Interviews & Debriefs
How to answer “So what have you been doing?”
Past about six months out of work, recruiters start assuming your skills have slipped or that other employers already passed on you, and this question is how they check. A strong answer runs under 30 seconds: why you left, what you’ve done in your field lately, and the job you want next.
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Full episode transcript
It’s ten twenty on a Thursday morning. You’re eleven minutes into a phone screen, and it’s going well. The recruiter laughed in the right place. You can hear typing. Then there’s a pause… and a friendly voice. So what have you been doing since March?
That’s what I want to talk about today. That question, what recruiters assume when they ask it, and how to answer it. And the short answer is this. It isn’t small talk. Somewhere around month six, a set of assumptions kicks in on the hiring side. This question is how a recruiter checks them. And whatever you say becomes one line in their notes.
Month six isn’t a number I made up. One field experiment sent about twelve thousand fake resumes to real job postings, and changed only how long each person had been out of work. Callbacks fell from about seven percent at one month, to about four percent at eight months. Then they leveled off. Another experiment, close to five thousand resumes, found people out more than six months were almost never called in. Even with the same credentials.
The researchers’ read on why is the part that matters. It wasn’t mostly about rusty skills. Employers treated a long gap as a sign of something they couldn’t see. Translated… a long gap quietly says, other people looked at this person and passed. Nobody says that out loud. They say, so what have you been doing? And they listen.
Here’s what happens on my side of the phone. While you answer, I’m typing. The hiring manager usually doesn’t hear your answer. They read my summary. And your answer to this one question turns into a single line. Gap explained. Vague on gap. Or, open to anything. That last one sounds flexible to you. To a hiring manager, it sounds like a flight risk.
Once you’re on the phone, the gap rarely sinks you by itself. The note does.
So build your answer backwards, from the line you want typed. Three sentences. First, the reason you left. One sentence, past tense, no apology. Second, the most recent work you’ve done in your field, with a month on it. A contract, a project, a certification. In September beats recently. Third, the job you’re going after. One function, one kind of company. Then connect it to this role… and stop. Let it be quiet. The recruiter is typing.
Leave the market out of it. Don’t count your applications out loud. And don’t invent a consulting business, because the next question is who your clients were.
Same candidate, two answers. One talks for two minutes about the market, a hundred and fifty applications, some online courses, and being open to anything. The note says, vague on gap. The other one is three sentences. A reorg in March. A three-month contract and a certification. Brand roles at companies this size. The note says, focused. Same person, same eight months. Only one of them moves to the next round.
A good answer usually earns one follow-up. Why do you think it’s taken this long? Don’t diagnose yourself. Tell them you’ve been selective on purpose, and that this role fits what you’re targeting.
Here’s the line I want you to keep. They aren’t asking what you’ve been doing. They’re asking what to write down. Tell them.
Write your three sentences tonight. Say them out loud, and time them. The full list, both versions of that answer, and the follow-up scripts are in the post. I’ll talk to you next time.
Angela Malagon · Career Strategist. 15+ years recruiting talent for companies such as Cisco, Google, and Wells Fargo, then job searched against the same systems.
It’s 10:20 on a Thursday morning, eleven minutes into a phone screen that’s going well. You’ve walked through your last role, the recruiter laughed in the right place, and you can hear typing on the other end. Then a pause, and a friendly voice: So what have you been doing since March?
Here is the short answer on how to answer “what have you been doing”: it isn’t small talk. It’s the recruiter checking a set of assumptions that kick in around month six, and whatever you say becomes one line in their notes. Give the reason you left in one sentence, the most recent work you’ve done in your field in the next, and the job you’re going after in the third. Then stop talking.
You can’t argue a recruiter out of those assumptions on a phone screen. Explaining the market or how unfair it all is only confirms the note they were already halfway through typing. What works is handing them a better sentence to write down, and you can build it today with a notes app and a timer.
What recruiters assume after month six
Month six isn’t a number I made up. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts you as long-term unemployed at 27 weeks, and hiring teams draw their own version of that line without ever writing it down.
The research says the line is real. In one field experiment, economists sent about 12,000 fictitious resumes to real job postings and changed only how long each applicant had been out of work. Callbacks fell from roughly 7 percent at one month to roughly 4 percent at eight months, about 45 percent lower, and then leveled off. A separate experiment by economist Rand Ghayad sent 4,800 resumes to 600 openings and found that applicants out more than six months were almost never contacted for an interview, even with credentials identical to applicants out a short time.
Both studies are over a decade old, the first used young applicants, and both measured callbacks, not interviews. Treat the numbers as a direction, not a forecast. The direction matches what I saw from the recruiter’s chair.
The researchers’ read on why is the part that matters for you. The penalty wasn’t mostly about skills going stale. It was screening: employers treat a long gap as a signal of something they can’t see on the page. Translated, month seven on a resume quietly says other people looked at this person and passed. Nobody says that out loud. They say So what have you been doing? and listen for whether it’s true.
The note a recruiter types after this question
Here’s what happens on my side of the phone. While you answer, I’m typing into your candidate record. The hiring manager usually doesn’t hear your answer. They read my summary, and that summary is what travels into the scorecard and the debrief.
