want, that I'm not sure I can get, that I'm not sure I can hold on to. (I don't think I can afford the financial risk and emotional cost of trying to start a more popular business.)
3. How can I represent the last year on my resume? What would be the actual wording?
4. How would I describe my brief post-PhD software job and my year of unemployment in an interview? What would be the actual wording?
5. How can I focus my limited energy so I don't spend many hours doing things that won't get results?
As with most people, I think there's a brilliant, productive, proactive, meaningful, eudaimonic situation for me, in theory, if only the world would align to accommodate the special snowflake that is me. I desperately want to legitimately feel like I'm making a unique dent in the universe, like I'm improving society, rather than perpetuating it. Thanks for slogging through this.
This is long. There are a bunch of threads here. I think I'm asking these questions:
1. Are there positive and constructive ways to reframe my experiences below?
2. Are there careers or money-making opportunities that I'm overlooking?
3. How can I represent the last year on my resume?
Some background:
1. I have an engineering PhD (with a dash of neuroscience). But, I feel like an imposter, and I squeaked through doing the absolute minimum that I possibly could (due to health and, well, existential issues). I have no publications. My advisor and one committee member (both strained relationships) have and would give me good references, but I'm afraid to iteratively impose.
2. My only two professional jobs have been as a software engineer. I interview well, and I landed a six-figure job in Manhattan. My manager unsurprisingly informed me that my performance was a small fraction of the output of others on my team. Having saved every possible cent, I walked out at the eight-month mark because of deteriorating health. (I would have liked to stay past the one-year mark, but I just couldn't do it.)
3. So now my resume looks like this: PhD --> eight months of impressive-sounding software projects --> eleven-month gap
4. The health stuff is maybe 85% better. But I may always have less spoons than average. And, I could lose a bunch of spoons again without warning, which would mean months of stressfully trying to hide subpar performance.
Currently:
Upon walking out of my job, I decided to try doing exactly what I wanted to do: I put all my (minimal) energy into building a blog audience and then selling products. Critically, rather than looking for an addressable audience, I wrote about exactly what I wanted to write about:
the confluence of meditation, neuroscience, and sexuality.
My blog topic isn't exactly the above; It's much, much more specific. And, also importantly, the blog is, at times, dense, cryptic, rambling, ungrammatical, and very personal (including graphic details of my sexuality). It also cites a lot of peer-reviewed research.
So, it's unprofessional-seeming and cursorily crackpotty. There probably isn't a single post that I could share as a writing sample, without substantially altering it. (And, I wouldn't want to lead a hiring manager back to my blog!!!)
Here are some objective facts about my blog:
* I have about 70 combined Wordpress and Twitter followers
* 1.5 years old
* 100+ posts, maybe 5% are over 3000+ words
* 12,000 all time views
* 26 comments by readers
* In 2013 average 10 views/day
* In 2014 average 20 views/day
* In 2015 average 40 views/day
* I have made $260 in product sales. Sales have been $0 for months.
* Five-ish people read everything I write.
* A few people meet each week on google hangouts to talk about this stuff with me.
I realize this is laughably "modest," hysterically modest. (But I'm also ecstatic to have gotten to this place.) Basically, I've compromised almost nothing: There's a disclosed bright line between what I give away for free (yay!) and what I sell (boo!). I've only linked or marketed when there's a really good fit.
I never really wanted a business--I wanted peers, colleagues, intellectual freedom, and money magically appearing in my bank account. A few people are making a modest living via related topics, and one of them has said some of my writing and thinking is "excellent" and "important for the future of the community." He's retweeted some of my blog posts. This is a drop in the ocean, of course, but I respect him, and that was really exciting, and it really meant a lot to me.
Anyway, I'm not sure I can personally compromise my vision any further. I just don't feel comfortable making any strong, clear marketing claims or making my work more accessible (watering it down) at this time. (I've worked mightily to make my writing more accessible without watering it down, and I think I've reached some kind sticking point.)
So, I need a real job, unless someone can come up with a brilliant reframing that unlocks all of this for me. (On and off, I do therapy for months at a time; It's only been moderately helpful in the past, and I don't have the money--I'm on catastrophic health insurance--for it right now.)
