To think it's a terrible to "embellish" being made redundant by saying it wa an interim role?

[Terribleluck]

A career "guru" just told me to do that. But I've always heard/read that most employers take it as something neutral or even are empathic about it. She also suggested I needed a cheesy tagline for my LinkedIn/CV but I think they're so cringey!!

I don't think it's such a bad idea.

Look, all roles are interim roles. And taglines make your cv easier to read/find. Your career guru may know what she's talking about. It's worth considering what she's saying, or at least consider the idea that you are in the business of selling yourself to your next employer. At least in the sense of--in my last job I was busily acquiring x skill set...

I do understand about selling myself. But I've never seen "interim" used in pretty standard roles. Head/Director/C-suite sure... But my role had nothing special attached to it (apart from the specific title which turned out to be a role that's on very high demand).

Plus wouldn't they figure out I actually lied about the nature of the role when asking for references?

@Terribleluck

Plus wouldn't they figure out I actually lied about the nature of the role when asking for references?

I think they are relying on the fact that a reference will say "Worked here from x date to y date". Many do say that now but I think it's a dangerous game to play. I guess the advice if you are found out is to say "well, it turned out to be an interim role".

I haven't worked at a high enough level to get away with that. You mention C suite so you probably have.

There's no shame in being made redundant so why take the risk of lying? I would run a mile from a careers coach who suggested something like this.

I would stick with saying you were made redundant, loads of people have been especially recently. You don’t want to be caught out telling fibs , honesty is the best policy.

And if you do lie , you’ll be forever sweating that they’ll find out .

Oh no, I'm your bog standard "senior manager/specialist" at some point. I've reported directly to CEOs but that's only because the companies were tiny. I do think it's a bit risky.. and like I said, you'd never hire someone to do consultancy for that, so it sounds pretty stupid on the first place (IMO).

I think her point is that I was only there for six months... But I don't think there's anything to be ashamed of?

I'm no expert by any means. But surely interim makes it's seem worse....like you took over the role for a time, because they needed a stop gap but didn't think you were actually good enough to stay.

That's obviously not the case with all interim roles but putting interim implies either you knew all along it was temporary - and they'll wonder as the gap grows bigger why you hadn't prepared for the end. Or you were hoping it would be a permanent role, and didn't get it - and you'll basically explain it was restructured so it didn't exist to fill.

Did you move up into the role, within the company - hence why they're suggesting it?

Redundancy is a fact of work life. As an interviewer, redundancy on a CV wouldn't bother me in the slightest and most of the panel will have been at some point too.

Calling it "interim" when it clearly isn't would set alarm bells to be frank. Something is only interim if you are employed on a temporary basis on a contract / through and agency or appointed "acting head of xyz".

If someone has a long gap between roles I'm more interested in what they've done while looking, eg industry related course, part time work, new skills etc.

Exactly @floof... Yes I was only there for six months but I was poached, so again IMO not good enough reasoning behind calling it "interim".

I agree that redundancy is a fact of work life, no need to cover it up.

I’m not sure why they are suggesting you should hide that you were made redundant. In the past 12 months most industries have been turned upside down, I would expect a huge percentage of Job seekers at the moment are in the same boat.

Interim is a positive if you were brought in for a specific purpose ie a 6 month project to do xyz and left when it finished or something like Mat cover.

@Terribleluck

Exactly *@floof*... Yes I was only there for six months but I was poached, so again IMO not good enough reasoning behind calling it "interim".

Wait, the role was made redundant or you were poached?

Sorry if that was confusing! I was poached from my previous, previous role into this now redundant role that only lasted for six months

I was made redundant because of terrible planning by my previous company. From the moment I was hired (if they had been honest with themselves) that there was no need nor budget for my role.

If you'd only been there 6 months them the fact you were made redundant rather than just let go demonstrates it was the role that was removed rather than reflecting on you imo.

So the poaching is irrelevant.

Hope you're not paying this woman.

Lying on your CV is a dreadful idea.
But you don't have to strongly emphasise why your employment came to an end either. Stick to dates, and save the explanation for the interview (if/when asked)

What's more important is avoiding large CV gaps, so make sure you have something interesting to put for your current status when "in between jobs"
E.g. maybe you're studying/training, or volunteering, or self-employed. Something to show you made the most of your "free time" (does NOT have to be a full time endeavour, just needs to demonstrate "drive")

No @daisy I'm not... But she claims her programme is worth £1500! Apart from the cheesy tagline, she says I should merge all of my different roles in one company for "ease of reading" although I agree she has a point (to an extent) I thought that shows that you can grow within a company? She also suggested chambers of commerce, but I think that's too old school for my industry.

I actually have a "fake" consultancy company. I mean fake, as in I've never actually done anything with it, but I do own the domain, and couple of SM channels, I did list it as part of CV in the past .. the gap at the moment is fairly short (just a month) so I'm sure it won't raise any eyebrows

@robot true I avoid it if possible, but if asked I've now learned that giving an honest (and short) answer is best.

It is not unusual to be made redundant but it is unusual to be headhunted into a role that is then deemed irrelevant after 6 months. I wonder if the consult has been given the impression or worried you will give a potential future employer the impression they made the role redundant instead of failing your probation/performance managing you?
If you personally wanted to avoid writing redundancy on your CV for leaving then you could put the dates you started and left followed by (6 month contract) and not put a reason for leaving. That would be factually correct if you were there for 6 months and then you could script 1 or 2 sentences to explain the specifics at interview.