Asking for advice and opinions, but some ranting is sure to occur. Thank you in advance for taking the time to help me!
Okay, I’m pissed. I’m currently enrolled in a masters program and now trying to get back into the work force (I was living off of “university income” – grants/loans – because I desperately needed a break from everything tbh, and I lost the aid bc of some time frame rule they don’t tell students about, so typical uni bs + I was misinformed by my advisor 🫠 will be appealing tho) a bit earlier than planned, and because I didn’t have work experience listed for the last 6 months, they emailed me this:
“…Your registration did not provide enough information for us to determine if we have a position that matches your skills and experiences.
The best way to resolve this is for you to provide us with your updated resume. The resume you provided ends in 2021 and we require 6 months of relevant, recent work experience.
Please send your resume in a MSWord Document…”
Are they asking me to lie??? I know they don’t want me to respond saying that IS the updated resume. Do they really think I sent the wrong document? Why did they request it as a word document (I don’t wanna be difficult but I never send a word document, don’t want to either but is it a big deal)? I’ve never had to lie on my resume before, but now I’m wondering if that’s why I’m not getting calls at all and because so many people (been in A LOT of subreddits this week) are saying LIE. I hate having to lie, but I absolutely will when it comes to fighting literal oppression and putting food in my stomach. And when I feel like I have to lie (my growling stomach, past due bills and bs like this is forcing my hand), I want it to be believable.
This is what I currently have on my resume:
“Administrative Assistant, Independent Contractor – Various Entities 2021 – 2023”
with appropriate, impactful job duties, of course. In interviews, I’m going to say “I stepped down, after training my replacement, in order to focus on my studies, and worked as a contractor throughout that time, but now that I’m about to graduate, I’m open to full time employment again,” which is true, except the contracting. (Also, I didn’t list myself as a research fellow because my uni doesn’t pay grad students for research, which is googleable, and didn’t extend dates or put a random company bc that shows on a BG check. Including just in case: I’m applying in a state I’m not yet a resident of and it’s to their actual company, I believe.)
I’m fully capable of the job (which is of that same title above – my experience before it includes project management, fulfillment in e-commerce, retail/sales, client services/reception, and date back to 2015, so I’m assuming the not enough info refers to the 6 month thing – like I’m clearly applying bc I need to pay these mf bills), I slightly changed job titles (1 totally different but better reflects my role and old manager approved), dates are years so “no gaps” (I worked other irrelevant jobs in between) and all responsibilities are only slightly exaggerated bc they’re already good so the rest of the BG check should line up. I’m just worried about this 2 year gap because apparently a master’s is not a good enough reason to have a gap in employment. So sick of capitalism and the US (even though I’m from here).
TLDR:
Probably going to take my chances and put that contracted role just to see what happens with this one job, but wondering what to do for applying to other jobs (bc putting 2021 feels detrimental, I came up with independent contractor bc sole proprietorship exists and they can’t pull my taxes), what to put on Linked In, what would you do to cover a 2 year gap?
(Also, please save any moral bashing. I already tried that way, and I do not care about your self-righteousness bc you are not feeding me. Only looking for viable solutions.)