Off sick for 6 months and need to find a job

[sheddooropen]

Hi all,

I graduated last year and started a job that only lasted a week before I got fired as they never said I needed to drive all over the country a lot (although I can drive I can only drive for about half an hour and it's a desk job so I didn't know it involved driving this much) I did mention this at the start of the job but they got rid of me anyways.

Anyways shortly after my back went out and I have been off sick in pain ever since. I have just had op last month and I’m starting to look for work again now. I’m nervous as I have been off for so long and with the illness and very short previous employment I’m worried that I’m not going to get a decent job. The issue is fixed now and shouldn’t happen again however employers will probably think I won't be reliable.

Anyone got any tips about how to get back to work, how to address the sickness and previous employment issue and also how to cope with the nerves of going back to work? Thank you

If the post was just a week, would you really put it on a cv?

And when you were 'off sick' where were you sick from? Or do you mean unemployed?

I'd probably dust off my university careers advice and imagine I was starting again. Not reference the fired job, leave a gap after uni and if it comes up just say I took the opportunity to have some much needed back surgery before pursuing my career.

I personally wouldn't bother putting it on your CV if you were only there a week. I'd just say that you'd had a break due to health issues. I had about seven months unemployed due to health issues a few years back and no employer since has ever had an issue with it.

However if you've only just graduated you could just as easily say you've been travelling or whatever, if you don't want to mention the health issues.

Thanks both of you for your responses, I don’t really want to say I have been travelling or taking a break cause I’m useless at lying. I've been looking at all sorts of jobs from teaching to police staff and most of the online applications require a full employment history with no gaps (and any gaps explained) and a lot of them ask for the details of my previous employer so sadly I need to include it here. It also cropped up last time I had a dbs check and I don’t want to have an interview and then they find out I lied about the previous employment

Oh and I mean unemployed I just say off sick cause it makes me feel better sometimes, I hate saying that I’m unemployed :/