Need Advice: How to explain breaks of employment on resume
- Thread starter BrownTurd
- Start date
Explain what?
Lie lie lieeeeee or stretch the existing truth.
Just tell em you was in jail.
Lots of business' whent out of business. Just pick one of those, and say you worked for em.
That works also because their is no way to verify employment. Some will try and ask for a check stubb tho
I usually put freelance photographer and stretch the dates of my last job. I always find it patronizing at interviews when interviewers look at you funny because you were Jobless for a while as if the situation out there is not clear enough. It's like if you have gaps they think you enjoyed staying at home and hated work
I've never put down the month i've worked a job on my resume, I've always put year to year. And I've always had a job every year so it seems as if there never was a break in employment, even when there were, and it's been perceived that ways by every employer that has interviewed me.
Find a bar or restaurant that went out of business or is under new management, say you where doing dishes or busing tables for the old business name or during the time the old management was in place.
Most places don't keep good records on those positions and more than likely when they call their will be no record because of
new management, most employers don't dig any deeper.
It's a cross your fingers thing but hell it's better to try than to pass up
a gig.
Most places don't keep good records on those positions and more than likely when they call their will be no record because of
new management, most employers don't dig any deeper.
It's a cross your fingers thing but hell it's better to try than to pass up
a gig.
This. I have been hired on many a job even after huge gaps in employment.
lol badman. cmon son.
When toilet bowls dry up.
Tell them you spent that time "Fighting The Man"
Don't clean toilets
Irrelevant. What are you his daddy or something?So. what were you doing during the breaks or why did you have breaks?
and how long were they?
Just lie. The only thing not to lie about is criminal history.
Anybody ever had to talk to human resources for a muthafucka lying trying to get a job?
All I had to answer was the basic were they a good employee shit and rate them.
Folks never even worked for me.
Anybody ever had to talk to human resources for a muthafucka lying trying to get a job?
All I had to answer was the basic were they a good employee shit and rate them.
Folks never even worked for me. 
Find a bar or restaurant that went out of business or is under new management, say you where doing dishes or busing tables for the old business name or during the time the old management was in place.
Most places don't keep good records on those positions and more than likely when they call their will be no record because of
new management, most employers don't dig any deeper.
It's a cross your fingers thing but hell it's better to try than to pass up
a gig.
Do not do this. Even though a company has gone out of business, there are to many unknown variables that are out of your control. For example, the employer may know someone that worked at the "random" company you've listed. Someone in the group you are trying to get into may have worked for said company or knows someone that has worked at said company. The company that is doing the hiring may have a company in their employ that offers special services and can track down and verify employment history even if the company went out of business. Sites like Facebook and Linkedin can also bring you down. There are just to many moving parts and even tho the chances are slim, you may want to think twice about that option.
Your best bet would be to do what someone else said and say you were self employed. I do not recommend this, but it will work. (If someone wants to know why I will explain if asked). If you go this route you need to provide mythical "clients" that can vouch for your work. Another option would be to say that you worked for a "mythical company", but in order for this to work, you must supply several different references (the reference can be your friend posing as the manager of the made up company. No company that I know of or have worked with, references the references). If you have a friend do this, give the friend as much back story as possible (i.e. time worked there. What you did, salary, job duties, what you need them to convey to the person calling for the interview etc. Your stories MUST MATCH as much as possible.) What I have found to work the best during my time in the business is to say that you took time off to take care of a sick family member. This does not require referrals, background checks, or verification and normally garners sympathy from the employer and makes them see you as a "good person" that they would want to work with. If going this route, make sure you try and emphasize the fact that while you were taking care of family, you did not let your skills slip at all, but in fact improved them. Make sure you back this up with example (i.e. classes, freelance work, certs)
Vandalay Industries........
No fool..lol We provide office cleaning solutions.NOW you don't, hence why you are asking about resume tips.
Just say you were working with Bernie Madoff and "things didn't exactly work out" so you were unemployed for awhile.
