employment history checks

[newcv]

Hi,

Would you hide your gaps on CV by stretching dates of employment around them?
Do companies thoroughly check employment history? I am in UK.

I have more than one gap. I have not been working for 3 years (moved country with dh, had a medical emergency in his family and finally tried to start a business that didn't work).

Before this gap, I have several one year jobs and 2 gaps.

My reasons for gaps seemed valid to me at that time but looking back I feel I should have been more careful.

I studied abroad, recession happened lost my job, returned to my country (not UK). Got desperate, took a job much lower than my qualification, got frustrated after some time, left it (I know it was immature but I can't go back and change my stupid decisions in past)
I am really desperate for work.

My relationship with dh or h is not very secure. He has an abusive side to his personality. He doesn't respect me and now calls me lazy. I have good qualifications but my work history shows lack of stability.

I put my personal life over career and had taken wrong decisions in past, it's also partly the reason why I am doing so bad in my marriage. I really need to a job to change my life.

I was thinking of 2 options -

• lie about dates (I know it's morally wrong and I would be guilty but I have seen some of my ex colleagues doing this on linkedin)
• come up with some plausible explanations (have tried, but my CV still looks bad)

I really need a practical advice. As I haven't applied to many jobs I could have because of this dilemma.

thank you.

I would never lie on an application. In some public sector recruitment for example, interviewers are advised to explore unexplained gaps in CVs. Just put family reasons or relocation, that is so much better. In my DD's company, they do very thorough background checks which include all previous employment history. You really dont want to get caught out lying.

I have seen CVs just list start dates, e.g.

Head of Monkey Division - June 1998
Monkey Company Ltd

Chief Primate Tickler - November 2002
Animal Ticklers R Us

Senior Assistance to the Great Ape - February 2008
Apes Incorporated

Could that be a way to do it?

Do not lie. We dismiss people who lie about dates of employment and academic achievement more regularly than you’d think.

Don't lie. I had a gap of less than a week between jobs and because I hadn't accounted for the dates on my CV I had to explain (it was obviously a week between jobs but because I hadn't wrote that, it was checked up on).

Do not lie. Many companies would dismiss you for lying on a CV

Yep definitely don't lie. I've known people be sacked or not employed because they lied on their application. It's the fact that they lied that's the problem!

Hi everyone, thanks for your replies.

I don't want to lie. At the same time, my Cv looks really bad with gaps and one year jobs.

Can you advise me what I can do to get interest from a recruiter?

I was advised by a friend to list experience in this way (exaggerating date of Monkey Ltd) -

Chief Primate Tickler - November 2002 - Nov 204
Animal Ticklers R Us

Head of Monkey Division - June 1998 - Nov 2002
Monkey Company Ltd

Rather than stating the truth which would be something like this -

Head of Monkey Division - June 1998 - Nov 1999
Monkey Company Ltd

I am not applying in public sector or banking.

I agree changing dates is a lie and no employer will tolerate it if they find out about it. Is there something else I can do?

I have moved countries, got married and divorced in traditional Indian set up and did postgraduate and lost job in recession time, which led me to go back to my country and do more mistakes out of desperation and frustrations.

My real reasons sound like a sob story to gain sympathy. Also I don't want to talk about previous marriage, being a trailing wife then.

It's very common for highly educated Indian woman to sacrifice their career for marriage despite there being a high number of successful career women from there.

Is there any explanation employer will be willing to take in positive light?
I have applied to all sort of levels - enter level to junior manager level and after recruiter hear my employment history, they lose interest. I have seen couple of jobs related to my experience in last job. I know I can do the job very well but I can't convince them through my really bad looking CV.

I would really appreciate any further suggestions. Thank you

Bloody hell. Don’t add on 3 years to your employment history. There’s no way you can explain that away if you were ever challenged it.

You are seriously overthinking this, OP. Just our career break and travelling down or something equally as vague.

Is there any opportunity to do some unpaid work experience relevant to your field? To get more up to date experience for your CV. When and for how long was your most recent position?

A month either side is fine, not years don't do that! And I wouldn't advise what missbattenburg (sorry!) Suggests, I'd discount that CV if I had a lot of applications as it looks obvious you're hiding something, or only had each job for a very short space of time.

Best thing is be honest, your reasons sound fine, include them in a cover letter as an explanation of the gaps.

DragonMamma I wasn't planning to lie about last 3 years.

I was talking about one before (extend by 6 months) as I have 3 different gaps in my CV including this last 3 years one, and this understandably looks very bad.

I have decided I won't lie. It's not worth it. Thanks a lot to all of you for your really helpful suggestions and for not judging me.

Most employers will ask for your past two employers references. Some sectors (banking and the NHS etc) want 5 years history. The NHS only wants gaps of 3 months + covered.

Civil service employer - checks the past 3 years of employment history with HMRC.

Sorry newcv, in your pp it seemed like you were going to change the date from Nov 1999 to Nov 2002? Which is where I read the 3yrs from?

I’m glad you’ve decided not to lie about it though. It’s not worth the hassle!