SINGAPORE: A Singaporean jobseeker who has spent six months looking for work is questioning whether a three-month stint on his CV could be costing him job opportunities after interviewers repeatedly challenged him over why he left so soon.
The jobseeker took to the r/singaporejobs forum on Thursday (Aug 3), saying he was left “pretty shocked and demoralised” by some of the questions he had received during interviews.
Why he left the role
The man explained that he graduated from polytechnic with a business qualification last year but decided to pursue a different career in the social service sector.
However, although he landed a job fairly quickly, his lack of knowledge and experience in the field soon became a major issue at the organisation.
He said he took longer to pick things up compared with colleagues who already had experience in the sector, and the organisation eventually decided not to confirm him after his three-month probation period.
He left after just three months.
Should I remove it?
The man wrote that the three-month stint has continued to haunt him in his job search. He said explaining his departure has become one of the more difficult parts of his interviews.
“I’ve been struggling to answer why I left the company from interviewers. I always say it was because I wanted to explore a different part of the sector, but some were pretty blunt, asking, ‘Isn’t 3 months too short to decide that?’”
“Some even asked, ‘Why did your previous company even hire you if you had no experience? I’m just pretty shocked and left demoralised after all these questions.”
After facing repeated questions about the short stint, he began to wonder whether the simplest solution would be to remove the role from his CV altogether.
However, that would come with its own set of problems.
For one, the job is currently his only experience in the sector he hopes to pursue. Removing it would mean having no relevant work experience to show prospective employers, whereas keeping it on his CV at least demonstrates that he has had some exposure to the field.
There is also another reason he is reluctant to leave it out.
The man said he was accepted into a part-time degree programme at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) partly because he met the requirement of being employed by his previous company. If he removed the job from his resume, he worried that recruiters might question how he had managed to qualify for the programme.
With six months of job hunting behind him and no clear answer on whether the short stint is helping or hurting his applications, he turned to fellow Redditors for advice.
“What should I do? I have been struggling for 6 months… is it because I left this company on my resume? Should I remove it? Or find a way to tackle the interview questions?”
‘It’s a deadweight’
In the thread, one Singaporean Redditor advised the post author that if he couldn’t figure out how to answer uncomfortable questions about his last job, then it might be better if he left it out of his resume.
Another agreed with this point, saying, “Remove that job from your resume. Better to be a fresh poly grad than someone who failed probation in the eyes of HR who is looking at your resume. Also, HR does not know what the requirements are of SUSS – I’ve always had to explain my part-time school to HR when they could easily just Google.”
A third wrote, “I don’t get it, your 3 months of failed probation isn’t substantial experience. If anything, it’s deadweight when you have to answer for it. Why give them room to probe and jeopardise yourself? Go out as a fresher.”
Others also reassured him that the “3-month gap” would not have much of an impact. If potential employers asked about it, they suggested he could simply explain that he took a break after graduation before starting his job search.
When to omit a short stint
Career experts say job candidates may be better off leaving a short stint off their resume if they stayed in the role for less than six months, made no significant or relevant achievements, or if the position was in a completely different industry or line of work.
The same advice applies to roles held a long time ago, particularly if they no longer add value to the candidate’s current career profile.
Experts also recommend leaving off jobs where the candidate was fired or left on bad terms, as including them could invite unnecessary questions during an interview.
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