Now I'm 49, do I have to explain gap in employment in early 20s

[Severntrent]

I'm applying for an admin job in higher education and I'm 49 years old. In my early 20s I travelled for a couple of years and did a few random jobs, totally unrelated! It's an online application form with sections for education, employment etc etc. So not much scope for adding a line explaining what I was doing. But it was over 25 years ago so will anyone care? Since about 25 years old I've done relevant jobs. Not sure how to handle this?? Any help appreciated!

I wouldn't care as an employer. Just put down that you were travelling.

No. Just leave a gap. It's fine.

Thank you!

In education they are quite hot on gaps in employment in case they raise a safeguarding concern. You may well be questioned on it if you get to interview. It would probably be easier to just cover the gaps with an explanation of what you were doing as I expect they will pick it up.

In other areas it probably wouldn't be a concern but it usually will be an issue in any jobs connected to education or children.

I'm sure I read somewhere (could be wrong) that as long as you provide 10 years worth of employment history, that's ok.

Stick something in. Some employment portals don't allow gaps. dates must be consecutive etc

Those questions drive me mad. I always just want to put ‘My gap in employment was due to unemployment’. I was applying for every job I could find and regularly crying with the frustration of it all, I wasn’t in prison or rehab or bring feckless in any way.
What do they want you to put?? I usually fudge it by saying something vague like ‘caring responsibilities’ or ‘relocation’.

This happened to me and I just said I was working in hotels in wales and couldn’t remember what they were called cos it was 27 years ago 😂

When I got a job in education I was asked about gaps in my cv and working abroad. I had to give details of where I worked abroad and a complete work history. It’s to do with safeguarding as another poster said above.

Education jobs usually want to fill in all gaps

This is my experience too.

I had an interview for a high school and he quite pointedly asked me about my gap in my education

Safer Recruitment guidance for education settings

In my profession, gaps would be questionable so I would make sure i don't have any.... Basically they are trying to establish if you have been in prison or similar

Yes. You must not have any gaps
otherwise they will assume you were in prison. Or under age pregnancy. Or in a mental asylum.

I was asked about a gap in my employment recently from 2008. I think they just want to put something in there. It wasn't online, they phoned and asked me. I had a baby that year so I just said that. But putting travelling is perfectly reasonable.

Teacher here so may be different but we do check for any gaps. If they've not been accounted for their application usually ends up on the no pile.

Thanks. I felt a bit silly putting in irrelevant jobs from such a long time ago. And talking about travelling in my 20s like I thought it would help me in my application. But I can see it's standard in education settings so that is very reassuring!

If you have worked abroad they have to get additional paperwork or do a particular risk assessment as a DBS doesn’t cover that time, but not sure how far back that goes

I wouldn't even put it on there or go that far back in job history. I don't go that far back on my CV. I ran a search to see if my take was unusual or not but it seems Indeed agrees

https://uk.indeed.com/career-advice/cvs-cover-letters/how-far-back-should-a-cv-go

@KeyToTheCity that link states that some industries require you to include more information, education is one sector that does. I posted a copy of the safer recruitment Government guidance for education settings, earlier. All gaps have to be explained

But surely 2 years in your early 20s wouldn’t mean anything. Had you been in prison the following 27 years would unlikely look the way they do.

its pointless as people can just say ‘travelled around Australia & NZ working on farms’
or make some job up with some company that ceased trading 25 years ago

I have no dates on my cv for qualifications so they can't guess my age (important given age discrimination is so rife) but it also means they can't tell what year I entered the workforce. I then decide what point in time I want to start my cv (roughly back about 20 years maximum). At the point of shortlisting they would have no idea if I'd been working at all before that date.

I also group the early part of my career together in one generic statement "various administrative and customer service roles in X, Y, Z industries" and even fore more recent periods of time I group multiple roles and only split out the ones particularly relevant to the job I'm applying for (one grouping of various fixed term/ interim roles covers 4 years).

I've been working for over 35 years, there's no way I can list every job and the gaps between them on my c.v! It would be ridiculously long, plus I don't remember exact dates for many of them (maybe month and year at a push).

If I'm going for job that needs higher level referencing & security clearance like police or civil service or some education posts they usually only go back about 10 years and I can provide details when asked. If I am DBS checked then any unspent convictions or ones that don't get removed from the record will show up anyway. So these sorts of reasons for having a complete exact record on your cv are not accurate.

If you are applying for a role that come under safeguarding you can state in the covering letter or statement that precise dates for all jobs held and gaps in employment for travelling/not working/maternity leave/career breaks etc can be provided on request.

Also withe online applications it can take forever to add each separate role you'd ever held. Even when applicant systems extract information from your cv you nearly always have to tweak for accuracy. Once you hit a certain age or have had a lot of jobs then listing every job and gap is just impracticable.

Should add, I work in HR so see this from both sides.

Yes you could... But that would be lying 🤥