Cover stories for time out

[DieScum]

With the market how it is some threads are popping up about 'explaining gaps in the CV'.

Now I would like the option to go travelling for a while in the future without worrying about whether I'll never work again.

So has anybody ever stretched the truth to provide a reliable cover story.

I know people do this all the time. I was looking at the linkedin profiles of some guys I used to work with. One of them has been out since 2008 and on his profile he is currently 'Director of CompanyX - the premium cloud service company' (or similar words). Now I know for a fact that he knew nothing about cloud computing 2 years ago and hasn't had a gig since then.

He's just invented his own new services company, which has never had a billable work, and is on his CV as working for them.

So that's one option. Anyone ever done that? What if you just picked some japanese company and made up some rubbish about how you worked in their Tokyo office for a year. Would anyone realistically be able to verify that if your skills were still decent?

[nomadd]

What if you just picked some japanese company and made up some rubbish about how you worked in their Tokyo office for a year. Would anyone realistically be able to verify that if your skills were still decent?

Depends on the role. If Investment Banking, Defence, etc. then you'd be a fool to try that on: vetting processes and all. But for a short gig. for a small company on lowish rates (basically, a role where you don't give a damn, you just want the money and/or experience) then I guess you could try and wing it. Mind you, make sure you bone-up first, just in case they have a hard-hittin' techie at the interview.

In 21 years contracting, I've had 5-6 breaks of over 6 months duration, a couple of them being a year or so. I've stretched the cv a little on those occasions, but I've always done my homework - both theory and practice - to make sure I've been clued-up for the roles I've applied for. I've never had a problem.

[northernladuk]

What you are basically asking is canyou get away with lying in your CV? This is fraud and you WILL get walked off site if found out and you will get found out by some of the most stupid things. I have seen people asked to leave a bank for lying as their credit check did not tie up. I have also seen seomeone walked off site for chatting generally about stuff in the office with colleagues and the client and the client remembers that wasn't the case on his CV and off he want.

My opinion is NO you cannot lie on your CV and you are a bumhole if you do. If you are good at what you do there is no need. If you want to take a break and travel then take it on the chin and admit it. You cannot have the best of both worlds and have your client over to do so. That is very poor business and pretty tulipty thing to do in general.

Sorry for being on my soap box about this one but I ******* hate people lying on their CV. I am sure in a few posts someone will say they did it and got away with it and its all ok etc but thats them.

I am not sure what terms to use but this topic as to how artistic you can be has come up a number of times on the forum and gets the mix of 'you are a moron if you do' and 'go for it no one gives a toss' type replies.

At end of the day I guess it is up to your own morals, ability to sleep at night and you attitude towards risk. Remember when they ask for a reference from your last agent and he is still pissed at you for getting kicked of a contract he aint going to give you a glowing report.

[nomadd]

My opinion is NO you cannot lie on your CV [snip]

Well, bang goes 99.999999999999% of all the cv's in the world. Excepting yours, of course.

[northernladuk]

Well, bang goes 99.999999999999% of all the cv's in the world. Excepting yours, of course.

Ah but we need to set the boundries as to what is extending things slightly and some artistic wording and what is bare faced lying. If he wants to go travelling and make up a company to say he worked for them as he suggests then that is lying. If 99.9999% of CV's use this type of trick then I will be happy to be the one that hasn't.

[centurian]

At end of the day I guess it is up to your own morals, ability to sleep at night and you attitude towards risk.

I think people who have a gig in the bag will sleep a lot sounder than those that are benched with a 100% accurate CV.

Don't get me wrong - I don't like it either. My CV doesn't contain any lies, but I certainly put more emphasis on the good parts.

But if clients are getting so picky that any gap on the CV is virtually an automatic fail, you can understand why people fill in the gaps.

[DieScum]

Don't get me wrong. I am not for a moment suggesting anyone actually lies. Perish the thought.

But say I bought an off the shelf ltd company equivalent for Japan or somewhere in the middle east.

Then I just claimed to have worked for them for a year while I had in reality be on a beach.

I wouldn't use it for anything in defence, or banking or where strict background checks are applied.

But why not? If someone really pressed you then you would of course tell the the whole complete truth but if not you'd just tell a version of the truth "I was principal architect at HariHito Technologies group where I worked on several challenging projects for technologies X, Y and Z. However after a year I had to return to the UK for family reasons."

I've worked for some of the major consultancies, large blue chip clients and when they are trying to sell stuff and make money they stretch the truth all the time. It is a completely normal and accepted part of business and there is a huge difference between presenting your good side and fraud.

If clients don't want to see gaps on your CV surely it is just good marketing to plan ahead and present any gaps in a useful way.

[SueEllen]

Even in roles where they don't do strict background checks you can easily be caught out.

At one of my last clients when the market was really bad lots of people where caught out lying at interview.

People where caught out lying about technologies, locations and even reasons why contracts ended. Simply due to the client using lots of contractors who worked in different industries, different locations and countries who also knew other contractors.

So unless you are sure the agent is putting you forward to a smallish company then you are better of just saying you were doing some work for your current company or taking time out to do x,y or z.

BTW if you say you went to x place aboard you are guaranteed to be interviewed by a native of the place, someone who has lots of family there or lived their for a few years.

[rsingh]

As I mentioned on another thread...


If you feel your gap is such am issue, then do some voluntary work. A month of that is better than six months on cuk and observe. It will break up the gap as well as freshening your skills. Plus it helps dispel the 'bench blues'


Try it4communities.com. you may even get a nice fuzzy feeling out of it.

[northernrampage]

As I mentioned on another thread...


If you feel your gap is such am issue, then do some voluntary work. A month of that is better than six months on cuk and observe. It will break up the gap as well as freshening your skills. Plus it helps dispel the 'bench blues'


Try it4communities.com. you may even get a nice fuzzy feeling out of it.

The link doesn't work.. do you have one that is recent?

Also, I tried to do voluntary work, was unemployed for 7 mths. It takes at least 3-4 mths to get CRB checked (I wanted to read with kids, for children or anyone vulnerable you need checking out). Depending upon what you do you can't walk into it. So by the time I got round to it I was back at work. I'd apply at the beginning of your unemployment period next tiem.