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Applying for jobs with last 4-5 years "gap" due to not needing to work

Asking on behalf of an acquaintance (and being nosey). Lets say you have a 4-5 year "gap" in most recent employment (last worked 4-5 years ago and voluntarily resigned) and now need to work again for financial reasons. You didn't need to work for the last 4-5 years due to circumstances - windfall, being supported by a now-ex-partner so you could work on personal projects, etc.

How could that be presented on a cv or in a concersation? Is it instant rejection?
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  • General_Grant
    General_Grant Posts: 5,154 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    SillyOne wrote: »
    Asking on behalf of an acquaintance (and being nosey). Lets say you have a 4-5 year "gap" in most recent employment (last worked 4-5 years ago and voluntarily resigned) and now need to work again for financial reasons. You didn't need to work for the last 4-5 years due to circumstances - windfall, being supported by a now-ex-partner so you could work on personal projects, etc.

    How could that be presented on a cv or in a concersation? Is it instant rejection?

    What sort of "personal projects"? Is there a work-related relevance?
  • bouicca21
    bouicca21 Posts: 6,640 Forumite
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    It's a question of pulling out the skills used/acquired during the gap.
  • SillyOne
    SillyOne Posts: 96 Forumite
    Personal projects as in something like "writing a book" if your trade is a hands-on blue collar environment for example.
  • so how do you dress up something like housework?

    Or do you just make something up & say "I've been writing my autobiography" when the truth is more like "I spend too long posting status updates on Facebook" or "I have developed and refined my internet search techniques to assist my financial management" (ie I know the best price comparison sites thanks to MSE).

    (not me personally I would add!)

    I could put painting, decorating & gardening but I doubt my skills are up to doing it professionally. Nor would I want to.

    My biggest problem is the competency-based application forms you get with certain govt & LA roles. V hard to think of a credible, non-trivial example of (eg) using negotiating skills to influence a positive outcome arising from a potential conflict of interests when you (a) haven't had to do anything of the sort (b) are autistic spectrum and would run a mile from that sort of situation anyway and (c) that sort of skill is just not needed in the role you're interested in.

    Seems to me the best approach is to use creative writing. That's another skill you can add :)
  • bouicca21
    bouicca21 Posts: 6,640 Forumite
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    Are you seriously saying writing a book, OP? How did you project manage it - set deadlines and met them, research skills, improved your computer skills, maybe even marketing?
  • Prothet_of_Doom
    Prothet_of_Doom Posts: 3,267 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    5 years of "Self employment"
  • elsien
    elsien Posts: 35,038 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic

    My biggest problem is the competency-based application forms you get with certain govt & LA roles. V hard to think of a credible, non-trivial example of (eg) using negotiating skills to influence a positive outcome arising from a potential conflict of interests

    Don't suppose they have teenagers, do they?
    All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.

    Pedant alert - it's could have, not could of.
  • theoretica
    theoretica Posts: 12,684 Forumite
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    Surely this is a very common situation where the personal project was having kids. Probably what many employers will assume if you don't tell them differently.
    But a banker, engaged at enormous expense,
    Had the whole of their cash in his care.
    Lewis Carroll
  • sangie595
    sangie595 Posts: 6,092 Forumite
    so how do you dress up something like housework?

    Only a person who has never run a household would ask a question like that.

    My biggest problem is the competency-based application forms you get with certain govt & LA roles. V hard to think of a credible, non-trivial example of (eg) using negotiating skills to influence a positive outcome arising from a potential conflict of interests when you (a) haven't had to do anything of the sort (b) are autistic spectrum and would run a mile from that sort of situation anyway and (c) that sort of skill is just not needed in the role you're interested in.

    I suspect that they are better placed than you are to decide what skills are required for a job. If you think that the specified skills are not necessary, that probably indicates that you don't know what the job is. Defining these skill based applications is a complex task, and stuff does not end up in job descriptions just because someone fancied stuffing in an irrelevant skill.

    And if a skill required for the job is dealing with conflict and you would run a mile if there was conflict, your "being interested" in the job is unrealistic.
  • Serendipitious
    Serendipitious Posts: 6,453 Forumite
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    edited 21 July 2016 at 11:23PM
    5 years of "Self employment"

    'Self-unemployment' some might call it...

    Joking aside, there are all sorts of valid reasons for employment gaps.

    Taking time out to go travelling
    Family responsibilities (child care, care of older relatives etc)
    Renovating property
    Fulfilling long-held creative ambitions
    Self-funded career break
    Voluntary work
    Medical or health reasons
    etc.

    The reason for leaving the last employment should refer to the gap that then follows, if only to indicate that it was planned.

    Then the gap period should include any new skills acquired, as indicated in previous posts.

    The problem with longer gaps is not so much the CV construction as the lack of recent employment references.
    “All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”




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