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My first role was for 5 years, and unrelated to my current role.

I left the role under bad terms with management.

Since then I have 7+ years of experience working in other roles more relevant to the role I’m doing now.

Could I leave my first job off my CV?

bobo2000
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    Does this answer your question? Irrelevant jobs vs long employment gap – gnat Oct 20 '22 at 05:10
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    Please add a country tag. You got two completely opposite answers and both are correct... in their respective countries and cultures. If you don't add a country tag for your question, the answers will be worthless and basically only show you a count of how many voters are from the respective countries. – nvoigt Oct 20 '22 at 05:34
  • If the job isn’t relevant and you wouldn’t be using the skills from that job and more importantly not using the company as a reference there probably isn’t any harm leaving it off. But there isn’t really anyone who will check your math, unless you work in a country where they do, which goes back to the comments about needing a country tag – Donald Oct 20 '22 at 10:54

5 Answers5

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I would not leave it off.

The expectation is that the resume covers your entire adult life, regardless of whether it's relevant to the current job or not. A 5 year gap is likely to raise attention. It looks like you have something to hide and you are going to be asked about it.

It's much better to mention it with a one liner. You will get way more questions about a 5 year gap than about an irrelevant job.

Hilmar
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  • A resume is supposed to cover one's entire adult life? That's news to me, I thought it was supposed to be tailored to the job being applied for. I guess I better put my dozen or so fast food and retail experiences alongside my research engineer and scientist roles. – electronpusher Oct 20 '22 at 15:58
  • The tailored part goes into the cover letter. If you spent 5 years flipping burgers for a living that this should indeed be in your resume. – Hilmar Oct 20 '22 at 17:08
  • What about part-time jobs? And would you recommend a resume be one page of relevant experience or two pages with additional lower-skill experiences? – electronpusher Oct 20 '22 at 18:16
  • @electronpusher: unless necessary for background checks or show useful experience or abilities, side jobs can be left off. A continuous job history is somewhat expected, gaps are more problematic than a premature end to the history (ie 30 year job history, but only show the last 10, vs 15 year job history with a 3 year gap, gap is more concerning). – jmoreno Oct 21 '22 at 02:54
  • I would argue against "resume is supposed to cover one's entire adult life". When I read resumes I neither interested in jobs that one did 10 years ago nor I am interested in unrelated experience. When the OP has 7+ years of related experience in their resume, then I would not add the previous 5 years of unrelated experience because they add no value at all and only make the resume longer. – spickermann Oct 21 '22 at 05:03
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You can leave it off - few people are interested in jobs you had more than seven years ago. You can also just mention it: 2010 to 2015 - did ABC at company XYZ. If it's not related to your current job, nobody is going to bother. That way nobody will ask you what you did in the five years from leaving school to getting your first job, for example.

And if that company were asked for a reference (unlikely) and the mysterious and unknown location where you are happens to be somewhere in the USA, the reference will state that you worked there from 2010 to 2015 and nothing else, if they know what's good for them - anything bad in the reference can get them sued.

gnasher729
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The 'correct' answer really depends on the expectations in your country and Culture.

In some areas, it is expected to include all employment, even if it's irrelevant to your current role. In which case, I would list it but not waste time with details.

In other areas, there is less expectation to include absolutely everything. For example, my Sysadmin employer probably doesn't care that I was a Pizza Delivery driver in high-school.

In which case, listing the last 10 years or last roles that are relevant to the position is acceptable.

I'm of the opinion that the 'rule' of a CV containing all of your employment history is probably more a relic of previous eras when there was less job switching, whereas nowadays, it's not uncommon to have people who rotate employers ever 3-5 years.

TheDemonLord
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Could I leave my first job off my CV?

Yes, you could. There is no requirement to include everything on a CV/resume. You can leave anything off that you prefer.

Be prepared if you are asked what you did for that period of time during an interview or after a background check. Don't lie.

Joe Strazzere
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Leave it off.

I think keeping your resume to 1-2 pages is super important, so I inevitably have to make edits on my own at this point in my career. I'd rather save space for relevant highlights from the most recent jobs I've had.

Not a single soul has ever asked me about these phantom roles. I've touched on them briefly when pulling for a little extra context, but that's it. And nobody seemed to bat an eye when I did so.

I'm in the USA, since others have said the country makes a difference.

Eee
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