Gen X workers may be facing the biggest unemployment crisis, study finds. "It's very clear that once you reach a certain age, it just becomes much harder to access a job opportunity"

r/Futurology • u/[deleted] • 24d ago

Gen X workers may be facing the biggest unemployment crisis, study finds. "It's very clear that once you reach a certain age, it just becomes much harder to access a job opportunity" Society

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/26/gen-x-workers-may-face-the-biggest-unemployment-crisis-generation.html

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u/ac1084 24d ago

People need to cut down their resumes period. I helped with the hiring process at a couple companies and some of the resumes people send in are like 5 pages and they only have 4 years of professional work experience. Also don't put down something you did at a job 5 years ago if you can't remember the basics. I asked a guy a very basic Veritas question since it was all over his resume from a job a few years prior and the poor guy didn't know jack shit. Which isn't a great look, especially when he really should have known. I wasn't trying to play "gotcha" I'm not an asshole.

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u/JRDruchii 24d ago

I think there is such a stigma against unaccounted for time that people put down every little thing to prove they've been constantly employed.

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u/Hawk_Talk 24d ago

“Can you explain what the 3 month gap of employment is about on your resume?”

“Oh, that’s just the best 3 months of my life.”

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u/fartblasterxxx 24d ago

I just lie and say I was at jobs for longer than I actually was. I’ve quit jobs twice and just lived off savings for like 6 months. I’ll never retire so those periods of freedom are priceless to me.

A few years ago I didn’t work for like 6-7 months. I kind of just thought of it as a vacation, I was working nights for 4 years and moved to a city where my immediate family lived. I just wanted to catch up on life, all that missed time. I told that to an interviewer for a warehouse job and he looked at me like I was crazy. Like so what? I can’t take a few months to just live my life? I have to constantly be working?

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u/dawgm4tic 24d ago

I wish there wasn't such a huge stigma against this!

Hopefully shit changes with every new generation. I'm a millennial and this whole 'you've gotta strap on your boots and keep chugging until your burnout or die' method of living life seems... Less than what society is capable of.

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u/tylanol7 24d ago

It honestly feels like society is pointless. Like we gathered from small villiages to help eachother, create saftey etc and then immediatly said fuck it lets keep a class of hunter gatherers who can't hunt or gather

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u/dawgm4tic 24d ago edited 24d ago

We were somehow brainwashed as a society to believe that success can only be achieved on the individual level.

I feel capitalism has led to societal regression in many ways. I guess that's what happens when your economy is driven solely by the sin of greed.

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u/BlackJesus1001 24d ago

It's not capitalism it's conservatism, Adam Smith was well aware of the societal issues wealth could cause and even wrote a book on the subject.

Conservatism as we know it was born from the landed classes after monarchies started failing that decided that the right to rule should be determined by wealth instead of hereditary succession.

Literally thinking that monarchs have failed therefore wealth is the best determining factor on who should rule.

These are the roots of our modern day right wing and neoliberal politics and they've been waging culture war for the last several decades to reverse the progress we managed during and after WW2.

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u/Ok-Squirrel1775 24d ago

Capitalism was born from conservatism

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u/abacus_porkrind 24d ago

It almost certainly is, but it's beneficial to the top 1%. Since 'them that got the gold make the rules,' this will be all society is (allowed to be) capable of until it stops turning a profit.

The necessary equal but opposite of "survival of the fittest/richest" is "destruction of the weakest/poorest."

Goddamn this thread. I gotta go call the suicide prevention hotline and ask 'em why not.

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u/dawgm4tic 24d ago edited 24d ago

The world is a beautiful place despite it being run amok with actual monsters.

Travel the globe and feast your eyes upon the best the planet has to offer, preferably partaking in weed and/or shrooms whenever possible to truly absorb the nature around you.

That's one of many reasons I can think as to why you shouldn't. The world might suck, but there are still some pretty cool things to do on it. Yoshi P the Great has ensured us such.

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u/throwawayabanotabba 24d ago

"Don't worry be happy" is not the way to be when the world is literally burning down around us.

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u/Awkward-Mulberry-154 24d ago

You have to take care of yourself though. There has to be some balance. I'm constantly thinking about these issues, and it really really negatively affects me, mentally and emotionally. I'm afraid of the future, for myself and for the US, and the world. Especially when I have twice the obstacles of many people, and my past gets in the way of my future because people can't stop judging each other for two fucking seconds. I have to not read the news. I have to not think about it. When I was younger I thought people could make change, now I'm not so sure. So if it's all going to burn down around me anyway, then I'd rather not hear about it all the time.

And that's why change never happens. People can only take so much, and it's exhausting.

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u/throwawayabanotabba 24d ago

I know it's exhausting. That doesn't matter. The stakes are too high for surrender.

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u/dawgm4tic 24d ago

"Worry be sad" then? I mean I don't disagree but like... Might as well enjoy what time we have left :]

What else can I do?

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u/throwawayabanotabba 24d ago

Vote, protest, run for office, volunteer... There are lots of options beyond burying our heads in the sand.

→ More replies

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u/Lovat69 24d ago

It's so fucking weird how much like dating it is. Oh you have a job? You're hired.

