Solved Fixing My Resume
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I was just given an idea by Trevor Potts that @Nic agreed with. As part of my resume, include a cover letter and include the following statement:
"I understand 2014/2015 doesn't look good, but I was born into a religious cult and this was the period during which I escaped. I am now trying to put my life back together." It seems like a sound idea. Thoughts?
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Another idea was to list the problem time (March 2014-January 2015) as "Travel and Personal Development", which would hopefully get it past the screeners and then I can explain on the interview...
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@thanksajdotcom said:
"I understand 2014/2015 doesn't look good, but I was born into a religious cult and this was the period during which I escaped. I am now trying to put my life back together." It seems like a sound idea. Thoughts?
I don't like that. I'd never mention "religious cult" in any job application. I also don't like the term "trying to put my life back together", as that implies your life isn't currently together. It might be true, but surely you want to give the impression that the past is the past and you are now completely over it and perfect?
"Travel and personal development" is better. I'm not convinced by it, but something bland along those lines is definitely the right approach IMV.
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I agree with @Carnival-Boy NEVER put something about religion on a resume. NEVER talk about trying to get a life back together. The same goes for explaining things in an interview. These are things you never share. That along with things like Mental Illness, Learning Disabilities etc. that is none of a prospective or current employers business. Because while it is illegal to discriminate, you know it does affect the overall opinion on your ability to do a job.
As someone looking at resume's I know I tend to be a bit more forgiving than most, honestly your resume would be immediately put in the, I highly doubt I will even talk to this person pile. I am not sure there is much you can do to rectify that at this point either. At least a solid year of employment. Any kind of employment is what you need.
If you can't support yourself on 1 retail/food service job. Then get 2 or 3. Sucks but sometimes you have to do it to make it.
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You might consider just using staples as your only employer since you were with them. Somewhat long term.
One thing you could do to make up for the gap is add technical writer in your resume and span it over a few years . Include your blogs, podcast sites, and your duties in Spiceworks
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@thanksajdotcom said:
So I need some help...I really need a professional resume writer for someone who specializes in IT....
Never seen one of these. Mostly because people who know enough about the IT side earn to much to work as resume writers. People working as resume writers are normally out of work English majors who have little business experience. It's just not a field where good people go and the needs of IT are so unique that professional resume writers often produce terrible results.
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@Jason said:
The only way to fix something like that is to keep a stable job for 2-3 yrs. Take a retail or fast-food job whoever will hire and keep it even if it is only part-time while working else where. Let the older stuff "fall off" your resume.
Presentation does a lot. AJ has had many fewer jobs than I did at his age and it didn't cause me any issues. I've had companies complain that I've stayed places for too long (Barclays complained that I was at CitiGroup too long, Barclays was glad I'd not gone any longer at Bridgewater, etc.) but never the opposite and my work was much more extremely short term than AJs and for a longer life period.
It's more what kind of work it was, how it is presented, why it was short term, etc.
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@thanksajdotcom said:
As far as getting a job and just holding it, that's great. But I also need something I can live off of. And the easy jobs to get, like retail and fast food, I can't support myself on.
Until FF goes $15/hour. Then you will be living large (both in money and in size from eating all the fast food leftovers, trust me, it's bad.)
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@thanksajdotcom said:
I was just given an idea by Trevor Potts that @Nic agreed with. As part of my resume, include a cover letter and include the following statement:
"I understand 2014/2015 doesn't look good, but I was born into a religious cult and this was the period during which I escaped. I am now trying to put my life back together." It seems like a sound idea. Thoughts?
I agree with @Carnival-Boy - do not mention it. That is to much private information a perspective employer does not need....Ever.
A better way to phrase it is a year of personal development and introspection...
I spent 6~ years working with resumes If you want, send it to me, and I'll do some editing...
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@thanksajdotcom said:
I was just given an idea by Trevor Potts that @Nic agreed with. As part of my resume, include a cover letter and include the following statement:
"I understand 2014/2015 doesn't look good, but I was born into a religious cult and this was the period during which I escaped. I am now trying to put my life back together." It seems like a sound idea. Thoughts?
I'm on the other side of the fence on this one. That's certainly not something I would put down on paper. Especially not in the resume itself, but not in the cover letter either. Don't talk religion in job hunting as a general rule.
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@gjacobse said:
A better way to phrase it is a year of personal development and introspection...
Yup, much better.
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@thanksajdotcom said:
Another idea was to list the problem time (March 2014-January 2015) as "Travel and Personal Development", which would hopefully get it past the screeners and then I can explain on the interview...
Here is the big thing... what age were you then? College age, right? Not 24 yet, so you are in under the radar of "getting started in life" for many places. You generally get a pass during these years. Yes, you have to trade your description of "hard core professional IT experience" for "finding myself at a young age" but I think it is a tradeoff work making here.
