I was recently hired at a company and began training. However, three days into the job several of us were informed that due to production delays, there weren’t enough projects to put all the new hires on, so our training wouldn’t be completed.
I have been paid for the three days I was trained, so I was in their records and this check will be included in my tax return next year, and I have no doubt that a background check would include this. Still, I didn’t get the chance to do anything in the job and advertising the experience on a resume seems like it would raise more awkward questions than inspire confidence in me. Should I bother putting these three days on my resume?
This would not be something to add to your resume. It’s addition would just require a long explanation that would result in nothing but a waste of time for the next company interviewing you.
I agree. There is no reason to clutter up your resume with a 3-day training period. If you happened to really learn something new during the 3 days (like how to operate a piece of machinery, computer software, a switchboard, etc.) which may be otherwise useful, you can include the knowledge in the “skills” section of your resume.
Don’t mention it. No matter how you put it or the other company puts it, any company which interviews you will think you were fired after 3 days. Some companies will bring on more people than they need and keep the ones they like best. It sucks, but so do most companies.
Not unless you’re applying for a job with a security clearance. A lot of clearances require you to list every job you’ve ever had, and it can delay your approval if you’ve left anything out.
(I realize this isn’t a problem for 99% of jobs, but living in D.C. skews one’s viewpoint about what is and isn’t normal.)
Having just filled out a security clearance request, I can speak to this. Generally, they only have heartburn if the gap in jobs is more than a couple of weeks.
I would ask yourself “Would a potential employer like to know this? Would it impress them.”
For instance, if this was an acheivement in itself (“On 3rd Jun, 2003 I was elected POTUS. However, due to health reasons, only a few days later…”), if it filled a (mid-long) gap in your resumé (“So, what did you do in the threse months? Prison?”), taught you something useful, possibly was with the company in question, then go ahead.
In this case, I think I concur with your gut feeling, that while painful, it has to be cut. Sorry.
I would say not on the resume, but yes on an application. On an application there is probably some wording to the effect that you are signing a promise to provide complete and correct information. Check for that, because if it comes out and you didn’t provide it, with wording on the application, it will reflect very badly.
A resume, on the other hand, is a sales tool. There’s no way the 3 days is going to help you from a sales perspective.
I’ve had experience with this. Years ago I was applying for a security clearance. I thought I had applied completely and thoroughly. But a few months later an invesetigator called to ask why I hadn’t included my job as a tour guide at by undergraduate college.
This “job” took about one hour per week, and paid me maybe $5 per week. I took it because I liked to show prospective parents and students around the campus, not because I thought it was a real job. No wonder I had forgotten about it! But the government somehow found out about it, and complained.