Reply to: SC Clearance with foggy employment history recollections!

[CodeCobbler]

I wouldnt worry about gaps, I dont see how it relevant. I've got huge gaps (4 years) and I have gotten SC twice so there! Dont listen to the scaremongers.

[SueEllen]

As for issues with alcohol, there are none! While I did use to live for the weekend, that is just not true any more! I am a family man with a baby boy. I rarely go out, and when I do rarely get drunk! Vetting should not have any concerns about me there!

As for the role itself it has already been offered to me, on condition of passing the SC clearance, which is why I am currently stressing about it as I do not want to lose this due to my youth, which while 10 years ago seems a completely different lifetime to me now.

Clearance is to check and confirm that you are not bribe-able.

I know people who have DV clearance who still drink a hell of a lot and I know they don't remember everything they do.

[b1gdeano]

Listen, I'm sure you wouldn't do this anyway, but can I advise not putting that period of your life in those terms when you're discussing it with anyone concerned with your SC clearance? Avoid words like "partying", "dossing" or "drinking" when you're discussing it with them, however informally. I appreciate you're just being honest, but any signs of problems with alcohol would be one of the things that would be a cause for concern. I appreciate you were just young and daft at the time, and how you lived in those years is probably completely unlike how you live now, but maybe it'd be wise just to say "I wasn't really sure how I was going to break into the field I wanted to work in, and so I took lots of jobs that were short term and seemed to help me along in the right direction; there were so many short contracts, that I honestly can't recall them all accurately now". I don't doubt you were just being a daft kid at the time, and you're just being honest on here now, but just realise that to a faceless bureaucrat that doesn't have any incentive to give you the benefit of any doubt, and whose job is to look for any signs of trouble (and not to balance those signs out or look at the bigger picture), there's no need to place yourself in a bad light.

Good luck again. If you've got this far, they're really only going to be conducting passive tests to see if there's any compelling reason not to hire you. Just don't give them any reasons, and you should be OK.

I appreciate your comments, and have no worries about me putting it across like that in a vetting interview!

I am just stating the truth for the benefit of the thread, and to demonstrate that the lack of recollection is not down to me being cagey or reluctant to tell the truth, but down to that I was not in stable employment back then. I dont have anything to hide!

As for issues with alcohol, there are none! While I did use to live for the weekend, that is just not true any more! I am a family man with a baby boy. I rarely go out, and when I do rarely get drunk! Vetting should not have any concerns about me there!

As for the role itself it has already been offered to me, on condition of passing the SC clearance, which is why I am currently stressing about it as I do not want to lose this due to my youth, which while 10 years ago seems a completely different lifetime to me now.

[Gentile]

This is pretty much what has occurred with me, as from 2002 - 2004 I was pretty much just "dossing". Not in Uni, not really working just odd few temp agency roles spending the rest of the time drinking and partying. Looking back a big waste of time, but hey, it seemed the best thing to do at the time!

My IT career started after doing a foundation year at uni back in 2006 - 2007 then starting contracting, which is why from 2005 I can remember what I was doing, as by this time I had been working in a perm job from early 2005 till i went back to uni

Its the years when I was partying that are a blur, as I worked for a few weeks a time for different agencies doing different things, so recollection of them exactly is blurry, I just remember some places I worked more than others but dates are impossible to accurately remember. This is why I am trying to get info from the various sources to try to piece it together.

Once It all comes I will do my best to sort it out, just hope it is enough for them to see whats what.

And as for the 10 year period being unusual, it is for the Ministry of Justice, and apparently this is what they need....

Listen, I'm sure you wouldn't do this anyway, but can I advise not putting that period of your life in those terms when you're discussing it with anyone concerned with your SC clearance? Avoid words like "partying", "dossing" or "drinking" when you're discussing it with them, however informally. I appreciate you're just being honest, but any signs of problems with alcohol would be one of the things that would be a cause for concern. I appreciate you were just young and daft at the time, and how you lived in those years is probably completely unlike how you live now, but maybe it'd be wise just to say "I wasn't really sure how I was going to break into the field I wanted to work in, and so I took lots of jobs that were short term and seemed to help me along in the right direction; there were so many short contracts, that I honestly can't recall them all accurately now". I don't doubt you were just being a daft kid at the time, and you're just being honest on here now, but just realise that to a faceless bureaucrat that doesn't have any incentive to give you the benefit of any doubt, and whose job is to look for any signs of trouble (and not to balance those signs out or look at the bigger picture), there's no need to place yourself in a bad light.

Good luck again. If you've got this far, they're really only going to be conducting passive tests to see if there's any compelling reason not to hire you. Just don't give them any reasons, and you should be OK.

[b1gdeano]

If the years you can't recall accurately were just you at Uni working odd jobs in the Summer, or generally being a daft kid before you started your career proper, that'll be more easy to overlook than if you'd already started your career by that point, and then a mystery blank patch came up. Whether you genuinely can't remember or not will be a moot point to them: it's the absence of any sort of trail that will act as a red flag.

