A very senior CV I saw recently had the chap's salary and benefit package for his most recent role (his current role at the time his CV was written) then for each previous employment a reason for leaving. He also had his years of employment in each role rather than specific dates ie. 2005-2010 not May 2005 to Jan 2010, IYSWIM.

It's the first time I had seen reasons for leaving and current salary/package explicit in a CV. It was a US CV so not sure if just the done thing in the states or not.

The redundancies are explained. As the OP has pointed out, his situation may put people off, so being up front tries to set such thoughts aside.

There will need to be a disclosure at some point: either at interview or on the employer's own application form (which people are often obliged to fill-in even after having submitted a CV).

One would hope that issues regarding "aptitude/ability" would be drawn out at interview - as would any issues regarding attitude etc.

IMO being up front, open, and presenting things in a matter of fact way, showing that you haven't got anything to hide, is the best way to go. OK, so some hirers will have their own view on these kinds of CV - the OP is better off disregarding them and thinking of it as their loss, not his.

Good afternoon PH massive,

cutting a long story short, I am about to start looking for another job. after being with the same employer for 22 years. started as an apprentice then machinist, quality and finaly technical sales.

My CV is very bare on the job front as I have only worked for the one company. will this count against me, when applying for other jobs?

Does loyalty count for anything these days.

regards
Hairy

Recruiters will question your ability to adapt to different environments; your propensity for change and if you are attempting to change industries, then depending on your job role, you may find it hard as you haven't done it before. But a good stable background with increasing responsibility is always good.

Contract work - not bad as such, but some people are hesitant about hiring someone with a contractor mentality to do a full time role. Will you be committed to the company? Will you take on board the strategic direction of the company or just view it as a means to an end. Also, contractors tend not to get training and career development to the same level as permanent staff, unless they fund it themselves, so you might be relatively under-qualified compared with candidates who have been in the same role for the last 6 years.

That said, as noted above experience in a variety of organisations can be beneficial as well.

Redundancy - can't be helped, however a true cynic might say companies tend to trim the "deadwood" when there's a round of redundancies, yet try to cling to the good people.

You can tackle both of these. Regarding contracting, I would state in the covering letter that you are looking to be part of a company. Follow this up in the interview and make clear that you're not just going for a perm role because you don't like the look of the contracting market over the next few months.

Regarding redundancy, it can be quite difficult to show that you're not the dreaded deadwood but normal interview rules apply - show performance against KPIs, achievements and a good attitude, explain the situation and why your role disappeared, and it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Europa - I don't know many employers who give interviews out of sympathy, but you're right having redundancies since 2007/8 isn't really that surprising.


As to those who say lie - I would definitely not advise this. As a headhunter I have come across this a few times and nothing puts you off a candidate faster than finding out they lied on their CV. And that includes lying by omission. Finding out from them tripping up and contradicting themselves while talking to you is bad, finding out from a referee even worse.

Fair enough, you don't need to put the 2 weeks temp work in 1994 on there, but omitting a recent, relevant stint with another employer, or adding 6 months on to the job before are both likely to get you sprung, make you look very bad and cast doubt on nearly every aspect of your CV and claimed achievements. Unless you're absolute gold dust, or the only man in the world with a particular skill set (in which case why lie?) then this will simply mean you get dropped.

And no, everyone else doesn't do it. I've had the pleasure of meeting many candidates with documented, checkable work histories and references to back it up going back 20 years. If they've done a spell of contracting, been made redundant, quit a job after 6 months because it wasn't what they were expecting or even just royally screwed up in some way and got the sack, it is still not nearly as bad as deliberately lying on your CV.