I graduated with a bachelors in computer science around 4 years ago. Long story short, I was depressed, dysphoric, and suicidal throughout my college years and by the time I finished I didn’t want to do anything. I’ve been unemployed for the last 4 years but I’ve also transitioned, started taking better care of myself, and overall I feel much better.
Anyways, I need to get a job now. What kind of lies can I get away with on my resume to cover up the long period of unemployment? Should I pretend I started some sort of company and it failed? Pretend like I went on some backpacking journey in a foreign country? Do companies even check all this stuff?
I did do an internship at a big tech company several years ago, and I’m working on personal software projects so I can put that on my resume. Also, I’m in Amerikkka.
Sorry if this question has been asked here before
Quite a bit (especially if you've got a friend willing to help cover the lie if needed), but I would keep it simple and plausible. Someone else suggested saying that you were doing freelance work that is still covered by an NDA, and I think that's a winning strategy. Tell them that you can talk in general terms about the skills you have and the sorts of projects you're comfortable with, but cannot provide any details about what exactly you were doing.