OT - Explaining periods of unemployment on an application

[AZ Pete]

Hi All,

I thought I'd chime in here as I've seen many of these type of questions 
in my tenure in corporate IT. All that the hiring personell are looking 
for is someone who is creative, resourceful and doesn't give up. So, if 
you say you were unemployed from date X to date Y due to a lay off 
couldn't get hired due the a bad economy, believe me your application 
will be in the trash before you know it. Also, requesting information 
for the past seven years is completely unrealistic (and the hiring 
managers know this). They will only be interested in job history for up 
through the past year or two.

A few other points to keep in mind:
- The application's sole purpose is to weed people out.
- Never, ever, ever, ever say you were fired. Even if you were fired, 
say you were laid off.
- What you say on an application should always flatter you and tell them 
why they would benefit by hiring you.

I was on a phone interview yesterday and this exact question arose. My 
last "job" ended over a year ago (lay off), but I've been doing contract 
work for the past year. When asked what I've been doing for the past 
year, I simply say that I've been doing IT contract work and I'm 
currently between contracts looking for interesting and challenging 
projects to pursue.  She seemed very happy with my answer.

There are a number of reasons you can put on an application to explain 
gaps in employment:
- "I chose to take a several months off to spend the summer with my family"
- "I took several short term IT projects which I exposed me to new ideas 
and methods"
- "I wanted to take a few months off to spend time training and updating 
my skill set"

One could argue that you are never really unemployed, just pursuing 
different avenues of learning and growing as a person.  All of which 
makes you a much better employee for them to hire.

Hope this helps.
Peter

Tim Bogart wrote:
> All,
>
> Please forgive me for my stupidity, but I've never been able to wrap 
> my brain around this one.
>
> I am filling out an application for a major corporation and on it they 
> wish me to provide dates of unemployment for the last seven years. 
>  That I get.  The part I don't get is that they wish me to provide an 
> explanation for those periods.  Explain what?  Why I was unemployed? 
>  I got laid off, or the contract expired or I got fired from the 
> previous position.  Or, why I was unemployed or why I couldn't find 
> work?  I dunno.  Am I to explain why a company didn't want to 
> interview me, or hire me, or didn't get presented with my resume? 
>  This one just dumbfounds me.  To me, this is just a stupid way to 
> word something.  Oh, and by the way... nobody answers the help line. 
>  Nice...
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Tim B.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/pipermail/plug-discuss/attachments/20100916/2248d868/attachment.html>