Gap in career history

[Career Advice]

Morning all,

I'm a regular poster using an anonymous login. My colleagues know I post here so best keep it as random as possible.

How do employers/recruiters view a gap in someones career history? If I were to leave my current job without finding something else first but spend a couple of months interviewing and seriously searching would it throw up some tricky questions or suspicions?

Sorry this is a bit vague but you never know whos reading :tinfoilhat:

Thanks for any views...

[softtop]

I suppose your reason for leaving would have to be a good one. If you have got to the point that you want to leave, ask yourself the question, if you could mentally move on and spend your efforts getting that next job then is this practicable? You always have more bargaining power when in a job.

If your reason for leaving does not sit well with your new prospect then they may view you as being unable to cope with situations that works throw up?

[Tyre Smoke]

If the true reason for you wishing to leave your current employer is because you feel under valued and resentful/fed up then I would be inclined to stay where I am and search for another job. If you just want to loaf about for a while then it's a career break that most people seem to do more and more these days.

[jacko lah]

I resigned my last job before I was sacked, and explained very carefully to RECRUITMENT agencies what had happened. In interview I explained that I'd taken a job I was ill prepared for and was not supported to do, I realised I could not do it, and decided that it would be easier to treat getting a job as a full time job, then trying to fit looking for a new job into an already impossible situation, but that I was looking for xy and Z which I knew I could do and had a track record of achievements. Always bring it round from it being impossible to do something you don't know how to do to what you can and will bring to new job.

One of the things I spoke about was the speed of change in aerospace (like you can't change anything for months) and the fact that I was used to high volume (one solenoid every 6 seconds) and not 1 every week.

[Vesuvius 996]

Tyre Smoke said:

If the true reason for you wishing to leave your current employer is because you feel under valued and resentful/fed up then I would be inclined to stay where I am and search for another job. If you just want to loaf about for a while then it's a career break that most people seem to do more and more these days.

Correct. Stay where you are while you look. Even if you do bugger all for a few weeks you can find something else then resign.

[career advice]

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies so far. Without giving too much away, reason for wanting to move on is the commencement of a project which will mean Mon-Fri 200 miles away on clients site for 2 years, living in a hotel etc. When I took the job I knew there would be travel involved but wasn't quite prepared for it to be akin to a re-location as it has turned out to be. Changes in personal circumstances since I started have also occurred.

If I stay on and continue to search for a new job, interviewing etc will be very difficult (200 miles away remember). Also I think it would be unprofessional to start and then bugger off after a couple of months. Possibly looks even worse than going now and taking a couple of months searching.

Edited by career advice on Friday 25th August 15:15

[Tyre Smoke]

So approach the boss and explain that due to a change in personal circumstances since you took the job, you can no longer work away for long periods as you once could. For that reason, and you don't want to bugger them about, you feel you should do the honourable thing and resign.

They will either:

a) Respect your wishes, keep you on locally
b) Respect your wishes, accept your resignation and part on good terms
c) Not give a flying f--k, and wave as you leave.

[dilbert]

career advice said:

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies so far. Without giving too much away, reason for wanting to move on is the commencement of a project which will mean Mon-Fri 200 miles away on clients site for 2 years, living in a hotel etc. When I took the job I knew there would be travel involved but wasn't quite prepared for it to be akin to a re-location as it has turned out to be. Changes in personal circumstances since I started have also occurred.

If I stay on and continue to search for a new job, interviewing etc will be very difficult (200 miles away remember). Also I think it would be unprofessional to start and then bugger off after a couple of months. Possibly looks even worse than going now and taking a couple of months searching.

Edited by career advice on Friday 25th August 15:15

Don't worry too much about it. There's more and more of these situations about. I think employers are aware of the way things are at the moment. Sure they'll use it as a bargaining tool, and yes it does raise the stakes. There's not much you can do about that though.

Try not to let it affect your confidence. It's easy to end up in a loop which is that you feel entirely responsible for the way your career has gone, but the reality is that you can do a good job and be let down by your employer.

Your employer wouldn't be making you do this if they didn't have to. Clearly, they feel that the job is important to their business. It's just that you cannot offer them what they are looking for. They have to make the right choice for their business, you have to make the right choice for you.

If they were keeping the balance right, then they'd be compensating you enough to make it attractive.

[career advice]

Tyre Smoke said:

So approach the boss and explain that due to a change in personal circumstances since you took the job, you can no longer work away for long periods as you once could. For that reason, and you don't want to bugger them about, you feel you should do the honourable thing and resign.

They will either:

a) Respect your wishes, keep you on locally
b) Respect your wishes, accept your resignation and part on good terms
c) Not give a flying f--k, and wave as you leave.

Pretty much what I'm planning on doing.

a)Ideal but unlikely
b)Most likely
c)Highly Unlikely

Thing I'm having issues with is when b) happens, how will prospective employer view the couple of months break whilst searching for something else? Will I look like a cop-out? Like I can't handle it when the pace is upped?

It's a tough one.......

[dilbert]

The other thing I would add to what I said before, is that whilst you can hope it's different with a different employer, there is no reason to expect that it will be.