I started to see people mentioning how they had long unemployment gaps since the Covid pandemic started, so let me tell you about my story a little bit. This is “morally grey” I suppose, but it's a good example of how you sometimes gotta make a questionable choice to get further in life.
I've been dealing with tons of very very difficult stuff in my life, which I won't mention because you'd get bored. In any case, the result was a 5 years gap in my resume, right after getting my master's degree, so basically nothing to show for it.
The solution? I got an employment certificate from a cousin who's a business owner, signed by his hand, references, the whole schebang, who covered a 3 years gap for me, and I said I've been a freelance community manager for 1.5 years right after that, which works because that's actually what I did (but as a hobby, being a moderator: I simply said I was paid under the table, and that it was tough to get a job during the Covid pandemic so I decided to work for myself for some time). No company cared for the “free lance job” obviously, so they simply checked the aforementioned 3 years, did a background check…and since the company is legit, as well as the owner who vouched for me well, it worked wonderfully, no matter which way the background check was ran.
The result: I got hired at 33 years old (which is quite late to start a career let's be honest) for a digital consulting firm, I love the job, it's challenging but interesting, the pay is ok, and the team is truly nice.
Tldr: yes, sometimes you gotta bullshit to make it, but it's absolutely, ABSOLUTELY worth it.
Nb: I'm German.