Careers advice: Ask Jeremy

• I don’t want to look too flighty on my résumé • Is it OK to admit a mistake in taking a job? At the start of each week, we publish the problems that will feature in this Saturday’s Dear Jeremy advice column in the Guardian Work supplement, so readers can offer their own advice and suggestions. We then print the best of your comments alongside Jeremy’s own insights. Here are this week’s dilemmas – what are your thoughts? Problem one: I don’t want to look too flighty on my résumé I joined my current employer as a temp for a month in April 2007. I then left for six months because I got what was (at the time) my dream job in a small advertising agency. This was a major change in career direction for me, but they were unwilling to take me on permanently. I came back to my current employer in December 2007, left again in August 2008 for three months to try advertising once again, but that didn’t work out either. So I came back in December 2008 and have been at the company ever since. I am working on contract on a specific project, which is soon to end. I have been promoted twice and am a valued member of the team with excellent performance appraisals. I enjoy working here and there may be a permanent role in the offing, but I am not sure if it will be one that will interest me. I have spent some time analysing what went wrong with my abortive career change and the feedback I was given (I wasn’t the right personality or skills fit with their existing teams). I have realised I should focus on larger, more structured companies and look for roles where my enthusiasm for improving systems and processes is useful (rather than the possibly threatening way it was seen in smaller, more staid companies). I also think that advertising was too much of a change whereas something midway between my old career and new ambitions would make a lot more sense. My current role is a step in that direction as it is based in a large media organisation. Prior to this I spent three years working for one employer and seven years working for another, so overall my career has been quite stable. How do I present this history accurately and honestly in a résumé so I don’t look like I have something to hide but equally, potential employers won’t see me as someone likely to leave. Should I drop the second three-month stint in advertising and just explain (if I get an interview) that there was a short gap in the middle of my most recent employment? Problem two: Is it OK to admit a mistake in taking a job? I got a new job six months ago, but it’s not working out for lots of reasons. Should I take something temporary to save my rapidly disappearing sanity, or hold out for something more permanent? I have started applying for jobs and have been offered a six-month contract at my last employer (they’d love to have me back) which could turn permanent, although there is no guarantee of this. Do I take the temporary job to get out and apply for other roles? Or do I stick with what I have – despite being miserable to the point of crying every day – and wait for something permanent? Will a prospective employer see my decision to move for what it is – a bad fit – or think I am fickle? I can’t leave with no job because I have a mortgage to pay. What are your thoughts? • For Jeremy’s and readers’ advice on a work issue, send a brief email to dear.jeremy@guardian.co.uk . Please note that he is unable to answer questions of a legal nature or reply personally Work & careers Graham Snowdon guardian.co.uk

Posted by on March 28, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.