posted about 7 months ago
Your first point is a reasonable one but if the gap was an issue he would not be getting interviews.
Once you reach the interview stage you are on a level playing field with the other candidates.
The problem is more likely to do with how he is handling the questions about that gap.
Doing things like calling the job Research Assistant sounds clever but it's not tackling the core problem (because he is getting lots of interviews) and it probably won't work anyway because a quick phone call to his uni will reveal the lie and anyway they will know he is lying when he fails to provide a reference from that job. Dont underestimate HR department staff. They are not all clueless in my experience.
I will have a think about how he can better answer questions about the gap.
Iwan's initial answer is exactly correct but I want to know how he handles the second question about whether he gives up easily. In my opinion that is maybe where the battle is lost.
I think we need a response from Iwan addressing our points before we can get to the root of it.