Temp job on CV?

[hobnob]

This is related to an old post (from 2020):
Anyone worked as a collection-delivery driver ? - Contractor UK Bulletin Board

In brief, I've been on the bench for 7 months. This started out as a deliberate career break (studying for an exam), which took a bit longer than intended. I've been actively seeking work for the past 3 weeks, with no luck. I'm now looking at minimum wage temp work, just to pay the bills, and I've got an interview for a pizza delivery job tomorrow.

(I know this might sound like a contrived sockie post, but for whatever it's worth I promise that this is 100% genuine.)

Anyway, here's the question: should I mention this on my CV, LinkedIn profile, etc?

* Con: this isn't directly relevant to any of the roles that I'm applying for, and recruitment agents seem to fixate on whatever my last role was.

* Pro: I think the extended gap since my last contract might be putting agencies/clients off. Showing that I'm doing something might at least reassure them that I'm not in prison, Afghanistan, etc.

Putting that another way, I think that the big gap and any unskilled work are both going to look bad. However, which is the least bad option? Has anyone else been in a similar position?

[eek]

This is related to an old post (from 2020):
Anyone worked as a collection-delivery driver ? - Contractor UK Bulletin Board

In brief, I've been on the bench for 7 months. This started out as a deliberate career break (studying for an exam), which took a bit longer than intended. I've been actively seeking work for the past 3 weeks, with no luck. I'm now looking at minimum wage temp work, just to pay the bills, and I've got an interview for a pizza delivery job tomorrow.

(I know this might sound like a contrived sockie post, but for whatever it's worth I promise that this is 100% genuine.)

Anyway, here's the question: should I mention this on my CV, LinkedIn profile, etc?

* Con: this isn't directly relevant to any of the roles that I'm applying for, and recruitment agents seem to fixate on whatever my last role was.

* Pro: I think the extended gap since my last contract might be putting agencies/clients off. Showing that I'm doing something might at least reassure them that I'm not in prison, Afghanistan, etc.

Putting that another way, I think that the big gap and any unskilled work are both going to look bad. However, which is the least bad option? Has anyone else been in a similar position?

6 months can’t be a problem - I got a contract in October after 3+ years out

[edison]

I've had three breaks of over 6 months. Assuming you work in IT or some other technical field, no one is going to ask you any interview questions about your delivery driver skills.

Just say you were on a career break/studying/doing up your house/looking after elderly parents or kids etc. It shouldn't be a big deal.

[GigiBronz]

just say that you were doing freelancing / working on personal projects. Make up a job description.

Even if you get security cleaner you just say that as honest as you can. No biggy

Employers lie about everything and they expect you to feel guilty for their lies.

[Lance]

with the greatest respect, if you've been on the bench for 7 months, your CV is clearly a problem already.
Might need a rethink about how you sell yourself.

The demand for skilled professionals is sky high right now.

[GigiBronz]

with the greatest respect, if you've been on the bench for 7 months, your CV is clearly a problem already.
Might need a rethink about how you sell yourself.

The demand for skilled professionals is sky high right now.

I am not sure if I could say sky high. It's sky high for 50-70k perm jobs on site that nobody wants to do.

Contractor market at decent rate... barely any.

[Fraidycat]

I'm now looking at minimum wage temp work, just to pay the bills, and I've got an interview for a pizza delivery job tomorrow.

Well if you haven't already you should first consider looking for perm roles, you can always quit when the market picks back up for contractors.

Permie has got to be better than working minimum wage? And you will have very recent experience rather than say 18 months gap since your last role.

[SussexSeagull]

with the greatest respect, if you've been on the bench for 7 months, your CV is clearly a problem already.
Might need a rethink about how you sell yourself.

The demand for skilled professionals is sky high right now.

Sorry, but that is a sweeping generalisation. Several highly experienced contractors with little or no breaks between contracts are struggling st the moment.

[hobnob]

with the greatest respect, if you've been on the bench for 7 months, your CV is clearly a problem already.
Might need a rethink about how you sell yourself.

That's a fair comment, thanks. That said, I had back to back contracts for 3 years prior to this, so my CV was ok for them. I've been making a few tweaks recently (e.g. swapping the order of sections around), and I might need to try a complete re-write.

In terms of demand, I've been keeping a close eye on JobServe, and there aren't that many roles which I'm eligible for. Most of them fall into a few categories:
a) Completely different skill set (e.g. SAP).
b) Partial match for my skills (e.g. I have experience with Azure but not Google Cloud).
c) Good match for my skills, but requires SC/DV clearance or an EU passport.

I've also widened my search to include permie roles, and I've seen ThirtyThree spamming the same "Cyber Engineer" role in multiple locations every day. (This involves joining the army!) So, that's distorting the total number of roles available.

As always, the "state of the market" depends on what you do.

[hobnob]

So if you are prepared to work for £10 an hour delivering pizza you will get snapped up and the interview will be a formality.

That's what I'd assumed, although it didn't go as well as I'd hoped. The manager didn't turn up, and he hadn't told the supervisor on duty anything about it. She got me to fill in the application forms, and took a copy of my passport/driving licence, but the manager phoned me when I got home to say that she'd done it wrong, so I need to go back in for them to do it again. Honestly, it sounds like he's pretty clueless about the whole process, which has reduced my enthusiasm even further.