Leaving gigs out of your CV

[Eirikur]

Now 5 weeks into my current (3 months) gig
Am doing almost nothing at all and am totally bored
Started sending out my CV without mentioning my current gig.
Left two other relatively short duration gigs out in the past as well.
Would you put a gig in your cv if you haven't done anything at all that contributes to your relevant experience?

Thought it might give me troubles when they do security checks, but it doesn't as it is often 3d partie doing the checks and I do mention the gigs left out of the CV for the checks and no one ever came back to me to say there's a discrepancy with my cv

[northernladuk]

I would. If you are bored then go look for people to speak to to learn from them. Find out how your gig should have worked out and what skills you should have used. Understand the situation as if you would have applied your skills and then put them down on your CV.

At the very worst put down the skills you should have been implementing but be careful about getting caught out when questioned about it. A decent interviewer should be able to spot the difference between something you actually did or something you think should have been done.

It's not just security checks that will come back and bite you. Some financial checks can go in to enough detail to catch you out as well. I've seen people walked off site for lying on their CV and getting caught by a financial check.

A disconnect between your CV and linkedin, giving an agent as a reference that doesn't exist on your CV and chatting to the client and mentioning it when they didn't see it on your CV will also result in you failing to get gigs as well.

If you are bored try some online English courses

[craig1]

My CV has about half of my contracts on it, the other half aren't relevant for the work I'm after in my generic search. If I'm applying for a job that they'd be relevant for then I'll add them and remove others. Quality over quantity. I have a covering line that it's a sample of my contracts completed, reducing wasted text and increasing relevance.

[SueEllen]

I watched a CV webinar once.

There is a way of writing your CV where you list in full only the information and skills relevant for the role but on the last page or so list all the companies you've done some work for. That way if you end up in a role where they need to do a background check you can't be walked off-site for lying as you provided the full information.

The only problem with the CV design is that most recruitment consultants are thick so don't and won't understand it if they bother to read your CV. So you have to be prepared to take a CV to interview/initial client meeting at all times to leave with them.

[NickNick]

If you consider a CV as a marketing tool for your business then leaving out irrelevant contracts makes sense. After all, you want to highlight the stuff that they are really interested in and present your business in the best way possible.

[northernladuk]

If you consider a CV as a marketing tool for your business then leaving out irrelevant contracts makes sense. After all, you want to highlight the stuff that they are really interested in and present your business in the best way possible.

Interesting view on it and would be great if we could get to that level. Problem is you have to think about your audience. The permies you are giving it to won't be used to that outlook and a CV with missing details will ring bells. If you don't mind this risk there are merits to this suggestion.

[Eirikur]

If you consider a CV as a marketing tool for your business then leaving out irrelevant contracts makes sense. After all, you want to highlight the stuff that they are really interested in and present your business in the best way possible.

Was thinking along those lines as well.
You wouldn't ask a decorator for a list of all his jobs, just one or two examples or references and you take him on (or not)
Or bigger companies, they only put their success stories on their website not the failed or uninteresting ones

Interesting view on it and would be great if we could get to that level. Problem is you have to think about your audience. The permies you are giving it to won't be used to that outlook and a CV with missing details will ring bells. If you don't mind this risk there are merits to this suggestion.

Yes also true

[psychocandy]

Im getting same problem now. CV goes back 20+ years. Multitude of perm/contracts on there.

Even though some of them quite good, of course, no-one gives a monkeys more than 2-3 years ago. Takes up a fair bit of space even just listing with dates.