Okay, so I’m now in my mid-40s…and have worked since college in large companies up to the level of National Manager of Sales. I quit, started my own company, and sold it for millions (a couple). Then I took like 7 years off. DUMB DUMB DUMB. :smack: Okay, now the money is running out, and I really should get a job. BUT…that 7 year thing is daunting (at least in my head). Any thoughts out there on
1- how bad would it be to simply tell the truth that I took a mini-retirement?
2- ways to fudge what I was doing during that time (internet business? consulting?)
3- how bad will employers take the gap, assuming they are swamped with resume
s?
Any recruiters out there that may have some opinions? Thanks!!!
The General Questions forum is for questions with factual answers. Since this is looking more for opinions and advice, it belongs in our IMHO forum. I will move the thread for you.
Moving thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion.
Why not start the co up again- because that industry pretty much died and is not even profitable anymore.
Why not start up another company- yes, I should do that…to be truthful, I should have done that years ago. The issue in starting a business up is that- 1. you need money (I have some…but it’s getting dicey). 2- you can’t expect to make a profit and pay yourself for at least 6-9 months…usually more like 1 year. So, screwing around and waiting has been a bad idea.
To tell the truth “I started a business and failed” looks pretty good on a resume. So “I started a business that succeeded, sold it for millions, and sailed my yacht for most of the last decade” probably makes you a shoe-in with upper management. Don’t sell yourself short. You’re not looking for a sales or technician job. You were a CEO (or president or whatever). Aim for an executive position somewhere and you’ll probably get it.
And you don’t even have to make a chronological resume. Just list the skills you obtained while running your business, the goals you accomplished, with specific numbers. (“I made my company X million dollars by doing Y” that sort of thing.) No need to list dates. That avoids the whole “employment gap” issue.
I would make sure it doesn’t look like you were bad with your money (if you can’t manage your money, why would they trust you with theirs?) but rather about wanting to get back in the game.
I’d go with this. Although my first question is what “game” you want to get back into. Are you looking for something in sales or a more industry specific management job?
Although, I’m wondering as a National Manager of Sales for a large company and former business owner, why submit your resume online to some middle manager job like every other jerk? I’m sure you must have a lot of contacts, even if you haven’t seen them in 7 years. Start reaching out to them and talk about maybe doing some sort of consulting work.
Yup. “After I sold my company for 2 million dollars, I thought I would enjoy an early retirement. At first it was great, but then I felt like I was missing out on the opportunity to be really innovative in the field again. I see things like X and think that they represent a lot of promise, especially if someone does Y to them like you intend to. I’d really like to be part of something big again so I’m hoping to return to doing Z…”
I’m not a recruiter, but I think this would be pretty hard to work around. The way I see it, you blew all your money in your 30’s, usually that’s more the kind of thing 20 somethings do. And you did it all in the years of global financial turmoil, so the lack of foresight and planning is pretty extreme in your case. The other thing I think a hiring person might be wondering is why at your age you have no network to call upon (this would apply if you are just responding to openings you see where you do not know anyone at the company). I think those would be tough to overcome.
Jobs are hard to get and good jobs are almost impossible to get. Yes, the figures on unemployment skew as lower, but some employment opportunities are just scams to bilk the government out of services to people thatthe company should be responsible for.
I’m not sure how to answer your question, because no one who hires tells the truth. (The next time you are at an interview, count how many times the interviewers eyes shift left and during which questions they shift left.)
Don’t get me wrong, interviewing is always a shot, but the two prevailing things they are looking for (but won’t say) is Age, and how far they can low-ball your salary.
For your sake, I sure hope you look 22 and aren’t a guy.
Let me just say this before I’m off to watch the ND v FSU game…you guys rock. Really appreciate the thought you put into the responses. I’ll give it some more thought. Goes to show…many heads are usually better than one.
Which tells you nothing, unless you already have ruled out definitely that they are not left-handed, or acquired language skills on both sides of their brain, or on the ASD spectrum and just avoiding eye contact at that time in whatever direction, just a very visually inclined person, or simply thinking about something else. Even then, trying to focus on that will make it hard to focus on the actual conversation. This stuff might - might- work when viewing an interaction on tape, and having beforehand ruled out many other explanations besides lying, but is very hard to do live.
Recruiters are typically a terrible source of job leads unless you are, in fact, a 20 or 30 something looking to do the same commodity (as in the same, generic, one-size fits all) job you’ve already been doing for the past 5 years. They aren’t going to do your job search for you.
The more problematic issue is that the OP has a 7 year gap in his employment. It’s a tough sell to say you rose to a senior level position in your company, broke off and started your own successful business (which you sold for a profit) but then haven’t done anything since. Companies tend to look for “passionate” types who would keep working at their chosen profession, even if they didn’t have to.