You're unemployed? What's wrong with you?

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u/IamScottGable 24d ago

I had someone ask me about a little over a year gap once and I said “that was when I asked my company to lay me off so I could I complete the last 5 semesters of my degree in 3 semesters”

They couldn’t fathom taking that time off either.

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u/ElectricMan324 24d ago

Its a good story though.

I did something similar - took off a semester to finish my masters since I only had 3 courses left and I didnt want to keep going for another year in the evenings.

Most companies think that is cool. And you can back it up with transcripts.

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u/IamScottGable 23d ago

I was working full time and doing 3-4 classes a semester, every semester. I needed them to lay me off.

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u/ElectricMan324 23d ago

That's impressive. I tried doing 2 classes while working and it almost killed me. I don't know how you can manage more than that.

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u/ZombieP0ny 24d ago

Yes Wagie, back in the Cagie.

There seriously needs to be a change in things soon otherwise shits gonna be so much more on fire.

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u/exscapegoat 24d ago

Do you or anyone know how it would work for lay offs? If you were being paid severance while working, could you claim you'd worked for the time you took severance.

I have the months/years on my resume. I got laid off in the middle of one month, we'll say January, spent half of January and all of February looking for a job and got an offer early March, started mid March. Fortunately, I had severance during that time and got a job before my severance ran out. So I have one month gap between two jobs.

I'm at my second job since I was laid off and have been with my current company for over 5 years. I was honest about being laid off during interviews for both jobs. I tried to put the best take on it.

I spoke well of the people I worked with at the place I was laid off from and what I'd learned there. And I mention I didn't take the decision personally, as the company wasn't doing well. By the second job, I'd already organized a couple of social events so everyone could see each other, so I mentioned that too. Basically to show I wasn't a sore loser or likely to shoot the place up or anything.

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u/flictonic 24d ago

You can claim anything on your resume, it’s yours and there’s no standardization. If you are hired and the job does a background check then compares employment dates to your resume, they will not match and it will be up to their discretion if what you did was acceptable. IMO much easier to obscure gaps by just removing month granularity from job history.

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u/dawgm4tic 24d ago

If you're laid off and on severance, you absolutely 100% should claim that you're still with the company up until the very last severance check. You can't claim unemployment until that very point anyways, so are you even technically unemployed? 🤪

Source: I did this.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

[deleted]

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u/fartblasterxxx 24d ago

Yeah you’re probably right, I just get stuck in a doomer mentality a lot in recent years.

Maybe it’s easier to brush retirement off as an impossibility than sitting down and actually making a plan. Thanks for the reply I needed to hear that.

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u/dvali 23d ago

If you've lived off savings for six months at (random guess) 25 years old, how much do you think that six months would have been with in 35 years if you'd put it into a retirement fund?

I don't want to seem harsh, because I've actually done the same thing myself twice and it was great. But that six months is you burning retirement money while complaining you can't retire.

Again, I definitely sympathise. I'm 35 and I didn't get a job paying enough for any possibility of retirement until two years ago. And it doesn't pay all that much. I'm an underpaid junior software dev. Despite the doom and gloom we all feel about everything, it's not impossible yet.

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u/bobo1monkey 24d ago

Good for you, knowing what makes you happy. I just want to point out, though, if you make enough to take six months off every 4 years or so, that's retirement level savings. Like no joke, you'd be able to retire comfortably at a reasonable age. Definitely don't feel bad for spending the money and making your life enjoyable, but you would totally be on track for a decent retirement if you didn't take that time off. Just something for other people to consider before jumping into your method.

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u/fartblasterxxx 24d ago

Yeah it’s not something I can do often that’s for sure. My first apartment when I moved here was super cheap and I didn’t do much, just enjoyed not having to do anything if I didn’t have to, so my savings went a long way.

I’d love to do it again but yeah I’m too nervous about touching my savings with the way the world is right now.

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u/Ruefuss 24d ago

I get asked about the time i became a trucker for a year every time i interview for an internal position at a place ive been working at for 2 years. They care about any gap in employment in profession, even when ive worked for them for years.

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u/ModsRDingleberries 24d ago

"I was in prison. Was supposed to be a 25 year sentence for killing the last guy that didn't give me the job I wanted, but I got pardoned after 1 year on good behavior"

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u/Ruefuss 24d ago

Naw, just the only way to develop enough savings to get out of the south. But take my upvote anyway.

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u/That1one1dude1 24d ago

To be fair if I was interviewing and saw that I might ask just out of curiosity. Also because interviews are sometimes just a personality test if I already know your skills and experience.

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u/seventysevensevens 24d ago

I moved, I got dual citizenship, climbed my first 14er, traveled, experienced weddings and events I would never have been able to do if I was still at a call center.

So yeah my 1.5 year work gap was worth every second I wasn't making $.

Also helps I had saving from having an engagement called off so I had savings to support my time.

Employers had 0 problem with me enjoying my life in my mid 20s. They usually comment that I must have made a plan to make it work (budget, time management, goal setting, etc.)

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u/thxthxthxthx 24d ago

“Probably won’t ever be able to top it… those girls, man. Ahhhh, well. I guess it’s all downhill from here.”

