How to dissimulate the gap when excluding a position from your CV

I remember one of my first jobs as a freelancer.

I’d opted for a freelance career the previous year. Although I had succeeded in my first project, I couldn’t get another long assignment until I landed this client. Only after 2 months there, I called my boss and told her: “That was enough for me. I’ll be here until you get someone else, but I don’t want to continue.”

That client was a terrible experience. I couldn’t fit into the company’s mentality, I didn’t understand the processes, and most importantly, I was not enjoying my job.

That was my worst job experience, and although many people don’t share my opinion, I have good reasons to exclude it from my CV.

When to exclude a job from your CV

We all have had some experiences we prefer not to share or, at least, share at the right time.

I’m not saying I would deny or avoid my responsibility. I have no problems talking about it, even during an interview. But I prefer it’s not part of my presentation card.

Bad or short experiences are just a few examples of positions you may want to cut out.

You may also opt to exclude any position that happened long ago or is unrelated to the one you are applying for. For example, before working in IT, I used to work as a scorer in volleyball matches (yes, the ones that keep track of the players, score, and sign the match card). Do you think it would be any good if I added that experience when seeking a project manager role?

Ok, that’s an extreme example. But how would you know when it’s better to exclude a position?

The answer is simple: You should exclude a position if it doesn’t tell the reader how you will help them.

To understand this point, we need to consider the CV’s objective.

The main objective of your CV is to show the reader how you will contribute to the company’s goals. Far from talking about your experience and listing everything you did, you should highlight how you can apply those experiences and skills to solve their problems. Anything that doesn’t fall under that category is not worth detailing.

In other words, there is no reason to add an experience where you didn’t do anything remarkable and compelling to your potential client.

I know what you are thinking: “But if I skip a position, I’ll create a gap.”

What about “The gap.”

Most people’s CVs follow the same (boring) format.

They contain 3 sections:

• Contact information
• Education
• Professional Experience

For experienced workers (somewhat above 5 years or companies), the Professional Experience is the most important part of their CVs. So, they spend most of the time and space here. They list every job position in reverse chronological order using this fixed format:

• Period
• Company
• Position
• Activities/Responsibilities

If your CV is like that, Congratulations! You are a “normal” job seeker. While I wouldn’t say it’s wrong, following that format won’t make you stand out. However, 1 thing will jump to the reader’s view: The gap between jobs.

The reader can’t help but identify that you missed 3 months between the end of a position and the beginning of the next one (as if it were relevant).

Let me be clear here. I don’t see any problem with having a gap. However, I recognize that a conventional CV shifts unnecessary attention to it. Even I (who doesn’t care) would ask about it just out of curiosity.

Although the answer is simple (” I had a short experience from which I didn’t get much worth mentioning or that could contribute to your company”), I prefer to avoid that gap by creating a “different CV.”

My strategy is to give each experience the place it deserves according to what I’m looking for.

This means that I don’t detail every position I occupied, nor the job title or exact beginning and end dates. The place that each position takes on the sheet is proportional to their relevance to the role I’m applying for. That way, I can even list the company where I had that bad experience but add no information.

As I do this with many positions, it is not on the spot. On the opposite, the experiences I list are on the spot.

This is an example of what I’m talking about:

Notice the following items:

• The dates on each company are vague (only the years)
• The clients are grouped on each consultancy, but you don’t know when I worked on each project.
• There is a position (1 year) that is missing between the first and second companies. You can see that I end the first column saying that the customer hired me, but there is no mention of it later. I could have avoided the name of the client to make it better.
• The middle column (6 years) contains fewer highlights than the last (4 years).

Needless to say, I never received any questions about gaps when I presented the above CV, but I did receive some congratulations.

Conclusion

I believe your CV should only include skills and experiences that make you more attractive to the prospect.

There is no need to list every experience you had. That’s a bad choice because you will drive more attention to the gap, and the relevant experiences won’t receive the place they deserve. Every position seems to be equally relevant.

I address those problems by emphasizing my skills and career highlights that are more related to the position I’m applying for.