Redundancy vs Resignation
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Prisoner 24601

Original Poster:

621 posts

65 months

If you were reviewing CV's and mulling over the offer of employment to a candidate, would it concern you more or less if that candidate had been made redundant, or if the candidate had resigned their position?


InformationSuperHighway

7,037 posts

201 months

Prisoner 24601 said:
If you were reviewing CV's and mulling over the offer of employment to a candidate, would it concern you more or less if that candidate had been made redundant, or if the candidate had resigned their position?
Couple of things:

1) The candidate is unwise to put it on their CV unsolicited.

2) It would make no difference to me as every persons situation is different. I would take the time to ask them and hear their story.

Presumably if you are mulling over an offer, you've spoken to them multiple times and had the chance to hear them out?

Prisoner 24601

Original Poster:

621 posts

65 months

Thanks - very true. I suppose 'mulling over an offer' was a stretch too far, perhaps i should have phrased it, whether you would move on from the CV without even contacting. But then I can also see that is also a flawed question as there will be other myriad considerations before rejecting the CV!! ...as you were.

Mr E

22,535 posts

276 months

I’ve never seen a cv that volunteered the information

Prisoner 24601

Original Poster:

621 posts

65 months

Agian - true, fair point. Then it just becomes a question of how you explain the subject when it does crop up at interview.

InformationSuperHighway

7,037 posts

201 months

Mr E said:
I ve never seen a cv that volunteered the information
I have, from a friend who asked for CV advice.. it was my strongest recommendation to remove as you can imagine.



bergclimber34

1,731 posts

10 months

As someone who used to contract a lot, I have to make this clear to prevent people from thinking you are job hopping. Some will think this regardless more fool them. I have been made redundant three times in the past 20 or so years aswell as having numerous contract roles.

Some HR and for sure internal HR people hate this and you are quickly chucked in the bin, but I have to make the differentiation between contract and perm roles ending with redundancy. I simply add temp, perm, perm redun on to the role description.

dibblecorse

7,161 posts

209 months

As someone who has managed the hiring of literally thousands of people i would say that anyone asking this question doesn't know or enderstand their talent landscape.

In IT both agency side and as an in house recruitment leader, for tens of thousands of candidates in the industry its not if its when will redundancy hit.

There is no stigma, the largest orgs churn every year, and start ups and scale ups often surge, retrench, surge again.

rog007

5,801 posts

241 months

Yesterday (00:06)
quotequote all
Prisoner 24601 said:
Agian - true, fair point. Then it just becomes a question of how you explain the subject when it does crop up at interview.
CV issue first; most CVs fail to secure interviews not because of redundancy, but because they don’t fulfil their primary purpose of demonstrating how the candidate’s skills and experience match the role requirements.

When interviewing, I genuinely cannot recall a single instance when this has ever cropped up. This will be because it will usually have been irrelevant, or not obvious from the CV or application form.

If it was ever to come up, a great hiring manager would recognise that redundancy usually refers to the role itself becoming unnecessary, usually due to restructuring, automation, or cost-cutting, and not the individual.

NikBartlett

678 posts

98 months

Yesterday (00:54)
quotequote all
Prisoner 24601 said:
If you were reviewing CV's and mulling over the offer of employment to a candidate, would it concern you more or less if that candidate had been made redundant, or if the candidate had resigned their position?
If they had resigned their position without another position lined up then this is a potential flag raiser. You would not base an employment offer solely on a CV, perhaps the question is more valid for selection of candidates for first interview ? Did the CV's pass through HR or some automation screening first ?

gangzoom

7,530 posts

232 months

Yesterday (06:41)
quotequote all
dibblecorse said:
In IT both agency side and as an in house recruitment leader, for tens of thousands of candidates in the industry its not if its when will redundancy hit.
Agree, very good people are made redundant because of things happening that's totally out of control.

Resignation suggests either the organisation or person didn't gel. It would make me wonder if the individual would gel with me or the team if they resigned from their last position.

Alex Z

1,845 posts

93 months

Yesterday (06:52)
quotequote all
Prisoner 24601 said:
If you were reviewing CV's and mulling over the offer of employment to a candidate, would it concern you more or less if that candidate had been made redundant, or if the candidate had resigned their position?
Neither would be a show stopper, though it would be a conversation point in the interview.
I’ve been made redundant from pretty much every IT job I’ve had including two in the last two years.

I’ve also twice left jobs without anything to go to for valid reasons, though I know some folk do so to avoid dismissal so that would be something to dig into more.