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u/TheDogAndTheDragon 24d ago

☑️ candidate is aware of the realities of corporate hell

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u/ETHBTCVET 24d ago

3 months lmao, it's 10 year gap in my case.

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u/griff_girl 24d ago

"Oh, that? Ask your mom."

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u/imaginary_num6er Med. Device R&D 24d ago

If one of your relatives are deceased, just say you had to take care of them during that time. No one will ever ask you for it again and you shouldn't talk about it after recruitment either.

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u/ShovelHand 24d ago

I got a second degree as a mature student, and at an interview I was asked about my employment gap during part of that time. Like, "Oh, I took some time to just stop and get to know myself. And to get the degree that brought me here to answering this question.". I found it bizarre.

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u/Apprehensive_Text_68 24d ago

This is one of the reasons I worked full time while concurrently getting my degree. No gaps in the resume. It was terrible and everyone should avoid that if they can.

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u/mrchaotica 24d ago

I was working full time while attempting grad school, and I kept having to drop classes because I didn't have time to keep up with the assignments. When I got laid off due to COVID I decided to become a full-time student to finish up and it's much less stressful.

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u/SmellGestapo 24d ago

This. I had an interviewer tell me this as I walked out. Mind you, I had made it to the third round of a four round process, so I was one of maybe 4 people left in the process. Obviously I'd proven whatever I needed to up to that point, but I had a gap in my history which I didn't even try to hide, and I don't even know if that's what prevented me from advancing to the final round, but his friendly advice as I walked out of the interview was to make sure I find some way to cover that gap with something.

I've had others say the same--even if you didn't work, put some volunteer work down, say you just needed time off and took a sabbatical, anything to avoid saying you were just unemployed and looking for work.

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u/Cosmic-Warper 24d ago

That stigma and the fact that they even had to give that advice is ridiculous. People have gaps between jobs all the time for a million potential reasons. That shouldn't be judged at all

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u/ItsTheExtreme 24d ago edited 24d ago

“My mother was dying of colon cancer and I helped nurse her for her last 4 months. Would you like me to go into the details?”

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u/sadpanda___ 24d ago

“Do you have a doctors note for that?”

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u/ItsTheExtreme 24d ago

“Here’s a photo of her tombstone”

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u/FloppyDorito 24d ago

"we'll also need a copy of the death certificate"

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u/Senator_TRUMP 24d ago

actually let me clarify. The original. A photocopy doesnt count.

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u/abacus_porkrind 24d ago

Ed Rooney: Uh, yeah, sure, no I'd be happy to, yeah you, uh, you you just produce a corpse, and uh, I'll release Sloane. I wanna see this dead [mother] first hand.

– Ferris Bueller's Day Off

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u/shannonswims 24d ago

I've done that before

"I was the key witness for an attempted murder case and was required to be available throughout the trial period which lasted up to three months".

Thank you.

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u/orangemars2000 24d ago

I graduated high school in July, and my uni started in October. When checking my employment references, the firm asked me for supporting documents for that gap. I nearly had a stroke. I sent them an email about high school graduation dates and a screenshot of my university's term calendar. They took it.

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u/morilinde 24d ago

That's just hazing at that point, jesus!

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u/lattercat42 24d ago

Like what are they afraid people are doing during these gaps?

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u/demlet 24d ago

I mean, I couldn't see myself jumping through this many hoops for a paycheck in any case. Most of the places I've worked expect gaps. AKA, what society deems crappy jobs.

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u/svachalek 24d ago

For me it’s “shitty job I had to quit in a few months and don’t think is worth listing here”. I’m not aware that leaving it out ever hurt me but who knows I guess.

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u/simonshure 24d ago

It's almost like the people hiring are guessing.

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u/LigerZeroSchneider 24d ago

Employers fear the unknown. Could be your were chilling at home working on person projects, could be you were on a 3 month bender. They can't know and assume the worst.

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u/Cosmic-Warper 24d ago

I mean they can just ask during a phone screen if everything else on the resume is fine instead of silently assuming and then throwing out a potentially good candidate as a result

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u/LigerZeroSchneider 24d ago

yeah, but people lie all the time. I get what your saying, but I've been told that recruiters are super risk adverse because companies would rather have no candidate than a bad one. That's why there is so much focus on finding unicorns.

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u/OrclordofOrcnor 24d ago

Yeah, it's infuriating to read about this happening to people. Work/hiring culture as a whole is just disgusting in a lot of places.

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u/wayder 24d ago

Stigma against employment gaps only demonstrates an employer I don't want to work for anyway. I am at the older-edge of GenX, I feel bad for anyone my age not in an field where they can freelance or do consulting. I guess doing freelance means I can explain any gaps. My biggest gap was deciding I wanted to be an active parent to my young daughter and not be in an office from sun-to-sun as I was when my now adult son grew up.

But I honestly wouldn't want to do what I do for a company full-time in a cubicle anymore. My last three "at work" jobs consisted of me setting up a communications system for a startup, then training smart and eager younger people in their 20s how to run it... then getting "laid off". Not as bad as it sounds, it's an "unsaid" expectation. Only in in the last five or so years have I decided to bypass the part where I work for a company full-time. It spares them and me a bit of wasted time.

