I lost my job as a Software Engineer some time ago - I got my notice at the end of June. After taking a well deserved break, I have started looking for a new job. Well, I found a reasonable match on LinkedIn last Friday, and applied immediately. And there soon were good news: on Friday evening I got a reply inviting me to an interview next Tuesday.
Well, all good, you might think. But then I realized that the CV I sent had not been updated - it had the right skills, but I didn’t put in that employment at my previous job was finished. I also realized that I forgot to update my LinkedIn status to show that that job had finished. So these people think I’m a currently employed person - which I’m not. That makes a big difference when applying for jobs in the IT world. People that lost their jobs are seen as much less desirable - There must be some reason these guys were let go, right? the reasoning usually goes.
And now what could I do? Send a message to the interviewer and say “Whoops, wrong CV?” I’m quite concerned it will look like I am messing with them, or trying to make the fact that I am unemployed less noticeable. On the other side, if I don’t let them know, the suspicion that I am covering up my current status could be only worse.
So, any suggestion?
I would not contact them just for this- but I’d mention it right away at the interview or if they contact me for any reason.
Definitely not. You can bring it up in the interview if it fits- or just hand them an updated resume at the interview.
I can’t speak to how the concerns you are raising would impact the decision, since I’m in a slightly different field…but wanted to give another angle.
In my company, we do a series of one on one interviews. We get the candidate’s resume in advance. I go through it, highlight items I think are interesting and that I want to talk about. Maybe check a few things out. Maybe research some terms if I’m not familiar with them.
I really don’t like it when the candidate shows up and hands me a different resume. To me, it shows a level of disorganization. Might not be as big a deal in your case (for this point, at least) if you’re just updating from “in progress” to “done” for a job.
Good luck in either case!
+1
The interviewer is there to look for reasons to shoot you down; if they do it fast enough, they get to take a long lunch. Why would you hand them more ammo? Be forth coming in the interview if it comes up.
Why bring it up? To avoid them bringing it up, and saying (or thinking) Were you trying to fool us, or what?
A question on the lines of “Why are you thinking of leaving your current job?” always, and I mean, always comes up in the IT world. If I say “I’m actually already out of that job”, I could risk raising a flag.