CV Gap Advice

[Greedo]

Thank you to (almost) everyone who replied - some very interesting viewpoints.

Would still welcome comments from anyone who has similar experience in these market conditions.

Only thing I would suggest is keep dates off your cv.

Just quote durations of gigs and see if that at least gets the pimps biting.

I have heard this suggested before but have avoided doing so as my perception is recruiters/agents would reject my CV outright due to the 'un-usual' format.

Has anyone done this before? How did you fare?

[nomadd]

Thank you to (almost) everyone who replied - some very interesting viewpoints.

Would still welcome comments from anyone who has similar experience in these market conditions.

I have heard this suggested before but have avoided doing so as my perception is recruiters/agents would reject my CV outright due to the 'un-usual' format.

Has anyone done this before? How did you fare?

Well, I only put down the "nearest year" of contract start and end dates on my cv, which can do a pretty good job of hiding gaps (a hint I found on this very forum). I wouldn't do as a previous poster suggested and completely leave off dates, but I would only put down start and end years. Since I've been doing this - as I have gaps of 3, 6 and 12 months duration all over my cv - I've never had a single agent or client question it. Never.

TBH, the most important things a client looks at aren't gaps. It's simply:

1) Prior experience in the business the client runs.
2) Technical skills that the client wants (or managerial, if that's what you do.)
3) Ability to work at their location.
4) Positive, lively attitude in the interview.

The rest - including gaps - are very, very distant and minor issues in comparison, IMHO. ...At least that's what my 22 years "in the game" has shown me.

[Ignis Fatuus]

Why is a "gap" a problem? This is making my flesh crawl, the idea that failure to keep working day in day out means you don't fit in this society, Citizen Smith. I have been contracting all these years mainly because I don't want somebody else's idea of a respectable career track to be my whole life.

And because in contracting what matters is whether you can do the job, not whether you fit some mould in other ways. If that is no longer true, that's just one more way in which agents have taken something they don't understand, and broken it.

[kandr]

Clippy is right kandr. Appreciate the General area of the forum is all about the wind-up but please keep this area of the site limited to sensible advice please.

OK I didn't realize this place was a joke free zone.

To answer the OP then, don't lie, be honest, chances are the longer the gap is the less chance you will get a contract, so eventually you will be unemployable, however at least you didn't lie.

[theroyale]

Gaps: I had a 15-month break from work stretching from late 08 to early 10, 7 months of it was to travel, 8 months after that back in the uk and hunting for a job. I always used "Oh I've been off travelling", usually sounding like I'd love to talk about where I went to (rather than underplay the gap as if it was something to hide - advice I got on this forum). This worked most times. In my 8 months of looking I didn't often get the impression that my lack of success was due to my gap at all, more because agents were receiving 100s of CVs for every advertised role. As others have said, employers -- this has held in every interview I've had both success and failed -- never gave a damn about gaps. They're interested in Can this person fulfil the requirements of the role.

Contract Dates as Years: I've seen this suggestion on the forum before, but haven't yet made up my mind about using it - so if your contract occupied say 8 or 9 or 10 of 2009 then by all means put it down as just '2009', but what if it was for only 3 or 2 months? If it was only 3 months and I say 2009 (and then agent questions it), that sounds -- to me -- very close to lying. Thoughts?

[Wanderer]

I have heard this suggested before but have avoided doing so as my perception is recruiters/agents would reject my CV outright due to the 'un-usual' format. Has anyone done this before? How did you fare?

I've seen people put down something like "Greedo consultancy Limited, 1995 to 2010" and list all the companies they have consulted for during this time. This avoids having to list the month and year that you started/stopped working for a client and glosses over gaps. Probably works best if you've worked for the same clients on and off or you have done a lot of different contracts rather than worked on a permie-tractor contracts where you just had one client for a year or more.

Good luck and don't sweat it too much!

[nomadd]

[B]...but what if it was for only 3 or 2 months? If it was only 3 months and I say 2009 (and then agent questions it), that sounds -- to me -- very close to lying. Thoughts?

Never been an issue for me. It was when I did quote "months" that agents and clients questioned it. And, TBH, if it was more than a year beforehand, I just claim I can't remember the exact dates but will dig them up if the client insists.

The only place where it does come up is if you have to have a security check. I've been through several of these, and I've always been honest about the dates on the form they send you. By then, though, you've already got the gig (and usually actually started it!) and the agent is only concerned about getting their commission, and the client is only concerned about getting/keeping your body on-site working. Any talk of gaps/dates is of no interest to anyone at that point. At least that's my experience.