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u/Awkward-Mulberry-154 24d ago

training smart and eager younger people in their 20s how to run it... then getting "laid off".

"Raise the child and you will be released"

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u/Awkward-Mulberry-154 24d ago

How is it that we can't stand to see each other as human beings anymore? Like, there is just zero understanding, empathy, compassion, anything. And the worst part is that all those hiring managers and however many countless others seem to have no problem with that. US culture is all about individualism, yet somehow they can't comprehend individual circumstances, needs or wants or that there's people out there with lives different from their own.

I just want to throw my hands up and walk into the fucking ocean sometimes.

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u/Duckbilling 24d ago

I want to hire these gap in employment people, kind of like 'money ball', they could be incredibly talented lol

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u/PM_UR_PIZZA_JOINT 24d ago

Most gaps in employment History can be attributed to personal employee issues. I agree it shouldn't be anyones business, but at the same time an employer is a business and they want the candidate who will fill the seat and deal with the pressure. Large employment gap can mean mental health or physical issues that will result in work off in the future. It's like having a tattoo on your face doesn't mean you're crazy, but I don't know anyone who has a face tattoo that isn't crazy.

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u/Ruefuss 24d ago

Yeah, no. The face tatoo thing is fine, but nowhere near equivalent of taking time off for work. In a country where its nearly impossible for the poor to accumulate vacation time, employment gaps are basically the only time you get to not work.

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u/PM_UR_PIZZA_JOINT 24d ago

While not explicitly stated, I don't this conversation revolves around the poor. Most jobs with low pay don't have a multiple round interview with checking your background.

And I agree, on the vacation part. But again, vacation gaps indicate to an employer that in order for you to be happy you need lots of time off or you're going to leave to take a break in 2 to 3 years after getting hired. It's all about money and headaches to employers. They want you there every single moment that business is operating and leaving for a month means someone else needs to do your job. Employers shouldn't look at gaps and assume bad, but that's what they do and enough people don't ever take gaps that we are in this shittt situation.

Edit: I would love to not receive pay and have a guarantee my job will be open in a month. This just isn't a reality in American companies and its exhausting..

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u/Ruefuss 24d ago

Its worse for the poor than those with in demand skills. Youre not only replaceable, but a dime a dozen. Any excuse not to look at your resume in the hundreds they have available.

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u/Echo127 24d ago

That sounds so bizarre to me... did they never just, you know, ASK you about the gap during any of your interviews?

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u/SmellGestapo 24d ago

This was several years ago so my memory is hazy but I remember being clear that I had been laid off due to budget cuts in my previous job.

I think the guy was, more or less, encouraging me to put some bullshit down on my resume to avoid the question even coming up.

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u/maxlong2 24d ago

Say you went to jail for murdering an idiot recruiter and early pardoned

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u/tamuzbel 24d ago

That is what the assumption is.

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u/null640 24d ago

4 rounds is ridiculous!

More power trip then anything else.

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u/Bloody_sock_puppet 24d ago

I think I'd continue sticking to honesty normally if I actually wanted the job. Remembering lies is exhausting. If it's just for the cash and the company makes rubbish that isn't really needed, then you can lie through your teeth.

There are a lot of companies and jobs that are just plain shit and after I've left my current place I was thinking of getting a few just to be a terrible employee. Get it out of my system before finding something else. Find the worst manager there and just speak truth to power knowing I'm not sticking about. Ooh, and get a cashier job just to tell the first rude person expecting subservience that they're an arsehole. Telesales and just be really honest that the upselling is bordering on fraud.

And then you go work for a better competitor and you've got a good story to tell! Might even get you the job.

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u/pelftruearrow 24d ago

I had seen someone who was applying for an IT position put down non-IT work for sections of time that he was doing freelance photography.

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u/NeonUsAll 24d ago

I've got gaps of months and don't give a damn in trying to hide it. Resume is also barely a page. Being concise and no BS fillers is my style for interviews. BTW, I flipped interviews into my interview of the company. Some kind of weird reverse psycology maybe? but always makes the hiring manager excited. That's what worked for me for the last 2 management jobs.

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u/DrB00 24d ago

I simply inform people I was doing freelance work. Don't have to be too detailed about it. Usually they take it like oh this person has motivation.

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u/hidinginplainsite13 24d ago

I use “taking care of family”

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u/dzlux 24d ago

I’ve seen someone rejected for having a 6 month gap. The reasoning they used what that 6 months was a really long time to not find a job, so there must be a red flag we had not yet found.

Wtf.

I have been really surprised to see how many people are looking for any reason that thins the applicant pool.

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u/JRDruchii 24d ago

I have been really surprised to see how many people are looking for any reason that thins the applicant pool.

It is a weird tug of war. HR is desperately trying to thin their applicant pool and applicants are trying to avoid the cut. All while trying to avoid any communication what so ever.

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u/dzlux 24d ago

HR can really be such an barrier in the whole process. When working on filling a position in my last job we would have to routinely demand all resumes because they would filter or just omit good candidates for random reasons and often not even tell us.

