Contractor Downtime
Gerry McLaughlin wrote “Contractor Downtime – 10 Excuses not to use for not working for a while”.
Is it tongue in cheek or is there something in it? Here are excuses not to use if you want the contract. You may think that no one would use these excuses but maybe they might use some of the excuses.
1. The market’s been awful. You’ve been for umpteen interviews without success.
2. The market’s been awful and you haven’t had an interview for six months.
3. You left your last place because you didn’t get on with your boss and you suspect he has been giving you bad references.
4. You expect that employers only want to employ youngsters nowadays, and that is keeping you out of work. This might work if the Project Manager is 50, but not, as is more likely, if he or she is 30.
Take a Few Months Off
5. You like to work for a few months and then take a few months off.
6. I tend to speak my mind and that has cost me in the past. I don’t suffer fools gladly.
7. I went to join a Buddhist colony in Scotland to find myself.
8. I was a candidate for the BNP at the recent local elections.
9. I think I am on an agency blacklist.
10. It was getting too much for me and my shrink said I was heading for a nervous breakdown and needed some time off.
Which one of the excuses is worst, do you think?
And an extra one:-
11. I have been taking time out to prepare for my wrongful dismissal case against my last company. I feel my boss provoked me before I stuck one on him. So, I need a new contract to help pay my legal fees. I may need the occasional day off.
There you have excuses for contractor downtime not to use when you are asked about gaps in your CV.
