Is it a problem if youve got a year gap in your resume?

[TommyJ]

Im very worried because I've a long gap in my CV. I finnished college around a year ago and I havent really done anything since. I had two jobs that flopped very quickly. I applied for two CELTA courses which I didnt go ahead with. the first was a couple of months ago, which I didnt go ahead with because I wasnt prepared for. the most recent, which I didnt get into because the guy said it was too full, yet I prepared for. Im after applying for another but it doesnt start till January.
HOWEVER, I am currently giving a Korean student one to one tutoring, and I am teaching my self how to teach English to advanced students. Could I use these in my CV? I also have two references from my University, which I am thinking about using.

Any help would be great, Please!

[Susan]

Hi Tommy,

I think a gap in a CV is okay if you can give some sort of explanation. You just need to add a couple of lines saying what you were doing and make it sound as positive and constructive as possible. Be ready to talk about it in an interview. Everybody knows there is an economic crisis at the moment and no country has full employment.

All the best

Susan

[TommyJ]

Is it a good idea to mention that you work for your self, doing one to one tutoring with students? Could it come across as a cop out?

[Joe]

To my mind, working for yourself could be seen as showing initiative, depends how you present it. Ideally you would be able to provide some endorsements or references from satisfied students. But you probably shouldn't give the impression that you are too independent or go-getter as that might scare some employees off :mrgreen:

[RoseWoo]

It's not a problem you have a gap year believe me .
during that gap year ,if you really have several job end in flopped . you can say that was a part-time or internship ,it doesn't matter I believe .