CV tips. Couple of short roles ….

Hi all.
I’m just looking at rewriting my CV as it’s a bit long to be fair.

I’ve had a couple of roles over the past 3 years where I was only there for periods of 3 months before leaving.

should I leave these on my CV or take them off. I don’t feel they add any real value but if removed would give gaps in the timeline.

Any helpful tips on writing a CV that grabs the recruiters attention.

thanks

Steve.

I’d leave them off.

Kinda depends on what they were and why you left. If they were fixed contract or filler jobs I’d add them as one liners to show work ethic, if they were failed career roles I’d maybe leave the latest one and forget about the others. Either way you will be asked about either the blank or the rapid exits. Make sure you have a rehearsed explanation and keep it as close to the truth as possible.

did you have any meaningful achievements in those roles? Learn any useful skills? If not then skip them.

a list of roles and their responsibilities leads to the bin. Some significant achievements and skills acquired on the other hand…

If they’re relevant to the new role, leave them on.

I wouldn’t lose any sleep over CV gaps unless I was 20.

I wouldn’t question any three month gaps.  Leave them out unless they demonstrate experience in the role you are applying for but even then, 3 months isn’t much experience so I doubt they’d help much. I suppose if you were after an Internet trading business job and you’d spent 3 months shadowing Jeff Bezos then maybe worth putting it in!  If it’s just a generic CV you are creating and you are needing to trim it down a bit then leave them out and for the other roles just put “xxx at yyy company – 18 months”  or whatever duration you were there so no actual start and end dates. No one is likely to say “Can you tell me exactly which 18 months you were at yyy company”.

No one is likely to say “Can you tell me exactly which 18 months you were at yyy company”.

A number of financial services companies or their recruiters may want/need to know that, so I guess it really depends what industries you are applying for roles in.

I worked at a pharmaceutical company and had to do a dbs listing out employment going back several years.

I did contract work from 2008-2010, with a mix of roles and gaps. My cv lists that period as “Contract Assignments” and lists the companies where I contracted as there’s a few recognised names in there.