Can you name everywhere you have worked since leaving education and the exact dates? Job application asking for this.

[Lovemusic82]

I applied for a part time job, nothing exciting, minimum wage. I am a carer for disabled child/adult but wanted a job to fit around her. I got through the interview process but the amount of information and references they need seems a bit OTT. They asked for all my work places, dates I started, date I left and the reason why. I trained to work in an industry where it’s common not to stay in one place long so I have had quite a few jobs in the past 25 years plus a gap to have dc and care for dd. They are now trying to contact the very first place I worked 25 years ago to conform I worked for them…the place is a pub and has changed hands many times in the past 25 years, they can’t find my details. I have given 2 places I have worked for references as well as a personal reference but apparently that’s not good enough. Is this normal practice? The jobs 12 hours a week.

Im wondering if it’s just me that has disorganised brain but should I be able to remember everywhere I have worked, when I started and left?

As a PP asked, is this job in healthcare or education? Both require you to account for all of your time since you left full time education. You won't be the only person who has struggled with a comprehensive summary of their life nor the first where the company no longer has a record.
As another PP said, many companies may delete records after a certain about of time. Other organisations (such as schools) have to keep a list of who has worked there for decades

I'd struggle with the year, let alone exact dates!

I can but I had a job in a clothes shop then stayed in the same civil service department for nearly 20 years before moving to another. They would not be able to contact the clothes shop though as it stopped existing at least 15 years ago.

Surely for a while now most job applications are done by email or through an online system which sends you a PDF of the application when you submit it? So you only need to do the actual research about dates for that one application, you save it and then refer back to it next time you are looking for jobs.... It's not unreasonable for an employer to expect you to know what you were doing for work in the past. There are a couple of temporary retail jobs at uni where I couldn't find the exact dates so I just put down 1st October to 31st January for example.
Trying to get actual references from 25 years ago is ridiculous but it's reasonable information to ask for from an applicant when you're trying to work out if they have the skills/ experience you need. I worked in school HR for a few years, and a candidate who was obstructive or reluctant to explain employment gaps or provide a full employment history would raise a few red flags.

Yes I can because I work in education so I have to. I've lived on three continents so that adds a further complication.

It's the reasons I don't like. What's it got to do with them!

I can by month and year and I started work in 1980:

Sept 80 to Sept 84 - no longer trading
Sept 84 to May 1989
May 1989 to April 1996 - no longer trading
April 1996 to Sept 2003 SAHM
Sept 2003 to May 2013 - gobbled up in a merger
May 2013 to present

The salient point however is that I can account for the last ten years. I believe my penultimate employer could confirm my dates and job role and former directors would.

I am fortunate to have only had three jobs in 23 years of employment, so I do have the dates but the transition between job 1 and job 2 was a one week discrepancy as i left job 1 and took one week holiday before starting job 2.

I couldn't believe when HR asked me what I was doing for that one week as I was not employed ! I said I was in my front room watching telly!

If they tried to contact the people of my first job, well frankly, the building was demolished years ago and I'm not sure the manager is even alive anymore . It's unreasonable to expect to contact employers from so long ago- current and former within a reasonable time maybe up to 7 years seems justifiable?

This is the rule in education but I can't give every job from my previous pre education career as I was a freelancer for much of it - it'd take pages and pages (20 years ago I chaired a focus group for 2 hours).

I usually go back 15 years then write a couple of summary sentences for the rest and say "further details available on request". No-one has EVER asked!

I feel like the people who devise these forms must be pretty young. My career started in 1995, before routinely computerised records!

I can't because I've about 30 jobs since I started working age 15 - the majority of them between the ages of 15 and 25, including many temp jobs when I was a student.

I can't even remember the names of some of the places I worked, nevermind dates. And many don't exist anymore including Woolworths!

When I apply for jobs now I only include relevant work experience i.e. since I graduated.

NHS in Scotland asks for this.
But it's all there in the online pay records anyway!

Some jobs where safeguarding is very important such as nhs and education want this and any gaps have to accounted for

Show me the online records from 1987

This is pretty much like me. Some jobs were temp jobs, some were even cash in hand when I was a student. I’ve worked since I was 15 (whilst at school and college), there wasn’t as much paperwork back then and part time jobs were often cash in hand.