The Future:
I think my career prospects are 1) tech and 2) medical/science writing. Both domains are very unappealing to me, and I have anxiety about being able to consistently function at an adequate level of performance. I realize I'm coming from a place of extreme privilege (education; experience; time and money, now running out), combined with real (invisible) health limitations and uncertainties, therapy-worthy issues, and work-history road bumps (I think).
My questions:
1. Are there positive and constructive ways to reframe my experiences above? And/or where am I being an idiot? Something about this makes me want to slap myself upside the head. But it's like I can't tickle myself--I need to hear it from someone else.
2. Are there careers or money-making opportunities that I'm overlooking? I still have well over a year of savings, but I'm getting more stressed with each passing month. It's time to do something different, i.e. get a job I don't want, that I'm not sure I can get, that I'm not sure I can hold on to. (I don't think I can afford the financial risk and emotional cost of trying to start a more popular business.)
3. How can I represent the last year on my resume? What would be the actual wording?
4. How would I describe my brief post-PhD software job and my year of unemployment in an interview? What would be the actual wording?
5. How can I focus my limited energy so I don't spend many hours doing things that won't get results?
As with most people, I think there's a brilliant, productive, proactive, meaningful, eudaimonic situation for me, in theory, if only the world would align to accommodate the special snowflake that is me. I desperately want to legitimately feel like I'm making a unique dent in the universe, like I'm improving society, rather than perpetuating it. Thanks for slogging through this.
How can I represent the last year on my resume? What would be the actual wording?
Since you list medical writing/communications as a possible job and because once again our backgrounds overlap (ie, PhD in neuro and I had a completely unrelated job for 10 months prior to entering that field), you do the following: Functional CV. I was actually told to do this by a recruiter for medical communications when she reviewed what I submitted (ie, I turned in a resume with a list of every unrelated job in the universe). Instead, she recommended that I do the following: Only include related skills, and have a section for each. In other words, have a section for research, a section for publications (you can include posters and presentations), and teaching at the university level or above if applicable. To be honest, make it like a CV - but do not include every single job. If they hire you, it will not be because you were a software engineer; to them, it is not relevant.
Now during the interview you will absolutely need to walk through and address those other jobs. In my interview, I was upfront and when asked, told the briefly interviewers about the unrelated jobs. It was post academia and not the right job fit. I don't have a suggestion for the unemployment, but someone else might have a useful suggestion for that part.
I know some people will disagree about the functional CV, but I was offered several jobs in my industry, so it worked for me. I also did this under the recommendation of the recruiter, because she believed that the companies would be far more interested in related research/science, and really did not care or even want to know about the other jobs.
Because you mention health problems and not being sure about medical communications as a field (and I have to be honest with you, medical communication agencies are absolutely grueling in terms of hours and turn around times), I would encourage you to look at universities. Look for the words "continuing medical communications", just because the pace is not as insane and they would be more likely to understand health concerns and limitations. I know UCSF and UCSD have CME programs, but you will have to use google fu to find more.
posted by Wolfster at 11:54 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Since you list medical writing/communications as a possible job and because once again our backgrounds overlap (ie, PhD in neuro and I had a completely unrelated job for 10 months prior to entering that field), you do the following: Functional CV. I was actually told to do this by a recruiter for medical communications when she reviewed what I submitted (ie, I turned in a resume with a list of every unrelated job in the universe). Instead, she recommended that I do the following: Only include related skills, and have a section for each. In other words, have a section for research, a section for publications (you can include posters and presentations), and teaching at the university level or above if applicable. To be honest, make it like a CV - but do not include every single job. If they hire you, it will not be because you were a software engineer; to them, it is not relevant.
Now during the interview you will absolutely need to walk through and address those other jobs. In my interview, I was upfront and when asked, told the briefly interviewers about the unrelated jobs. It was post academia and not the right job fit. I don't have a suggestion for the unemployment, but someone else might have a useful suggestion for that part.
I know some people will disagree about the functional CV, but I was offered several jobs in my industry, so it worked for me. I also did this under the recommendation of the recruiter, because she believed that the companies would be far more interested in related research/science, and really did not care or even want to know about the other jobs.