Your answer to this one question becomes a single line. In my experience it lands in one of three places, and the shorthand looks something like this:
- Gap explained. The assumption got checked and cleared. This is the one you want.
- Vague on gap. You talked for two minutes and I still couldn’t say what you did. That reads as hiding something or not doing much.
- Open to anything. That sounds flexible to you. To a hiring manager it sounds like a flight risk, someone who leaves when the market turns.
Once you’re on the phone, the gap rarely sinks you by itself. The note does. That’s good news, because you get to write the note. The resume side of this, the one honest line that covers the dates, is in how to explain a gap in your resume after a layoff. This post is about the 30 seconds when you have to say it out loud.
Why a long answer costs you the next round
The instinct is to over-explain. You’ve had eight months of reasons, and you want the recruiter to understand all of them: the reorg, the market, the two final rounds that went nowhere.
Picture two candidates, both out since March. The first gives a sincere two-minute answer covering the market, a family move, some online courses, and how hard it’s been. The second says three sentences and stops. The first was more honest about the hard part. The second gets typed up as focused, and that’s the one the hiring manager calls.
It’s not fair that 30 seconds can outweigh eight months. You can’t change the clock. You can change what goes in the note.
How to answer “So what have you been doing?”
Build the answer backwards, from the line you want typed. Here’s the order.
- Write the note first. Before you draft a word of your answer, write the line you’d want in the recruiter’s notes. Laid off in a March reorg, finished a certification in September, targeting compliance roles at regional banks. Your answer is that note, spoken.
- Give the reason in one sentence, past tense. “My role was eliminated in a reorg in March.” No adjectives, no apology, no story about the VP.
- Lead the middle sentence with recent work in your field. A contract, a project, a certification, volunteer work that uses your actual skills. Put a month on it. “In September” beats “recently,” because it answers the stale-skills question first.
- Name a narrow target. One function, one kind of company. “Plant operations at mid-size manufacturers” sounds like a plan. “Anything in operations, really” sounds like month nine.
- Connect it to this job. End on why you took the call: “which is why this role caught my eye.” That hands the conversation back to the job.
- Stop at 30 seconds. Then let it be quiet. The recruiter is typing. Filling the silence is how a clean answer turns into a vague one.
- Leave the market out of it. “It’s brutal out there” is true, and it invites the recruiter to wonder why it’s brutal for you in particular. Same for counting applications.
- Don’t invent a consultancy. If you say freelance, the next question is who your clients were. Claim only the work you could talk about for five minutes.
- If your middle sentence is empty, fix that before the next screen. You need one real piece of current work to point to, and what to do during a long-term layoff covers the options that read as current.
Before and after: the answer and the note
This candidate is made up. The pattern is not. She’s a marketing manager, laid off in March, on a phone screen in November.
Before
Oh, gosh. Well, the market’s been really tough, I think I’ve sent out over 150 applications at this point. I took a little time after the layoff because we had some family stuff going on, and I’ve been doing some online courses, some LinkedIn Learning, just trying to stay sharp. Honestly, I’m open to a lot of things right now. I just really want to get back to work.
The note: Vague on gap. Open to anything.
After
My role was cut in a reorg in March, along with most of the brand team. Since then I’ve been running email and paid social for a regional nonprofit on a three-month contract, and I finished the Google Analytics certification in September. I’m going after brand marketing roles at consumer companies about your size, which is why this one caught my eye.
The note: Reorg, March. Current contract work, GA cert. Targeting brand roles. Focused.
Same person, same eight months. The first answer asks the recruiter to feel for her. The second one gives the recruiter something to write down. Only one of those moves her to the next round.
The follow-ups that come after a good answer
A clean answer usually earns one more question. These two come up most.
Why do you think it’s taken this long? means: is something wrong with you that I haven’t found yet. Don’t diagnose yourself. Answer with what you’re doing on purpose.
I’ve been selective about where I apply. I’d rather land the right brand role than take the first thing and be looking again in a year. This one fits what I’m targeting.
Would you be comfortable at this level? means: will you leave the minute something better comes along. Answer the fear, then move to the work.
Yes. I looked hard at the scope before I applied, and it’s the work I want to be doing. Can you tell me what the first 90 days look like?
The part I’d want you to screenshot
You can’t control what a recruiter assumes about month six. You can control the sentence they type after you answer, and you get to decide it before the call starts. If a part-time job is paying the bills right now, here’s how recruiters read a survival job and where it fits in the answer.
The assumption is a question in disguise: are you current, are you focused, are you staying. Write your three sentences tonight and time them out loud. It costs you ten minutes.
They aren’t asking what you’ve been doing. They’re asking what to write down. Tell them. Then let them type.
If you want to hear what I’d write down
Some answers sound fine in your head and land as vague on the other end of the phone. You can’t hear the difference from inside your own answer.
That’s Interview Prep, $350. Ninety minutes on one target role: we run the questions you’re dreading, starting with this one, and after each answer I tell you what I’d have typed in the notes and how to change it. It is not a mock interview where someone nods along and says you did great.
Send the contact form and you’ll get a personal reply from me within 48 hours. Not a bot, not a template. If you’d rather work through it yourself first, the Job Search Library is free, and Make the Gap Count is where you’ll find what to do with the time between roles and how to talk about it honestly.
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