Can I intentionally omit previous work experience or pretend it doesn't exist when applying for jobs?

Question

I had my first job at a manufacturing company when I was fresh out of university, and worked there for 2 months. I then left due to health reasons and didn't look for work for another 3 months, as I was reviewing my engineering certification examination.

I started a second job in January of this year at a different manufacturing company. However, as I was desperate to land the role, I didn't declare my past experience when I applied, and told them that I never had experience before and was basically just a fresh graduate. Unfortunately, I was busted by an old colleague and the company found out, and as a result of my lie I was forced to resign in May.

I've been looking for another job since then but I am having a very hard time landing one. I am considering omitting one of these two jobs, more specifically the very first one, as I didn't receive any certificate of employment during my leave there and I was only there for two months.

My question is, is it possible to omit this on the job application form? Will this ever be found out under normal circumstances? (I believe the previous case is an outlier)?

I am also thinking of completely wiping out my work history and describe myself as fresh graduate again. I only have a total of 6 and a half months for these two roles. What's the best course of action to get back into work?

Answer 1

There are two things here:

1. Not listing an employment on the resume. As Twyx said, depending on the wording, this may not be an issue at all.
2. Saying on your application letter and in interviews that you have never had any experience after college. This is the big one, because this is an actual lie.

If you do choose to omit one or more employers, that's one thing. But you can't lie to your employer. If it should come up, tell them honestly that you did have a job but since you only stayed a couple of months you didn't feel that you gained enough experience for it to be worth mentioning.

Again, not mentioning a job on a resumé is not lying. But outright stating that you had never worked after college, when you actually had, that is a lie.

Answer 2

This depends on how the job application is worded. If it says Relevant experience or skills then you could potentially leave it out if you wish to have less working experience in your application.

If the application states something along the lines of "List all previous jobs", then you must list previous jobs just to avoid what happened in your second job. It's not worth lying then getting fired further down the line.

Answer 3

You should select those experiences that best demonstrate your capabilities on your resume - it's okay to leave some jobs or roles out.

However, be sure your employment history is continuous - employers want to see that you've been constantly employed or in school, with perhaps small (<3mo) breaks between jobs. Long stretches of (apparent) unemployment are a red flag and need to be explained.

As an alternative to omitting a job on your resume, you can:

1. Lump several roles into one, even if at different companies. E.g., "Machinist, Company A, Company B, Company C, 2010-2015".
2. Don't offer a reference for a past job that you don't want prospective employers to contact.
3. Provide explanation in a cover letter. Your cover letter is for anything that you feel the recruiter and hiring manager should know about your application - it's the right place to describe why a job was very brief or you have a gap in employment.

Good luck with the job search!

Answer 4

You suffered the fallacy of "nondisclosure vs. lying".

There's a fundamental difference between not actively volunteering a fact, and lying about the fact when asked. And by the way, this difference gets people banned from countries or charged with obstruction of justice.

You decided not to disclose the earlier work experience -- and decided that very rigidly, with no flexibility. So when you found yourself backed into a corner of "disclose, or lie", you doubled down on "lie" probably because you thought you had been lying all along, so what's the difference?

Well, you hadn't. There is nothing wrong with nondisclosure. You don't need to make a full and complete accounting of yourself to everyone, in fact, they don't wanna hear it. You get to be strategic about disclosures and there's nothing wrong with this. So you were not lying before.

Of course, people know perfectly well that others sometimes non-disclose, and so they press for more information. For instance, they pressed because they saw a date gap and they wanted to know what the story was. In that case you are obliged to deflect the question, tell them you decline to answer, tell them the truth, or flat-out lie.

I would guess that they discovered the non-disclosure behind the scenes, and had already ascertained the true answer before they even asked you the question. Which means the question was a trap. They wanted to see if you would lie about it.

So, don't disclose what you don't want to, but don't lie.

Answer 5

IF you have done different works that are totally unrelated with the position one is seeking it's normal to omit them, especially if they were done for a short period. If a software developer had to work in a McDonald for six months between software related work, or a cook had to work in a warehouse for three months, these aren't useful work experience for the main one. I think recruiters aren't actually not interested to know all the experiences one has done, and if asked in an interview one could explain that had a short and unrelated work while waiting a better opportunity.

Answer 6

As mentioned by others: in general you can only list relevant jobs, just make sure you are not actually lying about it.

Often this can be avoided with wording, by slipping in things like 'relevant' at the right time.

However, one thing to keep in mind, is that omitting a job will be seen as a lie of omission IF it actually matters for the current job.

Just some examples of when this may happen:

• The company that you are omitting is somehow related to your new company (e.g. resulting in contractual obligations for the new company, like giving you a fixed contract sooner)
• The company that you are omitting has active constraints on you (e.g. a noncompete agreement)
• The company that you are joining requires full disclosure (e.g. for a background/security clearance check)

So in short, do what you can to present yourself favorably, but DO NOT LIE.

Answer 7

It is quite unusual to be fired for not disclosing a past work experience. There is a very thin line between "I've never had any work experience" (which is a lie) and "I've never had any significant work experience", which would be a perfectly fine thing to say. Either the people who interviewed you have a perfect memory, or perhaps you have reiterated your claim about having no work experience whatsoever when confronted, or maybe the colleague who "busted" you had something negative to say about you and your lie (even if only technically so) was a good pretext to fire you without disclosing real reasons.

Of course, you have the right to omit any information you want from your resume if you think that information doesn't make your application stronger. There are things you have to tell about (like criminal record when applying to sensitive roles), but in such cases you will be asked do disclose such information directly.

Next time lean to be elusive without resorting to plain lies. I would expect that the next recruiter you meet will ask you about your previous jobs when they see none in your CV, since there was clearly enough time to find a job since your graduation. You have to find an answer to that question which doesn't volunteer the information you'd rather not disclose, but which is nevertheless truthful. Note that there are direct questions where you can only tell the truth or lie (e.g. "who was your last employer?" or "did you work for X?"), to which you have to answer truthfully.

Answer 8

is it possible to omit this on the job application form?

Yes it is possible to omit without lying depending on questions asked and how you word it. Other answers have covered this well.

Will this ever be found out under normal circumstances? (I believe the previous case is an outlier)?

I do not know why you consider previous case as outlier. In this digital age, people are more connected than ever and there are several ways they can find it out however "normal" circumstances are.

In your comment you mentioned you do not want to put these experiences based on some anonymous advice that bad jobs should not be "worn around the neck". This may be true to some extent but I do not completely agree with this especially if I have been caught and fired lying once before for exactly same reason.

Just try to throw a positive spin to this and mention all the learnings (good and bad) from your experience. Explain why you have left early and how you have become more wiser in selection of companies after one bad experience. Everyone makes mistakes. (If at all this can be called as a 'mistake'). Instead of hiding your mistake, show them you own it and have learnt from it.