I recently applied for a job where I was surprised to see that I met most (~90%?) of their requirements and ‘nice to haves’. Zero contact from HR, no interview, just silence... and from the rumors I heard they didn’t find anyone qualified and closed the position. Just wild.

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u/Massive-Risk 24d ago

Yeah, I've been unemployed, living with my parents for the last 3 years, so even before covid happened. I applied to a temp place and they said they normally don't even touch resumes with gaps like mine because they take it as it meaning I was in jail for that time. Nope, no jail, just severely depressed and you saying that is making me question whether living is worth all this "work" bullshit.

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u/JRDruchii 24d ago

Our modern society sees jail as almost indistinguishable from depression, except we get force labor out of inmates. But to some place like Walmart or Medtronic? its all the same.

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u/jphistory 24d ago

Do you have any way of knocking off the oldest side of the gap? Since you have a safety net with your folks, maybe a volunteer job or an internship? The easiest way to get rid of a gap is to remove one side.

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u/Massive-Risk 24d ago

I usually just lie and say I was taking care of a sick family member just so they don't push it or question much further. If they do question further, my made up sick family member died. It's shitty, but the way all past jobs have treated me and how I know the job I'm interviewing for will treat me eventually makes me not feel too bad about it. Plus, if they're the type of company that doesn't think that's a valid reason to not be working full time then they aren't a place I'd want to work for anyway.

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u/Taoistandroid 24d ago

People just haven't figured out that it's not the 1960s anymore. I've gotten more hits formatting my resumes in absurd ways, with color schemes and funny anecdotes than I have using a black and white formal lists chronically my time on earth. You get 1-2 pages to woo someone, woo them.

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u/jphistory 24d ago

I'll be the first person to tell you to actually use your cover letter to sell yourself rather than just reiterating what is on your resume, but I also believe that the whole hiring mambo is a ridiculous and random process that for some people is rigged from the start .

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u/TheDeadlySpaceman 24d ago

“Oh thanks for asking, I was doing XXXX but I didn’t feel like that was relevant to this position.”

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u/Daveinatx 24d ago

When I go through resumes, it's interesting to find out about gaps over the past five years. Not the European excursion after college.

Also, gaps can be good. It's interesting to find out about an immersion program or sabbatical. Just not early release from good behavior.

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u/abacus_porkrind 24d ago

Cries in stay-at-home parent I had no prospects before. Landing my shitty but steady job was a fluke, no question. By the time I return to the workforce at ≈ 46 with my last job experience 10 years past, fuck. Maybe I can still get hired to pump gas. Maybe.

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u/YoungPatrickBateman 24d ago edited 24d ago

Friend of mine encountered this recently. He was asked in 5 or 6 interviews why he hadn’t worked for a 3 year period, with one interviewer say “it’s quite strange that you’d take time off.”

He was travelling through South America, Central America and Eastern Europe for 3 years. He was doing what he wanted to do before settling into a full-time career.

Needless to say, he didn’t take a job with the company who thought it was strange to take time off.

Edit: A friend of a friend told me a story about when he was looking for a job following a 2 year leukaemia battle. He had an obvious 2 year gap in his CV, they asked and he said he was off for medical reasons. He didn’t get the job (he was told it was for other reasons) and the recruiter told him “you should be specific with your reason for time off. Saying medical allows the recruiter to read too much into. Many will speculate that you had a mental break down or something and immediately write you off” so now he has January 2016- January 2018 Medical Leave - Fighting Blood Canceron his CV. Most recruiters interpret it as him taking two years to raise money for leukaemia or something, then he clarifies and they’re like “oh”

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u/ElectricMan324 24d ago

HR specifically will not ask you about medical issues. They dont want to know because if they decide to pass on you, for whatever reason, they feel they can be sued.

Medical is right up there with religion, marital status, or sexual preference. Just getting told that may set the company up for a discrimination suit.

Sucks but it happens. That said, not sure how you would explain the gap without giving details, so you're kind of in a bind. Sorry man.

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u/YoungPatrickBateman 24d ago

Oh absolutely. When he mentioned this to me I said that too. He was confident it wasn’t because of his medical history. He was lacking a very essential skill for the job.

I think the recruiter was telling him as a courtesy because so many other recruiters will assume the absolute worst and exclude him based on that worst assumption. Legally they cannot say it’s based on medical grounds, but it’ll definitely play into their decision process.

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u/PurifyingProteins 24d ago

There is, but in those cases have your full resume on hand in the interview in case you can’t remember what you were even working on that year.

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u/JRDruchii 24d ago

I think getting to the interview is the hard part here.

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u/ARandomBob 24d ago

I don't think it hurts you to bad. I worked as a door dash/ Amazon flex driver for 2 years. Only one person asked about it and I said I had a kid and was being a home maker. Got the job.

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u/MathityMathMath 24d ago

I think there is such a stigma against unaccounted for time that people put down every little thing to prove they've been constantly employed.

I did this once with context. I was working for myself for almost a decade but they wanted a history with more than just that.

So I included a few things after graduating and wrote a summary that tried to make a case that the only reason I was good at my current job working for myself is because of what I learned and accomplished at every place leading up to it.

