Leaving Job Off Resume
Coming out of school I took a tech sales jobs for a year that I hated after striking out recruiting. Now that I have 5 - 6 years of full time experience under my belt at reputable banks I’m considering taking it off of my resume. The job was an absolute joke and I spent the entirety of my time there in a training program so I don’t have any evidence of any impact I made there to use in interviews.
Outside of work, I consulted minority owned small businesses and helped several of them secure multimillion dollar contracts from various sources (mainly personal relationships but also got a few government contracts awarded). Through these experiences I developed strong relationships with the people I worked with and ultimately helped one of them sell their business for $20-$30M to a large conglomerate. Overall, I would say that I spent 20 hours a week on average doing this kind of work while at my tech sales job and did it full time for 6 months after leaving said job before starting at a middle market bank.
That experience played a large part in that bank taking a chance on me and has always been something people find interesting in interviews. My tech sales job on the other hand always seems to confuse people and detracts from my overall story since every other experience on my resume is IB related.
Would it be unethical to take that experience off of my resume?
I would not lie and try to spin the consulting experience as a full time job but would use it to have a much more clean story. Ultimately, I view a resume as a sales document and that you should tailor it to the job you want. Since the consulting experience is related to the work I’m doing now and I have two other banks on my resume with strong work experience I don’t see the harm in leaving that first job off and replacing it. At this stage in the game nobody, is going to hire me because of it and taking it off removes a misstep I made 5 years ago.
bro it aint that deep. just take it off your resume. I've worked many odd jobs in the past but that doesn't mean i am ethically responsible for listing them. If it doesn't align with your current career trajectory then leave it off.
the real issue will be the resume gap rather than the fact you've left it off. you'll likely end up having to discuss the job anyway
I wouldn’t have the gap because I would replace it with the consulting that I did and list out the impact that I had in that role. The sales job was an absolute joke and we were in a classroom for a year being taught like we were in school. There was no client work or anything going on it was just a training program that’s irrelevant to everything I want to do in my career.
I made more impact in the 20 hours a week I spent consulting than I did in my full time job. That makes me feel like listing it as work experience in my resume best encapsulates my experience to this point in my career and would not be unethical.
Examples:
Helped Facilitate Sale of Business for $20 - $30M to a large corporation
Raised $2M for startup at a $15M valuation
Brokered $50M deal between developers and local government to increase development within the inner city where I live
These to me are much more legit in terms of work experience than saying I spent a year at some legacy tech shitco being taught the fundamentals of business in a classroom.
Sounds like you have your answer. Drop the tech sales job and put in the consulting
Agree with other commenters. Also best resume advice I’ve heard is that your resume is a highlight reel, not a background check.
Piling on, you can take it off. But on an employment application you may want to put it on.
have the same issue as you (i.e. 6 years experience).
first job was 9 months in a boutique M&A house and got let go with 0 deal exposure, think when i get back i'll take it off and add more relevant transaction experience.
It's unethical only if you get caught
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