LOL! Nah in all honestly, it comes down to how you express yourself and come across. Or in many instances, what you do and the region you live in.
- Here in DC, there are so many independent contractors/consultants (like me) - having a gap in your resume is de rigueur. Sometimes you can't find a contract or get outbid on your rate so you end up idled until you land the next project or client.
I've gone as long as 6 months between contracts. Didn't phase anyone. So, an easy way to skirt that employment gap is just say you decided to go 1099 for awhile and work as an independent, but unfortunately the contracts dried up during your last project and you were left on an island.
(Be prepared to discuss your last project though and possibly make up what you did and the company - my suggestion, pick a company that folded up shop)
- Another good explanation, sick family member. A few years ago my mother had some kind of really fucked up liver infection which gave her such a sharp pain, she fell and broke her kneecap. I knew I couldn't afford hospice or a part-time home health aid, so I'd pretty much have to move in for awhile and be around to help. Again, I was between contracts so I decided to put the business on autopilot and not look for a new contract while I spent 3 months helping her get back to full-strength.
- Non-Profit volunteer is a great way to knock down unemployment gaps too. You loaned your assistance to the Red Cross (or XYZ Charity group) to help Haiti. Or worked at a soup kitchen. Or .... Charity and social welfare is where your heart and mind felt you needed to be at that point in your life. It was a calling.
- An additional way to explain it is to simply say you were tired of your last job but didn't know what you wanted to do next, so you worked as a temp to get exposed to a bunch of different businesses to see what really interested you. Business keep pretty shitty records of the temps they used - only the agency. Unfortunately the agency you picked was a small Mom/Pop who when the economy got rougher, shut down and they're no longer in business. They moved out the state the last you heard. (So don't pick Manpower or Account Temps or something.)
- School and retraining. Never anything wrong with that.
GL.
LOL! Nah in all honestly, it comes down to how you express yourself and come across. Or in many instances, what you do and the region you live in.
- Here in DC, there are so many independent contractors/consultants (like me) - having a gap in your resume is de rigueur. Sometimes you can't find a contract or get outbid on your rate so you end up idled until you land the next project or client.
I've gone as long as 6 months between contracts. Didn't phase anyone. So, an easy way to skirt that employment gap is just say you decided to go 1099 for awhile and work as an independent, but unfortunately the contracts dried up during your last project and you were left on an island.
(Be prepared to discuss your last project though and possibly make up what you did and the company - my suggestion, pick a company that folded up shop)
- Another good explanation, sick family member. A few years ago my mother had some kind of really fucked up liver infection which gave her such a sharp pain, she fell and broke her kneecap. I knew I couldn't afford hospice or a part-time home health aid, so I'd pretty much have to move in for awhile and be around to help. Again, I was between contracts so I decided to put the business on autopilot and not look for a new contract while I spent 3 months helping her get back to full-strength.
- Non-Profit volunteer is a great way to knock down unemployment gaps too. You loaned your assistance to the Red Cross (or XYZ Charity group) to help Haiti. Or worked at a soup kitchen. Or .... Charity and social welfare is where your heart and mind felt you needed to be at that point in your life. It was a calling.
- An additional way to explain it is to simply say you were tired of your last job but didn't know what you wanted to do next, so you worked as a temp to get exposed to a bunch of different businesses to see what really interested you. Business keep pretty shitty records of the temps they used - only the agency. Unfortunately the agency you picked was a small Mom/Pop who when the economy got rougher, shut down and they're no longer in business. They moved out the state the last you heard. (So don't pick Manpower or Account Temps or something.)
- School and retraining. Never anything wrong with that.
GL.
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And others will run a LexisNexis search to see if there's any record of the company ever existing eventually and fire you if they can see the company didn't exist.
If it's a large company expect your references to be checked eventually, be it months or a year or two later and they will ask for clarification if they can't find info or think something isn't right. Just tell the truth. It's not like you aren't in a time when there's not a lot of people out of work.