Because you mention health problems and not being sure about medical communications as a field (and I have to be honest with you, medical communication agencies are absolutely grueling in terms of hours and turn around times), I would encourage you to look at universities. Look for the words "continuing medical communications", just because the pace is not as insane and they would be more likely to understand health concerns and limitations. I know UCSF and UCSD have CME programs, but you will have to use google fu to find more.
posted by Wolfster at 11:54 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
To answer your questions directly:
1) Ways to reframe: Life isn't linear. School erroneously teaches us that each step must be comparable to and better than the last. You tried something different; something you wanted to do. It took a lot of initiative and bravery to try it. Now you know what it's like to run a blog, to try to make a living running a blog. Very few people are able to make a living as a writer writing about topics of their own choosing. Some make a living writing about topics not of their choosing, but you went for the pure play. It didn't work out (so far). You've learned a lot from this exercise, a lot about yourself, a lot about the internet, a lot about people, a lot about the world.
2) Don't formulate a career plan yet; just start interviewing. Apply to every job that looks even remotely interesting. Use those interviews to find out about new opportunities, meet new people, formulate (and adjust) your career plan.
3)Add this line to your resume:
Apr. 2014 to the present. Co-founded internet startup focused on meditation and neuroscience.
That step alone should be sufficient unless you're applying for a job in the field of meditation. For other positions, such as science writing or software, you might vaguely hint that you don't want to disclose much due to possible litigation. That should halt any further inquiries. (Maybe leave out the word 'sexuality' on your resume).
Is there a person you can use as a reference for that time period, but who you trust to protect your privacy and remain suffuciently vague if they're called as a reference?
4) Depends on the job you're interviewing for:
- if it's a software job: "My job with XXY corp. was a great position and in retrospect, maybe I should have stayed, but I took a flier to try this meditation/neroscience thing. I've learned a ton, but it's not working out financially, so here I am interviewing with you.
- if it's a science writing job (incl. medical): "My job with XXY corp. was a great position, but I took a flier to try this meditation/neroscience thing. I've learned a ton, but it's not working out financially, so here I am interviewing with you.
5) How to focus limited energy... don't spend many hours doing things that won't get results?
This I have no answer for. Interviewing is an inefficient process, and the best job way come from an unexpected source.
posted by at at 2:08 PM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
1) Ways to reframe: Life isn't linear. School erroneously teaches us that each step must be comparable to and better than the last. You tried something different; something you wanted to do. It took a lot of initiative and bravery to try it. Now you know what it's like to run a blog, to try to make a living running a blog. Very few people are able to make a living as a writer writing about topics of their own choosing. Some make a living writing about topics not of their choosing, but you went for the pure play. It didn't work out (so far). You've learned a lot from this exercise, a lot about yourself, a lot about the internet, a lot about people, a lot about the world.
2) Don't formulate a career plan yet; just start interviewing. Apply to every job that looks even remotely interesting. Use those interviews to find out about new opportunities, meet new people, formulate (and adjust) your career plan.
3)Add this line to your resume:
Apr. 2014 to the present. Co-founded internet startup focused on meditation and neuroscience.
That step alone should be sufficient unless you're applying for a job in the field of meditation. For other positions, such as science writing or software, you might vaguely hint that you don't want to disclose much due to possible litigation. That should halt any further inquiries. (Maybe leave out the word 'sexuality' on your resume).
Is there a person you can use as a reference for that time period, but who you trust to protect your privacy and remain suffuciently vague if they're called as a reference?
4) Depends on the job you're interviewing for:
- if it's a software job: "My job with XXY corp. was a great position and in retrospect, maybe I should have stayed, but I took a flier to try this meditation/neroscience thing. I've learned a ton, but it's not working out financially, so here I am interviewing with you.
- if it's a science writing job (incl. medical): "My job with XXY corp. was a great position, but I took a flier to try this meditation/neroscience thing. I've learned a ton, but it's not working out financially, so here I am interviewing with you.
5) How to focus limited energy... don't spend many hours doing things that won't get results?