Amazingly with a 3/4 page summary I got a phone interview. I can't even get people to read my three sentence e-mails that I actively work with =)

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u/PartyPorpoise 24d ago

And a lot of job listings say that they want your entire job history. But I still don't bother to put down the summer pizza job I had in high school.

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u/SweetSilverS0ng 24d ago

There won’t be as much after 2020.

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u/28carslater 24d ago

Fuck that month to month shit, whomever came up with that needs to be [INSERT GRUESOME DEATH].

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u/Ipoopedgreenonce 24d ago

This is SO real. I have a couple gaps in my life where I didn't work for at least a year. I wasn't goofing off, I was going through a lot of shit I didn't even look for and can't just say on a job interview. I filled my resume with everything I could think of, selling porridge at the county fair or winning an award as a student, useless things like that. I did so because I was super anxious about not looking as a perfect slab of workmanship.

A month or so ago I took most of it down and left a less than a page resume with only the essentials "bullshitted" a bit to sound more interesting. I didn't lie, just used words like "operated" instead of "used". I got hired last week. I believe I was really lucky on this one, but I think trimming the resume helped.

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u/bunkojones 24d ago

Garbage Collector 9/20/99 - 10/01/99 climbed Mt. Everest and brought down 100lbs of trash!

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u/reflect-the-sun 24d ago

Put down some BS about spending the time on personal growth and how it helped you discover your true passion is {insert crappy job title here}

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u/IsThisAnAdOrNot 24d ago

On the converse, list that skill from a job 5 years ago (if it's relevant to the current job applying for) and be honest in the interview. That was a skill you had, but like all skills when you stop using them you can forget the specifics, especially in a nervous situation like a job interview where you are being grilled. I bet if you stuck that same candidate in a chair and had them do something in Veritas they'd figure it out in few minutes and a lot of that knowledge would come pouring back.

You see the same thing with any skills tests. I've taken a few Adobe certified tests and been stumped by some of the questions that I had to answer without being able to look at the UI. But put me at a desk using photoshop, indesign, after effects, etc. and I know where all the options are just by muscle memory alone.

Can I list off all the default CSS properties and values from the top of my head? Fuck no. But sit me down at a computer and give me something you want recreated in CSS and often times I can get it done for you.

There are too many things in life we have to remember. No sense wasting brain power memorizing a technical detail about software that you can easily look up, recall form muscle memory, or discover in seconds when viewing the software in context.

TL:DR You are probably being way to stringent in interviewing applicants if you are turning them away because they can't recall specifics about software they used five years ago. If you doubt their ability, pull up a laptop and have them show you how to do something during the interview or invite them to come back for a quick one hour or less skills challenge before extending the final offer.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago edited 24d ago

[deleted]

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u/Vairman 24d ago

you picked up once, you can pick it up again. showing a diversity in skills/tools learned is a good indicator that they can learn new skills and tools. to me anyway.

but some people will have lunch at a table with people who use Veritas (whatevertheheckthatis) and write on their resume: "extensive experience with Veritas". so....

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u/KemShafu 24d ago

As a database administrator with oracle, sqlserver and Postgres - I started out as an application administrator - to me everything is an application, and I can pretty much walk in and know an application in 3 months. Oracle is the most complex application I’ve worked with. If I can do this, I can do anything. (11 years as an administrator)

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u/IsThisAnAdOrNot 24d ago

Right? If I look at a resume and see someone who has experience working on a breadth of applications/large variety of stacks, I see someone who can likely pickup any application I need them to and figure it out.

If you doubt them, you can always call their references and ask them if they used XYZ software in the day to day. A lot of employers won't tell you if they were a bad employee for fear of liability, but if you ask them specifically, "Says here you guys use Veritas. Did John Doe use Veritas daily while working there?" "Did they work on XYZ project that they told us about?" Many employers will verify those types of questions. At least in my experience hiring.

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u/popxel 24d ago

The myth of the difficulty of the CCNA still permeates circles. I let it lapse many years ago but recruiters and managers still sweat the fact that I had it.

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u/Sharpshooter188 24d ago

Lol. Makes me think about memorizing abbreviations with A+. Yeah, it probably makes me sound a bit more intelligent that I know that UEFI stands for Unified Extensive Firmware Interface, but thats not going to havr any practical use in helping me fix the system faster.

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u/IsThisAnAdOrNot 24d ago

Oh cool. TIL. As I just thought it stood for "Ewe-Fee" but that misunderstanding hasn't stopped me from fixing or building systems either.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago edited 23d ago

[removed]

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u/debbiegrund 24d ago

Hello google interview day.

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u/mistersneezie 24d ago

This person. A post so long it takes a tldr on advice about being specific and cutting to the chase.

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u/IsThisAnAdOrNot 23d ago

I wasn't addressing the need to be specific on resumes, I was addressing the second half of OP's statement about overlooking candidates because they said a guy didn't know jack shit because he couldn't answer trivial questions about software he hasn't used in 5 years.

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u/cjandstuff 24d ago

It doesn’t help that companies like Adobe are constantly moving around buttons and settings!

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u/Sawses 24d ago

For sure. I'm in my second job out of college and unless it's directly relevant I'm not including something. The least relevant thing on my resume is a 2-year stint at a retail job...just to prove I am capable of being at a job for 2 years.

