Page 124 - Marky Stein - Get a Great Job When You Don't Have a Job-McGraw-Hill (2009)

Fearless Résumés

I don’t have any judgment if you have a “choppy” work his-
tory. There are a host of reasons, including family issues, marital
separation or discord, medical problems, disability, emotional
upset, financial challenges, addiction, harassment on the job,
trouble with the law, layoffs, company closures or reorganization,
travel or study opportunities, or just simply changing your mind,
that may make the work history on your résumé not look as
smooth as you would like it to be. The point is, most people,
whether you know it or not, have some gaps in their employment
history.
The very idea that people should have a perfectly smooth
and untainted record of service from the time they graduate
from high school or college until the time they retire is unfair
and absurd. It’s not often that real life works that way.
Still, most companies frown upon obvious gaps in your
employment history, and they may pass your résumé by or ask
about these gaps at the interview if you don’t do something about
them on your résumé. Fortunately, there are ways to tackle this
problem and still maintain your integrity without having to lie.
Three of them are

1. Listing only years on your résumé
2. Omitting certain jobs, if possible
3. Indicating on the résumé what you were doing and/or
that you are willing to discuss a gap of more than one
year at the interview

Listing Only Years on Your Résumé
Let’s look at each of these solutions one by one. Remember the
example of the person’s résumé that indicated that she had
worked for only one month at a company? Here it is again:

Job Title, Company, December 2006–
City, State January 2007

Now, what if we omit the months and use only the years of
employment?

111