Establish an LLC and mark large employment gaps as being a contractor. Embellish side projects as your experience for that LLC (make sure you can back it up on an interview). Your background check will verify your LLC. The business you supposedly do is not public record and can’t be verified. Don’t name companies while under your LLC, you have “NDAs”
You could do this while working at Wendy’s too. Again, make sure you can back up this “experience “ in the interview and on the job.
Went to a coding bootcamp? Don’t put the date, and your time there can be marked as part of your legal LLC and the projects are listed as experience.
Companies that care more about a perfect resume then what you can actually do in an interview or on the job are toxic and you’re better off if they don’t hire because of having an LLC based experience.