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u/lolapoola 24d ago

i worked as a Haunted Furniture Specialist as my 1st job. Huge career booster.

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u/fjaoaoaoao 24d ago

Some times people forget how to answer things on the spot. Doesn’t make them a worse employee.

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u/retrospectr3 24d ago

Trouble is that hiring the wrong person is very expensive for companies and if it’s between someone who can interview well and someone who forgets basic answers it’s easy to imagine who they’re gonna go with.

The good news is that interviewing is a skill and the more you do it the better you’ll get at it. I’ve absolutely fallen on my ass in interviews and forgotten basic things but over more and more interviews it happens far less frequently these days.

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u/ShitLipsYum 24d ago

I interviewed someone who mentioned Java programming as the first thing on his CV/resume.. the first bloody thing.. when pressed, he'd done it at university 15 years earlier and didn't really remember much.

I asked him why it was the first thing on his cv, didn't really have explanation. Ffs fucking fuck off, it's not going to fly and it wastes so much of my time.

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u/Sharpshooter188 24d ago

Only thing I know of is having a gap on your record is a bitch and a half. Last recession I FINALLY got an interview with Frys Electronics of all places cause I was hard up. "Says here that youve had some...off time(?) for thr past 8 months. Is therr any particular reason?" Thoughts were "We are in a recession, you prick. Why tf do you think its that wide?" But the words were "Ive been looking after family and we finally hired a full time nurse." Christ 09 sucked. Still didnt get thr job btw.

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u/Thebraintickler 24d ago

I find this to be hard in technical fields. Like, say I have flow cytometry as a skill on my resume, but I haven't done it in 10 years. It's not like I forget the principles of how it works, but I certainly forget some of the day to day stuff, hell, with a new machine I might not even know where to put the sample, but, you are going to train me on the machine anyways, and it's not like that information and ability is lost forever, it'll come back quickly, it's not like lost knowledge, it's just solving problems with flow cytometry isn't something i've had to think about in a while, and you ask me a specific question about it, I don't fucking know, if I work with a machine for a week I'll figure it out and answer your question then.

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u/Jo_case 24d ago

Nothing against your point or organization, but Veeam is the king imo.

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u/RamenJunkie 24d ago

The only issue I would see on that Veritas question is that it likely hasn't changed a lot and Google is a thing. So maybe they don't remember the ins and outs from 10 years ago, but chances are they will remember or be able to figure it out rapidly due to that previous experience.

Also I have found that interviewers and job requirements also use weird buzzword nonsense to describe things. I have looked through some job descriptions that frankly, I am probably an expert in by any actual standard, but had no idea what the description was asking about because it was some salesman style jargon thrown on by HR who doesn't know anything about the actual job.

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u/slimlayney 24d ago

True, seems like I get more replies when I don't even write a cover letter.

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u/TangibleSounds 24d ago

You weren’t playing gotcha like an asshole but I’ve met plenty of people during hiring processes who seem to think that gotchas are how they prove they’re experts.

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u/Anonymotron42 24d ago

No kidding! I’m a Gen-Xer and I had a Communications professor who gave us “the Highlander” rule for resumes: “There can be only one! (page).” I have over two decades of work experience and I still try to follow this rule.

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u/suziemaruzie 24d ago

The first rule of resumes is ONE PAGE. I was once in charge of helping review resumes for a position and I seriously just threw away anything over 1 page without even reading them.

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u/blebleblebleblebleb 24d ago

I completely disagree with that. Yes, people should have all the relevant info on the first page but anyone with a reasonable amount of experience and accomplishments will have more than one page.

If you’re screening people by them having one page or more, you probably threw away a ton of very highly qualified people.

I can’t think of anyone at my level that could distill their experience to one page and I would be incredibly wary of anyone who applied to my team and could fit their qualifications on only one page.

Ymmv on that but 1 page is fine for entry level. Any serious professional will have a CV with tons of relevant stuff

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u/ElViejoHG 24d ago

A qualified person would make the page bigger

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u/suziemaruzie 24d ago

This job was for cashier at a ceramic supply company and I was seeing kids right out of college submitting 2-3 pages of poorly formatted resumes. I think the way a resume looks matters a lot. I am able to fit a lot on one page due to the way I format things, and I’m in the creative field. In art school this is what I was taught and until I’m further enough in my career to justify a 2nd page I think it’s a good rule. I should have been more specific in my first comment, obviously some higher level professions would require more detailed experience.

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u/blebleblebleblebleb 24d ago

Okay yes, with this context I COMPLETELY agree with you. Thanks for updating

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u/seridos 24d ago edited 24d ago

See I dont know if this applies to my industry(education). Ive included a brief blurb of my educational philosophy on it and a summation of my work experience skills(classes I offer) on the first page though, so they really only need the second page to see which principal to phone up. Its also a position which only recieves 5-10 candidates from HR to process. My fiancee's CV in academia is like 15 pages. I do have a cut down 1 pager for if I apply to a non education job ever.

Not saying your general advice is wrong, just that it's just that, general and doesnt apply everywhere.