This I have no answer for. Interviewing is an inefficient process, and the best job way come from an unexpected source.
posted by at at 2:08 PM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
As a person who gets resumes based on blogs a lot -- your blog stats are not good enough to put it on your resume, and combined with the NSFW aspects I highly recommend not putting it on. It is still a great accomplishment to take pride in. But the chances of it hurting your job search are larger than helping it.
posted by warriorqueen at 2:55 PM on March 9, 2015 [12 favorites]
posted by warriorqueen at 2:55 PM on March 9, 2015 [12 favorites]
Do not put that blog on your cv. There is no conceivable way it will help you in an almost any role. I work in communications, in finance and IT.
posted by smoke at 3:45 PM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by smoke at 3:45 PM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
Are there careers or money-making opportunities that I'm overlooking?
Since it sounds niche, but possibly high quality, you could look into donations, whether via a donate button or a site like Patreon. And then get more serious about treating it like a business rather than a personal project. Sick or not, we all gotta eat. Either get more traffic and monetization going or throw in the towel and get a job or look into trying to get food stamps, disability and that sort of thing.
In a nutshell, those are your three options: Find a way to support yourself independently (whether or not it involves this specific project), find a way to make a normal job work, or find a way to go on the dole, if possible. I am medically handicapped and I am working out the "support myself" option. A corporate job is a terrible fit for me and, while having food stamps was a god send, I have no desire to be relegated to a lesser life forever. I want a real life, and that means I need a certain amount of money and a certain amount of agency. Most programs to help folks with issues take away a lot of their agency and the amount of money you get can be somewhat randomly cut for reasons like federal budget cuts. So my personal choice has been to work out the independent income path -- and it is working, though it has been really slow and frustrating.
How can I focus my limited energy so I don't spend many hours doing things that won't get results?
While still in college, I found that if I had a block of 8 hours in which to write a paper, it went better if I spent 6 hours taking care of myself and then wrote for 2 hours when I was in relatively good shape. Work on eating well, improve your sleep hygiene, and prioritize taking good physical care of yourself.
I have also done things like set up private blogs, open to just me or just me and a really short list of other people, to start organizing info. I have tried services like Evernote. I know some people rave about them. This hasn't done too much for me. I still occasionally access my Evernote account and I very much appreciate that I basically have some documents archived there, but I joined it (as well as one or more other services for "to do" lists and the like) in hopes that it would help me get organized. A lot of those avenues have failed me personally.
So find some thing that works for you in that regard, whether it is a "to do" list type web app or Evernote or some alternative, where you can toss things together and then prioritize, etc.
posted by Michele in California at 3:58 PM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
Since it sounds niche, but possibly high quality, you could look into donations, whether via a donate button or a site like Patreon. And then get more serious about treating it like a business rather than a personal project. Sick or not, we all gotta eat. Either get more traffic and monetization going or throw in the towel and get a job or look into trying to get food stamps, disability and that sort of thing.
In a nutshell, those are your three options: Find a way to support yourself independently (whether or not it involves this specific project), find a way to make a normal job work, or find a way to go on the dole, if possible. I am medically handicapped and I am working out the "support myself" option. A corporate job is a terrible fit for me and, while having food stamps was a god send, I have no desire to be relegated to a lesser life forever. I want a real life, and that means I need a certain amount of money and a certain amount of agency. Most programs to help folks with issues take away a lot of their agency and the amount of money you get can be somewhat randomly cut for reasons like federal budget cuts. So my personal choice has been to work out the independent income path -- and it is working, though it has been really slow and frustrating.
How can I focus my limited energy so I don't spend many hours doing things that won't get results?
While still in college, I found that if I had a block of 8 hours in which to write a paper, it went better if I spent 6 hours taking care of myself and then wrote for 2 hours when I was in relatively good shape. Work on eating well, improve your sleep hygiene, and prioritize taking good physical care of yourself.
I have also done things like set up private blogs, open to just me or just me and a really short list of other people, to start organizing info. I have tried services like Evernote. I know some people rave about them. This hasn't done too much for me. I still occasionally access my Evernote account and I very much appreciate that I basically have some documents archived there, but I joined it (as well as one or more other services for "to do" lists and the like) in hopes that it would help me get organized. A lot of those avenues have failed me personally.
So find some thing that works for you in that regard, whether it is a "to do" list type web app or Evernote or some alternative, where you can toss things together and then prioritize, etc.
posted by Michele in California at 3:58 PM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
No. A strange, unprofitable sex blog that you can't/won't show employers and a tiny readership is a liability. To be blunt, the average vaguely kinky tumblr gets more interest. It's great as a hobby if you enjoy it, but nothing that goes on a resume. The only way to possibly make it attractive is to work hard for another year building a profitable normal blog or set of blogs and describe the first year as market research/preliminary writing.