The job is in an educational setting, so I understand they need to know my past and do a DBS. It’s not a job where I will be alone with students or even have much to do with them. Hopefully it’s just a misunderstanding asking for a reference from a job I had 25 years ago. I think because it’s all handled by an outside company all job applications at this setting is treated the same, whether it’s a teacher or a cleaner. I think they just don’t realise how hard it is when you’ve had so many jobs and are an older employee.

It certainly wasn't the norm to apply for jobs online 25 years ago. Lots of people at that time would not have had access to the internet at all! As it happens, I can remember that the first time I used the internet was 25 years ago. A tech savvy colleague showed me how to use Google (but didn't find it surprising that I hadn't used the internet before). We didn't have a home computer 25 years ago, and that was not unusual at the time.

Most levels of official Government security clearance don't ask for this level of detail. They're being silly.

@Talkinpeace I log into my payroll number and my full nhs employment history with dates is there from 1989

I have to but I'm subject to high level security vetting, they wouldn't be contacting the pub job from when I was a student for a reference!

I can but that's because I worked for the same company for 43 years🤣

I've had to do it for 5 years or 10 years for a visa and that was bad enough but a job application for your whole career. Erm nope.

Nah - I could go back to, like maybe 2011? God knows what happened before then.

I suspect your role is with children or vulnerable people. Government guidance on 'safer recruitment' specifically says you've to ask for dates (dddmmyy) of starting and leaving each job.

It is very useful to keep your cv up to date because as you get older or have loads of employers, it's very hard to remember all that.

My dd had similar recently when applying for a temp part time job at Tesco - the forms and questions were never ending.

They're being ridiculous, no job needs that much referencing - I have high security clearance in my job with barely any references at all as my previous bosses had sold up and moved abroad somewhere.

Hmrc will have your full employment history. Ask for a copy of your proof of earnings and they will post it out.

My schools have been razed to the ground and 90% of the jobs I can remember are now located under housing developments. I sometimes go somewhere a think 'oh, I worked round here once, but tbh, the 1994 - 2005ish period was one of small children, zero security jobs and temping several things at once to keep a roof over our heads, so it's all blurred.

These are the vaguely memorable ones

Demolished office block now housing
Demolished, now a PRU
Demolished office, now housing
Demolished council office, now hole in ground, employer defunct
Demolished workshop now housing
Temp (demolished) on industrial estate
Temp, temp, temp, temp, temp, temp, temp, temp, agencies long gone and sites demolished, places demolished for housing, car parks and a Sainsbury's petrol station, housing, underneath a hotel that's now been demolished for shopping and housing
Hospital demolished and housing
Hospital off site clinic now a supermarket in its place
Hospital, closed, through defunct agency, becoming housing
Can't even remember how many bookings and sites through that place
Building still there, owner dead 20 years
Organisation closed - guess what's there now?
Building might be there but owner emigrated for retirement
Hole in ground whilst a tower block mixed development goes up
Pub been through about 20 owners and four breweries, some of whom went bust
Address is now technically in the middle of Lidl
School closed five years ago, nobody left, probably going to be housing if it's not razed to the ground by trespassers first.

My only truly verifiable work history (as in same location) is the last 5 years.

I get annoyed when I have to deal with these US reference places. No, we do not have records of people five sites and 45 years ago, nor is it essential for the applicant to know the exact day in 1972 that they were processed as a leaver, so there is absolutely nothing to worry about as I don't always have an exact date (if any at all, we didn't ignore GDPR and transfer paper documents including hundreds of thousands of register marks to computers when we finally got one around 1999 either, but it'll be some time between the last Friday in June and the first week of September. If I have a scratch around in a basement I might find a minidisk or DAT that could hold our earliest computerised info, but we've got nothing that could read it if it's not completely defunct - and it's still about 30 years too new.

Health/education/care recruitment guidelines require all gaps in employment to be accounted for from the end of education.

I've never known anyone check with all of those employers but all months need to be accounted for.

It's crap and and can feel very intrusive but it's also impossible to prove really so old jobs I just make sure they're listed roughly right and finish one month and begin the next.