26

I started the job as a Java Software Engineer in 09-2022. I worked until the end of 04-2023. Then I took a vacation lasting 3 months, until the beginning of 08-2023. Just after I came back to the workplace, my boss told me I'm fired. Because of the law, the construction of the agreement, and notice period of 1 month, the end of the job relation is the end of 09-2023 and it is written so in the agreement termination. However, I'm not providing any services at all until the termination date.

What month should I use as the end of the job period in my cv and sites like LinkedIn? As of the middle of 08-2023, it's still current job on LinkedIn without any end date right now as I didn't expect such an outcome. Should I use 04-2023 or 09-2023 as the end date of the job period?

Improve this question
10
  • 2
    similar case here, but only 3 months, not 5: workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/113560/…
    – banan314
    Commented Aug 17, 2023 at 19:33
  • 6
    Use your free time from now till 9-2023 to search for a new job.
    – Job_September_2020
    Commented Aug 17, 2023 at 22:05
  • Were they very generous in giving you 3 months of vacations, or did they let you gracely took holidays because there was not enough work?
    – EarlGrey
    Commented Aug 18, 2023 at 11:07
  • 2
    @banan314 Wait, so you weren't actually an employee of the company but a contractor? That's a much more important difference than whether you left a few months earlier or later. At least in several EU countries, a setup with a contractor who mostly pretends to be an employee is borderline/outright illegal (because otherwise it would be a simple way to dodge all sorts of labour laws and possibly even evade taxes).
    – TooTea
    Commented Aug 18, 2023 at 21:54
  • 1
    @MarkMorganLloyd 1y9m of relevant experience prior the job, so it would be either 2y5m or 2y10m after the most recent position. So it might be a difference of 2 years vs. 3 years in the future, might or might not be significant depending on the view
    – banan314
    Commented Aug 19, 2023 at 16:01

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
81

Your employment continues, in a legal and financial sense, until September 2023 and so that's the date you should use for your CV. It's also the date that your former employer will confirm if contacted for a reference.

Employment gaps look bad on a CV so there's no reason to prefer the shorter date anyway, even if there were a way to justify it.

Improve this answer
13
  • 22
    Employment gaps looking bad is subjective. To me they look like someone enjoys time off between work. Travelling maybe, or having a family
    – Craig
    Commented Aug 18, 2023 at 0:46
  • 4
    Another way to think about it is if someone wants to know how many months you worked somewhere. If you were employed for 12 months and took 1 month off, nobody would say you'd only been employed for 11 months, regardless of when the month off happened.
    – l0b0
    Commented Aug 18, 2023 at 1:00
  • 24
    @Craig I doubt that many interviewers, whose job in the process is to find the person(s) likely to help the company most, share your positive view of "enjoys time off and spending time with family" as a character trait.
    – xLeitix
    Commented Aug 18, 2023 at 7:49
  • 13
    @Craig I understand what you're trying to say, but from the perspective of giving someone advice on writing a competitive CV, I don't think 'deliberately try to add employment gaps' is particularly helpful.
    – Dakeyras
    Commented Aug 18, 2023 at 11:07
  • 5
    At least the part of the world i'm in, employment gaps only look bad to people who missed the last, say 5 years, of developments in the job market. Of course it might come up during an interview, but it isn't any form of no go anymore, like it was a couple of years ago. Honestly, i wouldn't want to work for employers who sort me out due to "evil employment gaps" anyway. Indicative of toxic hustle culture.
    – user112367
    Commented Aug 18, 2023 at 11:21

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .