Dealing With Resume Blemishes

Large, hard-to-explain gaps in your work history from periods in your life where you were unemployed can be corrected in a manner of ways. You certainly can minimize the damage gaps do to your chances of getting a job. The first thing to do with your resume is to measure time spent on a job in years, rather than months. When noting the length of time you spent at a company, show the year you began the job and the year you left, rather than showing the year and the month.

If the gap in your work history lasts for a number of years, then you'll need to explain the reasons. Honesty is the best plan if you did something constructive, such as working as a freelancer, raising children, going to school, or even traveling. Even if you didn't do something even remotely constructive, then you shouldn't lie about why you weren't working, but you should at least claim you were trying to find yourself or attempting to get back on your feet.

The opposite situation that causes employers reading your resume to raise an eyebrow is having too many jobs, reflecting that you've been moving from one company to another at an accelerated pace. Going from company to company or touching on many types of jobs is known as job hopping, and potential employers get the impression you may not be around at their company for long. As with gaps in your work history, note the time spent on the job in years rather than months, to try and fool the eye into thinking you stayed at jobs longer than you really did. Noting things in years will also help to try and focus your resume on your skills rather than your experience and erase any jobs that were too short term to make any real impact on your work history.

Limited qualifications, be they in training, education, or experience can also present a problem for your resume. In this situation, you'll want to emphasize your experiences other than conventional qualifications, along with whatever qualifications you do meet, while writing your resume and attending a job interview. Additionally, emphasizing skills over experience will also help your resume.

Never lie about a situation or gloss over a bad past, such as leaving a previous employer's company on bitter terms. You're not obligated to let a potential employer contact a past one, but should you have a tarnished work history, be prepared to answer questions as to why you left the job and under what circumstances. Remember one thing, if this is your situation: You don't have to tell your employer the full reasons for leaving, and you can spin the happenings around, bringing out the positive things you learned in your previous job. Be subtle with anything you put on your resume that you're trying to spin into something attractive, and be as honest as you can, all the while giving out the best information possible and holding back what might cost you the job.

This audiobook is a "must-have" resource if you are currently in the process of looking for a job, or conducting job interviews. It not only examines and helps you give convincing answers to important questions such as "Why do you want this job?", "Why should I hire you?" and "Why do you want to leave your current job?", it also helps you understand that landing a good job is a competitive process and that, often, the final decision is based on your performance at the interview. By following the advice of prominent career planning and human resources expert Peter Veruki, you'll know you have the right answers at your job interview.