Writing your kids into/out off your CV

[CyberGazer]

Does anyone have any advice as to what to do about my CV.

Before my sons birth I could find IT support work locally pretty easily but I'm having problems even obtaining even an entry level position at the moment.

I left my previous employment before his conception and temped thruout the pregnancy... since his arrival 18months ago I've held a few part-time positions but they've not really worked out very well so I've decided to go back full-time as I think I'll be treated slightly better and be able to get the career going again.

At the moment my CV has a "witty" remark about balancing life with a small child and my open uni studies but I think this might be putting employers off.

So my question is really... how would you explain the gap in your CV? Is it better to mention your child/children and face the discrimation that employers may have against employing a mother or is it better to gloss-over/omit this info until interview?

counttoten, if you're of a certain age, and you've had say 2 - 5 years away from paid employment I would say most employers would be able to make the jump so to speak.

could be lots of reasons why there is a gap, but the one the op refers to is quite an obvious one

and lots of luck to cybergazer, it's been ages since I've had to do a cv, dread the thought of having to update it......!

My current role shows that I have been there since October 2002 however I have had about 18th months of that as 2 lots of maternity leave so in effect I have only been working for 3 years! I have not put that on my CV though and it looks like continuous employment.

If I were you I would list my most recent employment as _

Various temporary assignments - January 2006 to present

@ list key responsibilities/achievements
@ as bullet points like this
@

Don't specify exact dates and exact roles during that time, keep it vague. At least what you are saying is true and you can cover the specifics in the interview

I put something like "career break to raise family" but I also have some other career breaks on my CV (travel/ VSO).

I think it is better to be specific about what you were doing. I've looked at lots of CVs and am always suspicious of unexplained gaps even if they do say "career break". I would want to know why someone suddenly had a gap in their CV in case it indicated a negative reason - e.g. they had been sacked from their last job and had been in prison for fraud!

In my view taking time off to have kids is unavoidable and doesn't make you any less able to do a job than someone who has taken the same amount of time off to travel the world or write a book. However it does mean that you may not be as up to date as a non career break candidate so you need to show that you have done something to address this.

chk, that is correct. It annoys some people sometimes who haven't had the leave. I know someone who had 3 babies in about 4 years (as I did actually but I didn't really take leave). She did not work many of those years and yet in a job then that paid and recruited you by years of experience (now probably unlawful because of age discrimination) she was counted as having about 3 years more experience than she actually did so at 5 years into the job she'd have 2 years' experience and a male colleague 5 but they were both counted as 5.

I know women who alternated part-time and full-time work for years in the same company but didn't put it on their CV - so it looked as if they had worked for many more years than they really had.

Any decent employer will assess your suitability for the job at interview, on the basis of what you say. Years/months/weeks/hours worked are only one indication of maturity and ability to do the job at hand.