InformationSuperHighway

7,037 posts

201 months

Yesterday (18:57)
quotequote all
Alex Z said:
Prisoner 24601 said:
If you were reviewing CV's and mulling over the offer of employment to a candidate, would it concern you more or less if that candidate had been made redundant, or if the candidate had resigned their position?
Neither would be a show stopper, though it would be a conversation point in the interview.
I ve been made redundant from pretty much every IT job I ve had including two in the last two years.

I ve also twice left jobs without anything to go to for valid reasons, though I know some folk do so to avoid dismissal so that would be something to dig into more.
Indeed, leaving a role without something else lined up is not a red flag for me at all.

spikeyhead

19,054 posts

214 months

Yesterday (18:59)
quotequote all
I've twice refused to renew a contract with nothing else to go to because I was bored.

Once I found a new role doing something interesting starting the following week. The other time I decided on a long holiday, was halfway through deciding where to go and the company I'd walked from asked me to go back to do something different that was interesting.

I've been made redundant twice in a three year period, and left another company between those two jobs to avoid being there a month later when the company went bankrupt.

If a CV suggests that someone has the skills to do the job, then the next stage is to find out

Is their CV truthful?
Are you prepared to sit next to them for forty hours a week?
Are they likely to put in some effort if they join?
I also prefer it if they have some common sense and a sense of humour

h0b0

8,744 posts

213 months

Yesterday (19:10)
quotequote all
InformationSuperHighway said:
Alex Z said:
Prisoner 24601 said:
If you were reviewing CV's and mulling over the offer of employment to a candidate, would it concern you more or less if that candidate had been made redundant, or if the candidate had resigned their position?
Neither would be a show stopper, though it would be a conversation point in the interview.
I ve been made redundant from pretty much every IT job I ve had including two in the last two years.

I ve also twice left jobs without anything to go to for valid reasons, though I know some folk do so to avoid dismissal so that would be something to dig into more.
Indeed, leaving a role without something else lined up is not a red flag for me at all.
I am in IT and know how "redundancy" can/will impact everyone. ("Redundancy" because it is still being used instead of management of the person and it makes me angry when I see it)

Resigning without somewhere to go can be a sign of "quitting when the pressure is on", or "Strength". As there are two extremes I do not read into it when interviewing. It can also just be evidence of a strong market. I used to do a loooot of loops interviews. It did come up and, as mentioned earlier in the thread, I told the candidate it would not have any impact on if they were successful with the position I was hiring for.

I was at a FAANG and handed in my notice without a firm place to go. I knew that I had options when I left though. I also knew that it would have been unhealthy to stay. There was envy from those who wanted to do the same but their circumstances made them feel they could not. Seeing how unhappy they were I wished they could make the same move.

Pit Pony

10,343 posts

138 months

Yesterday (19:54)
quotequote all
bergclimber34 said:
As someone who used to contract a lot, I have to make this clear to prevent people from thinking you are job hopping. Some will think this regardless more fool them. I have been made redundant three times in the past 20 or so years aswell as having numerous contract roles.

Some HR and for sure internal HR people hate this and you are quickly chucked in the bin, but I have to make the differentiation between contract and perm roles ending with redundancy. I simply add temp, perm, perm redun on to the role description.
On my CV there is one Job which is described as

Managing Director and Improvement Consultant
PP Lean Logic Ltd June 2009 to August 2021

And then a list of projects in a table with headings

Client Role Project Scope/Deliverable Dates



Evanivitch

24,969 posts

139 months

Yesterday (19:56)
quotequote all
Seen redundancy mentioned on several CVs in engineering, but nearly always when it's been a big public thing (i.e. everyone on programme or business) not a trimming the fat exercise.

trashbat

6,175 posts

170 months

Yesterday (19:58)
quotequote all
If I could get made redundant, i.e. voluntary, I probably would, because at this point it would pay a year's salary.

Resignation could be for any reason. Moving location, burnout, sabbatical, personal commitments. Like someone said, it's a talking point but not meaningful on its own.

Pit Pony

10,343 posts

138 months

Yesterday (20:10)
quotequote all
trashbat said:
If I could get made redundant, i.e. voluntary, I probably would, because at this point it would pay a year's salary.

Resignation could be for any reason. Moving location, burnout, sabbatical, personal commitments. Like someone said, it's a talking point but not meaningful on its own.
In 36 yeard I have resigned from 2 jobs without having a job to go to and been made redundant twice.

I always enjoyed talking about my motivations for resigning.