CV's - Previous employment

[Big_M]

I have been a right job tart in my working life and have had quite a few jobs, some for only 3 months - the longest I have ever stayed in a job is 4 years and that was during the recession.

So do I have to list all my previous employment on my CV?

Who ever bothers to check this information?

A lot of the companies I used to work for have either gone bust (usually after I left ) or have be bought out by another company. So could I just fudge it a bit. How can an employer check my employment history from say 10 years ago especially if the company no longer exist?

[ATG]

Rather than fudge it, you could summarise it a bit; e.g. "10 years in the ??? industry" then list a few of the companies you've worked for in that sector, but put more emphasis on the things you've accomplished and the responsibilities you've been given.

[eric mc]

Yeah - leave out the short span ones, especially for the older ones. and extend the others to fill the gaps. Are they going to check back earlier than the last employer anyway?

[plotloss]

Leave out all the jobs that arent really pertinent to the job you are going for or not in the last 3 years.

You should really do a specific CV for every job you go for which means that listing each job you have had is a bit moot.

That said if there is anything interesting or slightly odd thats probably worth leaving on. My mate was an Astronaut for BA which looks good on the CV. The fact it was a promotional stunt in a lounge at Heathrow to sell more flights is neither here nor there

[Big_M]

plotloss said:

That said if there is anything interesting or slightly odd thats probably worth leaving on. My mate was an Astronaut for BA which looks good on the CV. The fact it was a promotional stunt in a lounge at Heathrow to sell more flights is neither here nor there

One of my first jobs was working at the crematorium in Colchester - people were dying to give me a job then (groan)

Seriously - thanks for the advice. Think I need to spend half a day sorting out my CV

[FourWheelDrift]

If you have had say 4 jobs in one year just mention one and use others that over lapped years and list things like this.

1989 Widget Inc
1990 - 1991 ACME Limited (if it was Nov 90 - Jan 91)

List early ones with limited info, people are only interested in things relevant to what they are doing and will only want to know what you have been doing over the last couple of years anyway. They will often ask how you started and what you've done at interview, where you can touch only on the important bits.

Does that help?

[condor]

You could always make out they were temprary contracts

Listing lot's of different jobs isn't a good idea...as they'll just assume you'll be a job-hopper...and you'd probably leave within a short time - so they'd have to do the costly recruitment process all over again.

[PetrolTed]

Some companies do go back to check employment history. One finance company I worked for was particularly concerned about a four week gap in my employment and I had to prove to them that I was unemployed in that period.

[keithyboy]

Yep - be careful - do not attempt to mislead a prospective employer. You will see on most job applications forms that you are signing to say that the information you are giving is true and accurate. Companies will and do withdraw job offers or dismiss new employees for this sort of thing - usually if its done maliciously or in attempt to hide something. I'm occasionally involved in investigating this sort of thing as part of my work.

>> Edited by keithyboy on Sunday 19th October 12:41