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@Minion-Queen said:
Because while it is illegal to discriminate, you know it does affect the overall opinion on your ability to do a job.
An important thing to remember is while it is illegal to discriminate for these things it is also completely legal to discriminate against people for divulging unnecessary personal information.
The latter behaviour is in no way protected and something that employees can and will freely use to evaluate you.
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@Minion-Queen said:
If you can't support yourself on 1 retail/food service job. Then get 2 or 3. Sucks but sometimes you have to do it to make it.
This is how most of us did it. I put in a lot of years doing one full time job at night (night jobs generally pay slightly more for the same work) and doing part time work during the day that was more sporadic (but way better per hour.) I took every OT hour I could from the night job (OT for nighttime people is that much better because you have the pre-existing higher rate) and busted hump there so that I'd be first in line for flexible schedules when I needed it for side jobs that were higher per hour.
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Why mention or attempt to justify the "bad time period" on the resume at all? Don't draw attention to it, let the employer maybe decide that it is bad. If you do what you describe you are not just calling it out and pointing to it, but you are stating it in a way that declares it to be a failure. There is no reason to do that. You had a string of jobs - so what? That alone is not a problem. You moved around to different places - so what? Nothing wrong with that, many people would brag about having worked in multiple regions and having more experience not just with jobs but with locations and cultures. And the two are generally assumed to be tied together because chances are you changed jobs so that you could move or you moved for a job. Both generally are "freebies" in the job change game.
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@Reid-Cooper said:
Why mention or attempt to justify the "bad time period" on the resume at all? Don't draw attention to it, let the employer maybe decide that it is bad. If you do what you describe you are not just calling it out and pointing to it, but you are stating it in a way that declares it to be a failure. There is no reason to do that. You had a string of jobs - so what? That alone is not a problem. You moved around to different places - so what? Nothing wrong with that, many people would brag about having worked in multiple regions and having more experience not just with jobs but with locations and cultures. And the two are generally assumed to be tied together because chances are you changed jobs so that you could move or you moved for a job. Both generally are "freebies" in the job change game.
The most recent job I applied at, from my understanding, loved me but turned me down due to the several short jobs. So yeah, that's part of what I'm trying to fix.
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I've probably interviewed for more jobs in the past 2 years than everyone combined here. I can tell you what got me to a second interview, and I can tell you what got my resume thrown in the trash the minute I walked out the door.
Never tell an interviewer you read something negative on glassdoor.com from the previous IT Manager, while you are interviewing for that same job lol!
Never put personal information (religion, sucky life, etc..) anywhere near your resume or even talk about it in an interview. Never.
You only talk about positive things you have done that pertain to the job you are interviewing for. That interviewer does not give a rats ass about your issues, your bad days, your trying to get your life together, your religion - THEY DON'T CARE, NOR DO THEY WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT! Only do this if you want to end the interview quickly.
It looks like you have two to three issues A.J.:- Time lapse
- You would get a bad reference from a job that you have lots of experience from
- You like to share too much information
How to fix these issues. I can tell you how to fix the time lapse very easily on your resume, but not here, in public.
Bad references. That’s easy – you tell the interviewer that they cannot contact your previous employers (that is usually on the job application). If discussed in the interview, you talk about your experiences, what you did, what you learned and how it has helped you develop. You give proof that you were an asset at that position. They won’t ask why they can’t contact your manager, they won’t ask if you were terminated, and you don’t have to tell them if they happen to do that. You state that you are no longer with that company. Period. They will either be impressed with your experience or they will give you a bad mark since they can’t contact your previous employer. I’d rather have a bad mark for something they don’t know than a bad mark for a crappy reference.
Lastly, quit sharing. Just stop. When interviewing, it’s business. If you want to get personal in an interview, you talk about the volunteer work you do every year at Thanksgiving or Christmas, when you feed the homeless or you volunteer for some programs to help the needy. (if you do these things, if not, maybe you can consider it – it is life changing!)
Good luck A.J.
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@Bob-Beatty said:
- You like to share too much information
Bolding because this is probably the biggest one. The others can be managed, more or less, until this one strikes.
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@Bob-Beatty said:
Never tell an interviewer you read something negative on glassdoor.com from the previous IT Manager,
I would say if you are in A.J's position you shouldn't but if you are just looking to move up in your career it can be helpful sometimes to bring up negative's you've heard about them company to see what they have to say about that. I've actually had companies say they were glad I brought it up. But I would say do not do this if you are desperate for a job.
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@thanksajdotcom said:
The most recent job I applied at, from my understanding, loved me but turned me down due to the several short jobs. So yeah, that's part of what I'm trying to fix.
That can certainly happen. Some will turn you down for having too long of jobs, too. The former is more common but both happen. It's not something that you can control. All you can control is putting the best spin or light on the situation as you can.
