<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>nikatwork</author><text>Valid dodging answers include:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  - I took a sabbatical
  - I did private&amp;#x2F;contract work for a while
  - I took a working holiday
  - I spent some time renovating my house
  - I took some time off to look after a sick relative
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
Take the Jesuit line that if there is a kernel of truth in the statement (eg you fixed your gutters one time while unemployed) then you&amp;#x27;re not actually lying.&lt;p&gt;Really, this HR obsession with &amp;quot;zomg a gap in employment history&amp;quot; is pointlessly stupid and deserves to be gamed.</text><parent_chain><item><author>tieTYT</author><text>They ask.  Are you just supposed to lie or refuse to answer?</text></item><item><author>bobbles</author><text>How can that happen? It&amp;#x27;s not like your new employer will know what you were making at the last job, and even so why should that matter?</text></item><item><author>danielweber</author><text>Taking a lower-paid job can reduce your salary once you get back to your primary field.  Workers have legitimate reasons to treat wages as sticky.</text></item><item><author>WestCoastJustin</author><text>Age and skills seem to be a factor. The people in the video are 40+, with many doing marketing&amp;#x2F;sales. The HN community, based off the &lt;i&gt;what is your age?&lt;/i&gt; poll [1], suggests the majority here are between 21-35, so we probably are not experiencing their problem. Second, networking is a major factor, if the software keyword system is really the issue, you need to find ways around the system, email your old co-workers, etc. This is why it is important to keep learning, as tech evolves, and to &lt;i&gt;put your self out there&lt;/i&gt;, through quality work.&lt;p&gt;One thing did bother me a little, is pride a factor here? There were lower level job, but many did not want to take them, because they felt it was below them, or they were over qualified. If you are in the red, with zero money coming in, isn&amp;#x27;t anything better than nothing, at least as a gap till you find something better?&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  ▁▁▂▇█▅▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁
     | |
    21 35  
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5536734&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=5536734&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;ps. I created the bar graph via &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/holman/spark&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;holman&amp;#x2F;spark&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Is LinkedIn Cheating Employers and Job Seekers Alike?</title><url>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2013/08/ask-the-headhunter-is-linkedin.html</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>justrudd</author><text>Refuse to answer. I do it all the time. I generally answer when asked &amp;quot;Let&amp;#x27;s see if we are a good fit for each other. If we are, make me an offer based on how much value you believe I&amp;#x27;ll bring to the table.&amp;quot; If they keep pushing to know how much I make, that gives me a good data point on the type of company they are. I&amp;#x27;ll use that to decide whether I want to work there or not.</text><parent_chain><item><author>tieTYT</author><text>They ask.  Are you just supposed to lie or refuse to answer?</text></item><item><author>bobbles</author><text>How can that happen? It&amp;#x27;s not like your new employer will know what you were making at the last job, and even so why should that matter?</text></item><item><author>danielweber</author><text>Taking a lower-paid job can reduce your salary once you get back to your primary field.  Workers have legitimate reasons to treat wages as sticky.</text></item><item><author>WestCoastJustin</author><text>Age and skills seem to be a factor. The people in the video are 40+, with many doing marketing&amp;#x2F;sales. The HN community, based off the &lt;i&gt;what is your age?&lt;/i&gt; poll [1], suggests the majority here are between 21-35, so we probably are not experiencing their problem. Second, networking is a major factor, if the software keyword system is really the issue, you need to find ways around the system, email your old co-workers, etc. This is why it is important to keep learning, as tech evolves, and to &lt;i&gt;put your self out there&lt;/i&gt;, through quality work.&lt;p&gt;One thing did bother me a little, is pride a factor here? There were lower level job, but many did not want to take them, because they felt it was below them, or they were over qualified. If you are in the red, with zero money coming in, isn&amp;#x27;t anything better than nothing, at least as a gap till you find something better?&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  ▁▁▂▇█▅▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁
     | |
    21 35  
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5536734&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=5536734&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;ps. I created the bar graph via &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/holman/spark&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;holman&amp;#x2F;spark&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Is LinkedIn Cheating Employers and Job Seekers Alike?</title><url>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2013/08/ask-the-headhunter-is-linkedin.html</url></story>