I would do both now that I know it’s part of the process.
It’s easy to explain a newly minted facebook page. It’s something that you finally had the time to engage in. You took a little bit of free time to catch up on your friends and do some networking. Which would be true in my case.
All of this has been my experience, too. I joined Facebook pretty early on, though I haven’t used it that much. Still, very early on I also i realized that I should have two accounts, (one with no profile picture), so that I could have a public, “professional” one just for networking, that basically just re-posts work-related topics. (It’s obvious to any HR manager that it’s not going to reveal anything personal about me.) I’ve never had anyone in hiring make a friend request, though, so either way they’re not gong to see much.
I have to occasionally post to Facebook for work, so I have a profile I created specifically for that purpose. I don’t use it for anything else. I have another personal page that I keep for IRL friends, people I volunteer for a specific cause with, and family.
I remember one of my old high school friends making the mistake of adding some of his work colleagues to his one and only FB page, and apparently someone there didn’t like some of the stuff he posted and they tattled on him to the boss. He had to delete his profile, which is sad because that means the rest of us don’t get to interact with him anymore. It’s really important to keep those worlds separate.
OK, next (somewhat related) question:
I’m applying for a restaurant position (cook, server, whatever at this point) and I DO have 5-6 years of relevant experience, but that was 5 jobs ago; I’m sure I could mention this in a cover letter, but many applications for these positions don’t ask or allow cover letters. How do I handle this? Do I just list normally, or do I list “relevant experience” somehow?
I would list whatever relevant experience you have and the dates on the application. Once you get to the interview, you can put your experience in context. Good luck!
It is pretty common nowadays to substitute the traditional cover letter for one really long summary sentence at the top of your resume, right after your name. “Experienced, motivated culinary professional seeks exciting challenges for growth” or some bullshit like that.
Another idea might be - if your past 5 jobs were shoveling coal, but some of them were only 2-3 months long… you could consider just leaving those off so there are fewer irrelevant jobs to read through. Rule of thumb is that gaps of less than 6 months are OK, though I wouldn’t push it.
I also trim off the entire first 5 years of my job history because it’s not relevant to my field and it makes me look old.
This is not foolproof… anybody with half a brain can do the math and ask questions - but most companies are too lazy to do a full colonoscopy, and these things are easier to explain in person.
There is life after being fired. I was fired for not doing my job (outside sales) . That was some uncomfortable discussions when interviewing. I basically told them I made a mistake, I learned my lesson, and would not let it happen again. I worked some crap jobs for awhile until I could build up my resume again. Because I kept getting laid off (last in, first out) I delivered pizza for several years to supplement my income and included that. When asked why I included that, I said to show that despite some rocky history I was able to keep a job for several years, that I was dependable, and did my job (hence had learned my lesson). I have been with my current job 11 years, and have been promoted twice. My previous job I was there for 8 years until they went out of business.
This is a great idea.
I remember a guy at work who previously had been a “consultant” on programs like DBase III and RBase. He claimed to have helped setup databases and spreadsheets for clients in the early 90’s.
How much client work did he actually do? I have no idea and I don’t think my employer did either.
It was impressive enough to get him hired in the Controllers office doing similar work. He was mostly a suit that had some tech skills.
Uh-huh. Sure.
Don’t bother responding as I’m not going to derail Cuckoorex’s thread anymore.
It is a completely normal thing in business. You have a small home business that you open and close between jobs. Web design, IT consulting, Freelance writing. Management consulting. Project Management. One of my former coworkers in IT has one doing general contracting - remodeling and such. You may or may not have many (or any) clients, but it fills out a gap in the resume and enables you to make a little extra cash as a side hustle. Incorporating is cheap. I’d think someone who DIDN’T have that - in my line of business (IT Developers) was short sighted and allowed gaps in their resume which doesn’t show great planning for contingencies.
The technical interview screens out the posers. And with IT Developers, if you can do the job, I don’t really care if you learned it working a job or in your free time - you can code.
My current business - which I work at part time and make a pretty good full time income - started as a between jobs sort of thing.
Right–a lot of the generalizations being made in this thread may apply to some career areas but not to others.
Just as a case in point for the OP: Probably the majority of people who work in drug and alcohol counseling are in fact people in recovery, who have had exactly the kind of experiences as the OP describes. In that area, having been fired for drinking on the job in the past would not be an issue to deny employment, providing the candidate is clearly in stable recovery now.