I think my career prospects are 1) tech and 2) medical/science writing. Both domains are very unappealing to me
Don't write off tech/science because you had a single, short, high pressure job in a high pressure, expensive city with a manager whose style didn't work well for you. You wanted to analyze brain data but did programming, which you have never enjoyed. What path do most people that were in your PhD program follow? If you can rediscover the reasons that you took that path, trace back there as if you had just graduated and go do that.
I wanted peers, colleagues, intellectual freedom, and money magically appearing in my bank account ... I realize I'm coming from a place of extreme privilege ... I desperately want to legitimately feel like I'm making a unique dent in the universe, like I'm improving society, rather than perpetuating it.
No offense, that's what most people want. Very few of us are going to get it, and part of growing up is learning to deal with that. If you think your writing/videos are going to help the world, get a standard day job that will pay for you to live, and spread your message for free in your spare time.
posted by Candleman at 5:16 PM on March 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
I think my career prospects are 1) tech and 2) medical/science writing. Both domains are very unappealing to me
Don't write off tech/science because you had a single, short, high pressure job in a high pressure, expensive city with a manager whose style didn't work well for you. You wanted to analyze brain data but did programming, which you have never enjoyed. What path do most people that were in your PhD program follow? If you can rediscover the reasons that you took that path, trace back there as if you had just graduated and go do that.
I wanted peers, colleagues, intellectual freedom, and money magically appearing in my bank account ... I realize I'm coming from a place of extreme privilege ... I desperately want to legitimately feel like I'm making a unique dent in the universe, like I'm improving society, rather than perpetuating it.
No offense, that's what most people want. Very few of us are going to get it, and part of growing up is learning to deal with that. If you think your writing/videos are going to help the world, get a standard day job that will pay for you to live, and spread your message for free in your spare time.
posted by Candleman at 5:16 PM on March 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
I'd just tell interviewers that you took some time off to pursue an outside interest in neuroscience, spirituality, and meditation. Make it sound like a yuppie sabbatical or quarter-life crisis. It might make you sound a little flakey, but not unhireably flaky. They'll probably think you went to India on a yoga retreat / vision quest or something. You don't have to lie, exactly, but you don't have to disabuse them of their incorrect assumptions given limited information either.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:03 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:03 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
My advisor and one committee member (both strained relationships) have and would give me good references, but I'm afraid to iteratively impose.
Ask them. Don't be afraid to ask them again whenever you need a reference. Its part of their job, and between me and you, they won't be writing a fresh one each time.
posted by biffa at 12:39 PM on March 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
Ask them. Don't be afraid to ask them again whenever you need a reference. Its part of their job, and between me and you, they won't be writing a fresh one each time.
posted by biffa at 12:39 PM on March 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
« Older I hate you more than any other cat at night | How do I help my partner become more responsible? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
2. Without knowing the specifics of your PhD, are you willing to get certified as a PE and do something like property condition assessments or some other kind of site inspection work or something in construction, like project management? This would not utilize the PhD-level of your degree, and would likely be a step back financially from your IT job, but would be a way to get a steady job that would bring in money without being too terribly taxing. It would leave your brain space free for other things, like your blog. You could even do that work as a 1099, which would give you maximum flexibility and could be a part time gig. The point is, maybe you need to starting thinking of how to find a job to sustain you, rather than trying to find a job to fulfill you. Maybe for you, your job puts food on the table and a roof over your head, and your blog and your work in that community fulfills you and contributes to society. There's nothing wrong with this -- but the trick is to find a job that doesn't completely demoralize you.
3. Working back your timeline, it looks like your 8 months of IT experience spanned two calendar years. So I would list that on your resume as 2013-2014. I would not mention your blog. When asked why you left that IT job, I would cite your health reasons, or possibly something about geography -- you didn't want to live in Manhattan any more -- or both.
4. I would try to avoid saying you've been out of work for a year, but if you have to be specific, again I would make this about health and geography, and not about other issues.
posted by OrangeDisk at 11:46 AM on March 9, 2015 [7 favorites]