A mistake to remove pre-Japan work experience from resume?

[sideways_gun]

Hello all.

As I wait for responses from potential employers, I am starting to worry that recruiters might think I was doing nothing before I came to Japan. I am starting to worry that my resume now looks weak whereas I was trying to make it 100% relevant as a person interested specifically in teaching roles. Without the "irrelevant" work on it, my resume is 1.5 pages long. If I put it back on, and with a bit of editing and formatting, the CV will be exactly 2 pages long. So I did not think length of resume was an issue...

What do you guys think? If I don't get replies by the end of this week it will have been a week of silence... then I'll look for more positions to apply to with my year of data entry admin/market research work experience back on the resume. Then again, is ONE WEEK actually not that long a wait? And could it be that companies like Aeon and ECC just won't bother to reply because I am on an Instructor visa instead of Specialist in Humanities?

Background story: My dispatch company lost the contract with that BoE and there were no other positions within reasonable commuting distance from where I live. Unfortunately, this information came out too late for me to get another ALT job so I updated my resume and customised applications to various conversation schools. When updating my resume I decided to remove work I had done before coming to Japan, which was not teaching related at all, and just expand on what I have done over the past one year IN Japan (various teaching roles including a stint at an eikaiwa (Working Holiday visa) before I became an ALT doing dirty business English deeds on the side).

Thank you for any advice. I know I cannot change what I have already done. I would just like another person's idea of how badly I've hurt my chances of finding work in less than 1 month. Being unemployed is hella boring once the novelty of spending two weeks in your pyjamas wears off. Oh yeah, and there is the issue of food and rent!!

[BackDoor_Man]

Hello all.

As I wait for responses from potential employers, I am starting to worry that recruiters might think I was doing nothing before I came to Japan. I am starting to worry that my resume now looks weak whereas I was trying to make it 100% relevant as a person interested specifically in teaching roles. Without the "irrelevant" work on it, my resume is 1.5 pages long. If I put it back on, and with a bit of editing and formatting, the CV will be exactly 2 pages long. So I did not think length of resume was an issue...

What do you guys think? If I don't get replies by the end of this week it will have been a week of silence... then I'll look for more positions to apply to with my year of data entry admin/market research work experience back on the resume. Then again, is ONE WEEK actually not that long a wait? And could it be that companies like Aeon and ECC just won't bother to reply because I am on an Instructor visa instead of Specialist in Humanities?

Background story: My dispatch company lost the contract with that BoE and there were no other positions within reasonable commuting distance from where I live. Unfortunately, this information came out too late for me to get another ALT job so I updated my resume and customised applications to various conversation schools. When updating my resume I decided to remove work I had done before coming to Japan, which was not teaching related at all, and just expand on what I have done over the past one year IN Japan (various teaching roles including a stint at an eikaiwa (Working Holiday visa) before I became an ALT doing dirty business English deeds on the side).

Thank you for any advice. I know I cannot change what I have already done. I would just like another person's idea of how badly I've hurt my chances of finding work in less than 1 month. Being unemployed is hella boring once the novelty of spending two weeks in your pyjamas wears off. Oh yeah, and there is the issue of food and rent!!

By editing things out you probably facked your chances. Employers are not just looking for candidates that only know about teaching, they also look for candidates that have real life and work experiences!

[sideways_gun]

By editing things out you probably facked your chances. Employers are not just looking for candidates that only know about teaching, they also look for candidates that have real life and work experiences!

Sweet epic failure

I emailed an application off to the everlasting phoenix of an eikaiwa that never truly dies but is only reborn using the 'complete' resume and have been fortunate enough to be scheduled for a Skype interview. I wonder if that proves/confirms anything =_=

Anyway, staying hopeful! Thank you for your reply!

[Effected After]

It's really dependent on the person reading your resume. Some will want the extra info, some won't. Some won't even read that far into your resume.

[sideways_gun]

It's really dependent on the person reading your resume. Some will want the extra info, some won't. Some won't even read that far into your resume.

Indeed. Such is the dance of recruitment, I suppose. Not quite time to douse the penguin suit with kerosene then

Thank you for your reply.

[ttokyo]

Often, missing years on the CV are a warning sign for employers. This usually means that the person was unemployed and was not willing or able (e.g. sickness, serving prison time) to find a job. Those gaps should be filled somehow, even if it says 'travelling' or 'self-study' or 'caring for a sick family member.

[Japan.bound]

Often, missing years on the CV are a warning sign for employers. This usually means that the person was unemployed and was not willing or able (e.g. sickness, serving prison time) to find a job. Those gaps should be filled somehow, even if it says 'travelling' or 'self-study' or 'caring for a sick family member.

So basically just bullshit those gaps and hope they don't demand proof?

[ttokyo]

So basically just bullshit those gaps and hope they don't demand proof?

It's almost impossible to really 'nothing', even things like 'renovating the house' or 'preparing for an examination' would be better on the CV.

[Japan.bound]

It's almost impossible to really 'nothing', even things like 'renovating the house' or 'preparing for an examination' would be better on the CV.

Would they demand proof?

[ttokyo]

Would they demand proof?

Only if it's unlikely such as 'training for a Mars mission that was cancelled'.

If it's just 'language study' you should have learned something and if you write 'travel through Asia' they might casually ask for some destinations.