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Comment by justrudd | Hacker News Reader

I've had this type of job before. Twice actually. One was for 2 weeks (which I left for personal reasons not job related), and the other was a similar situation to yours (which I left after 4 months). I just didn't list them on my resume/application at places I applied to later. When asked about the gaps, "I just needed to take some time off. For N years, I've never really taken a long vacation so decided to do that".

If you've got the cash and don't have to have your next gig set up, give your two weeks now and start the mental healing.

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Some background checks may reveal to your next employer that you had these jobs, even for a very short period of time.

Yeah, you may as well list it and if asked respond honestly. It wasn't a good fit/the role didn't match the job description, etc.

Yup, this is exactly the right way of going about things. Because when they ask you why it wasn't a good fit, you're able to actually speak up about your experience. Instead of a one sided conversation, you're able to make it your own and interviewers like that. That's my experience anyway.

As an employer, I don't expect every potential employee to list all of their previous roles. Especially for more senior people, I expect that a resume is tailored to show me their best relevant experience. Leaving out a short stint somewhere wouldn't worry me.

I agree with your comment, I was just reacting to the recommendation to lie and just say that you took some time off.

As a hiring manager, I would not care at all about a non-comprehensive list, but I would absolutely care about someone trying to hide past employment

Just curious, I've got 15+ years of experience I can put on there. If I simply listed the ones that I thought were most relevant to the position I was applying for, would you ask why there are gaps?

For example - during the 2008 downturn, I worked a job that was not terrible, but used tools and hard skills that were completely non-transferrable to any job I've had since then. So I no longer put it on my resume even though I was there for 2 years. Would that two year gap over a decade ago be a conversation? Assuming of course, that I even put anything prior to 2010 on an application anymore.

I guess for me - do you dig into every gap you see? Maybe they left under good circumstances and just don't want to list the job because they weren't proud of the work they did there.

I guess everyone may have different expectations. On my end, I would just want to see your current position, the one before that, and then a short list of a few past ones you find relevant. So it could be:

07-2019 - Present: ACME blbalbalablablablaba

05-2016 - 06-2019: Tesla blabalbalablablabalbalab

Other relevant experience: * Apple, blablaba * Facebook, blablabla

I agree, from being on both sides of the interview table.

Although I started doing this around the fifth year of my career, I'm now a graybeard that has been in the business for a very long time and have racked up a lengthy work history. Nobody is going to want to read through a 5 page resume.

My practice for a couple of decades now has been what you state here -- I write a new CV for each position I'm applying for, and only include the things that indicate my fitness for that position. I'm always prepared to provide a complete work history if anyone asks, but I don't remember anyone ever asking.

To be fair, I used to list it.

But I found (n=2) that recruiters/hiring managers got hung up on that one 4 month block vs. the 15+ years of other experience I had on there. One asked "Well if you're going to cut bait and run at the hint of small issue, why hire you?" It's hard to explain, without disparaging the employer, that the 4 months you were there had you in therapy 3 days a week just to keep your sanity :) And it is a he said/they said type situation.

Given how some companies I've worked for used me for their benefit, I feel zero guilt over leaving off the ones that were toxic.

How about "It just took me a while to find the next thing I wanted to do." Then your explanation make sense whether they think you took a break or find out that you left a job quickly.

Or how about they tell the truth that the job wasn't as advertised and stop worrying about convincing some hypothetical HQ person.

I would be very careful about saying anything that could be taken as being disparaging about past employers to potential employers. That rarely puts you in a positive light no matter how accurate your assessment is.

Better to say another form of the truth: the company was a poor fit.

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