This is pretty much what has occurred with me, as from 2002 - 2004 I was pretty much just "dossing". Not in Uni, not really working just odd few temp agency roles spending the rest of the time drinking and partying. Looking back a big waste of time, but hey, it seemed the best thing to do at the time!

My IT career started after doing a foundation year at uni back in 2006 - 2007 then starting contracting, which is why from 2005 I can remember what I was doing, as by this time I had been working in a perm job from early 2005 till i went back to uni

Its the years when I was partying that are a blur, as I worked for a few weeks a time for different agencies doing different things, so recollection of them exactly is blurry, I just remember some places I worked more than others but dates are impossible to accurately remember. This is why I am trying to get info from the various sources to try to piece it together.

Once It all comes I will do my best to sort it out, just hope it is enough for them to see whats what.

And as for the 10 year period being unusual, it is for the Ministry of Justice, and apparently this is what they need....

[Dark Black]

10 years employment history for SC clearance - is that usual?

I've not long had mine done and they were only interested in the last couple of years.

I had a few gaps in contracts, but as said, a respectable reference sorted those out.

[SueEllen]

I've been through the SC and DV clearance processes for different jobs. I'm sorry to say that gaps in recollection over a period as short as ten years are a big red flag for these types of check: moreso than just having an unimpressive CV, or having wasted a few years at the start of your career would be.

If you bothered to read the post b1gdeano wrote you would see the years he is missing were when he was a youth
so there is no need to write a long post in an attempt to scare him.

I had a similar thing when I was in my early twenties but luckily for me I was told that it didn't matter as I was also studying at the time I had these random jobs, so my references were from school and university.

[Gentile]

Hi,

Hope someone could give me some advice here...

I've been through the SC and DV clearance processes for different jobs. I'm sorry to say that gaps in recollection over a period as short as ten years are a big red flag for these types of check: moreso than just having an unimpressive CV, or having wasted a few years at the start of your career would be. So, if there is something you're embarrassed about, just tell them: it's a bigger deal to encounter someone that can't face up to their past than it is to deal with someone that's had a few interesting experiences on the path to where they are now.

If the years you can't recall accurately were just you at Uni working odd jobs in the Summer, or generally being a daft kid before you started your career proper, that'll be more easy to overlook than if you'd already started your career by that point, and then a mystery blank patch came up. Whether you genuinely can't remember or not will be a moot point to them: it's the absence of any sort of trail that will act as a red flag.

So, my advice, FWIW, is to do what you can to research your past as you have been doing. Find out from HMRC, the job centre, your old bank statements, etc, as best you can what you were doing during that period, and just be honest on your SC form or with your DV interviewers about what you can remember about what you were doing. HMRC is who they will be cross-referencing the information you provide them with anyway. So, if you've checked with HMRC yourself, you'll probably be OK and not be caught in the appearance of a lie.

Other than that, with SC it should just be a matter of them doing passive checks on things like Police records (which don't just include convictions and arrests), and criminal and civil convictions checks with the Courts or other body responsible for disclosures in your area (e.g., in Scotland they'd ask Disclosure Scotland to reveal any criminal convictions you have). With DV, it's a bit more involved, but none of that will affect you.

Good luck.

[Wanderer]

Did occasional few weeks with various agencies on tulipty jobs, but nothing for any period of time.

Just tell them what you can find out. If you did some mundane temp work, nothing that would impact your clearance and you really can't even remember exactly who it was for then just say that.

The main thing to note is that if you got the sack for shagging the bosses wife or something then this is one that you shouldn't "misremember" or it may come back to bite you when they dig up your history.

[SueEllen]

Yes, but could find nothing in it relating to my question about patchy employment history

It was mostly about declaring credit issues, criminal records etc in the sticky that I could see

What the sticky indicates, what NLUK is hinting and what I'm now saying clearly is you need to inform them that you honestly cannot give them the exact dates due to how you worked at the time i.e. doing lots of short term temporary work for a few weeks/months here and there.

Then give them approximate dates making clear they are approximate.

The reason they want exact dates is because it makes it easier for the person referencing you but unfortunately for that civil servant life in the real world isn't like that particularly with younger adults.

[bless 'em all]

Just answer honestly and openly. Use the 'additional information' section to add the information you've put in your post.

They're not trying to catch you out, and if your honest about these few years they should be fine with it.

[b1gdeano]

You did read the SC sticky?

Yes, but could find nothing in it relating to my question about patchy employment history

It was mostly about declaring credit issues, criminal records etc in the sticky that I could see

[northernladuk]

You did read the SC sticky?

[b1gdeano]

Do you have respectable people who are non-family members who can provide you with a reference to cover 10 years?

If you have then don't worry too much just admit on the form that you aren't sure about the dates of your employment further back than 2005.

I do have people I can use, but I already have to provide 3 personal references as part of vetting.

They have also stressed on the guidance that the employment history be filled in accurately on a month by month basis.

10 years is quite a stretch really to remember, unless you have had only one job!

[SueEllen]

Do you have respectable people who are non-family members who can provide you with a reference to cover 10 years?

If you have then don't worry too much just admit on the form that you aren't sure about the dates of your employment further back than 2005.