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u/suziemaruzie 24d ago

I am an artist and the position was for a cashier at a company I used to work for. These were kids fresh out of college submitting 2-3 pages of irrelevant stuff were too much for me.

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u/NorthernSparrow 24d ago

Depends on the field though. In academia a CV is supposed to be long. I don’t hire anyone for my lab whose CV isn’t at least 3 pages.

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u/suziemaruzie 24d ago

It definitely depends on the industry, I was being way too general in my first comment.

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u/dexx4d 24d ago

As somebody with 20 years of experience in my (technical) field, I'm glad you're not reviewing resumes like mine.

The systems and tools I've worked on and with would only fit on a single page if I used smaller font.

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u/suziemaruzie 24d ago

Oh, I’m glad too - you must have credentials and other things worth multiple pages. This job that I was helping vet candidates for was a cashier position at a ceramics supply company. No 24 year old should be submitting a double-spaced three page resume for a $10 per hour job, IMO.

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u/Tommy_Wisseau_burner 24d ago

I don’t get why people would put non relevant experience if they already have experience. I get it when you are looking for your 1st position and trying to get shit to stick (I did it lol). But at this point 4 years deep into my big boy job the only thing I’ll have on my resume if I ever leave (hope not) is what I’ve done at my current job. I already have my foot in the door

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u/seridos 24d ago

Everything relevant on page 1, later page shows you dont have employment gaps, and shows where you got those skills you listed on page 1. Second page doesn't need to be referenced unless they care.

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u/MisterMillwright 24d ago

This. I cut my cover letter and resume down and it got me immediate results. Especially the cover letter. Keep it clear and concise.

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u/Joker_Robinson 24d ago

Much if that falls onto the 30 year regression payment policies many organizations still use.

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u/mwn61 24d ago

I agree. If you can't discuss whats on your resume then It shouldn't be on there. Its even worse now when people use google to look up everything they don't bother to remember anything.

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u/SirDiego 24d ago

I've always heard keep it to one page maximum. I took "references" off and just have "available by request," and now only list relevant work history (again I figure that if they would like to know they can ask in an interview). Additionally my "CV," if you will, is on Indeed and LinkedIn publicly, they can find it if they'd like to.

I always think the resume should be like an "ad" for yourself. Keep it brief and interesting and show off your best side. If they're interested in learning more it's available but that's not what the resume is for.

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u/Luis__FIGO 24d ago

last 2 jobs I was hired for I was commended by HR for keeping my resume to 1 page

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u/Chengweiyingji 24d ago

I for one cannot wait to cut the job I had for four months out of my resume. It was my second out of four jobs in the last six years. When should I cut it?

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u/Kurotan 24d ago

Any recruiters know how far back I should list? I've got every job ever listed, just started removing super old ones. Have been at my current job for 8 years now. I have like 6+ jobs listed on two pages.

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u/Pezdrake 24d ago

I'm fortunate enough to only have had two employers in the past twenty years. I still list additional experience at the bottom of my resume depending on the job im applying for (kinda theoretical as I'm now just considering staying with my current employer long enough to get early retirement).

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u/model3113 24d ago

And I totally agree, but the prevailing philosophy is to pack resumes with buzzwords hoping enough click with w/e automation is in place just to get you to the next tier in that hiring process.

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u/derf82 24d ago

Yeah, I remember growing up they told us the cardinal rule of resumes is 1 page only. Now I get kids fresh out of college sending in 3 pages. You’re applying for an engineering job, I don’t care about your high school extra curriculars or your junior year summer lifeguarding job. And we all took the basic college engineering courses. You are a graduated civil engineer; I know you passed statics and calculus

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u/bobo1monkey 24d ago

Honestly, I think gotchas are perfectly fine if it's something a resume indicates the applicant should know. They aren't applying for a store rewards card, they're trying to get a job. If you imply you know something, be prepared to answer questions about that thing.

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u/Mister_Brevity 24d ago

Ew please tell me it wasn’t backup exec lol

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u/shontsu 24d ago

I had an ex-coworker apply for a job at my current company, and was surprised they didn't even interview him. Asked for a copy of his resume, and he had more information about what he did at Uni 10 years ago, then he had for the job he'd been doing for the last two years. He had no more information about what he did in his current role than for any other role in his career.

I just...no-one cares what you did for your major project at school 10 years ago man. There were a bunch of other problems, but that jumped out immediately.

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u/Fuglekassa 24d ago

I have always been taught to keep the resume to a 1 page maximum, I just cut out all irellevant parts depending on the job

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u/squidgod2000 24d ago

Unless you're applying for a government job (US). In that case, you damn well better list everything you've ever done in your life, or seen someone else do more than once.

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u/Kanorado99 24d ago

I know a guy in his early 30s. Is stuck at his job he’s very unhappy with. His resume is 8 pages long. When I suggested he might want to trim it down he said that is a terrible idea. His reasoning is that he doesn’t wanna look like he wasted any time. I’m talking this guy has everything in his resume. No joke he included all his high school extra curriculars, high school grades, minimum wage jobs in college, any volunteer work even if it’s just operating a spot light for a theater production. his resume is a literal autobiography of his life. I guarantee you the hiring folks took one look at that resume and were like no way in hell I’m reading all of this