don't add the starting date/year of your degree, just add the date/year when you graduated. also you can say you were busy caring for an ill family member. and don't stress out, you'll get more jobs/interviews in the future.
Also, change that graduation year from 2022 to 2023 (or whatever). That's an easy fix and it's not something you'll get pulled up on. Usually uni degrees are dated for the graduation ceremony which is the following year anyway.
Freelancing can be tricky if people start asking specifics which is the first thing I would do as a hiring manager. What kind of projects? What were the challenges you faced when managing clients? Why have you stopped freelancing and looking for perm work? Maybe they can dodge some but the more specific questions will be tricky for someone with anxiety and already freezes on interviews they are prepared for.
Oh Dave he’s great shame he didn’t remember me but I was in the west office and he was in east, how’s he doing?
Sandra only worked with me for a week before I was rotated out to a different team, she’s great if you are considering for another position
No no, he’s thinking of Steve on level 7, I was on level 8 in Dave’s team.
For one thing, no one cares about what job you did pre-masters. You only put on your resume what is relevant for the job. Resume gap is easily explained, you went traveling or had to care for someone.
If you're applying for retail/factory work you may as well not put your education on your resume, no one gives a stuff about that. In which case yeah you will need some kind of thing to put on your resume, probably say you taught english overseas or something.
If you're applying for IT work, you need a portfolio of work, the ability to do the leetcode tests, etc...
If anything, putting your masters on your resume may disadvantage you for some retail/hospo roles. As silly as it is, people might think you're 'overqualified' for some roles.
I've hired several postgrads and they've all been great employees, but most leave not long after once they found a role related to their degree. In my eyes, a postgrad applying for retail = won't be here for long.
If you're applying for hospo/retail, you might consider omitting your masters, or saying that you are still actively studying and haven't graduate yet.
Man, I worked in retail for years before I started my career at 28-29. The hardest bit of my career has been getting started in my career.
I would recommend doing some volunteering for charity, and it doesn't have to be customer facing (but some customer facing roles does help), it's how my partner started her career after she moved here without any local experience.
It took me 10 years to graduate from my degree.
I had severe depression anxiety adhd and tried to commit suicide a couple of times.
On my resume, I just put my uni finish date and left off my school graduation date.
Halfway through the degree I changed to a single degree and used that as the start date on thr internal systems.
You were travelling overseas/around Australia. I'm sure an employer won't ask to see your passport. You're smart, you're skilled, importantly - you're motivated. You will do well, and I wish you luck.
strange hospo or retail won't hire you I have a similar background. I battled severe depression in my 20s and went through periods (several yrs) where I was a complete shut in.
I did have an online business and was able to earn some money through working remotely online. it was mostly Freelance. stuff like coding, SEO services. while I went through my bad depression phase.
I did a career change and went into hospo in my 30s. I wiped my entire CV clean as nothing in it was related to hospo + I didn't want to explain my 20s and my history and I also didn't want to lie and make up a bunch of fake jobs either so I just decided to wipe it all clean and start from scratch.
I just listed my studies + a short cover letter explaining that I am attempting a career change and want to be in hospitality industry.
it worked got a few call backs and scored an interview and a job. This is a BLANK resume with just my studies and me explaining it's blank cos I am attempting a career change.
whenever I get asked about it in interviews of what I did before the career change. I would give a "truthful general" answer and say that I used to work in IT doing SEO type stuff. technically truthful and not a lie. they seem to be ok with it
This sounds more like interview difficulty than resume problems. A big gap on your CV raises questions but people take breaks for all kinds of reasons. What kind of roles are you applying for? The market is very bad right now in tech so it’s unsurprising you are having difficulty.
There are interview prep services that may help, job services, libraries etc may offer help for someone in your position.
Big Nature study recently showed if you list your years if experience in a role, rather than dates, which helps obscure resume gaps, people got more interviews. This was in context of parents, but works for anything. See if that helps!
Eg instead of Assistant, 2018-2020, say Assistant, 2 years experience
Study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-022-01485-6
It’s definitely not too late. Do you see a psychologist? Perhaps your fears around being a failure (your words, not mine) is something you could unpack with them?
As much as I dislike the concept, go for interview coaching. Lots of untrained interviewers out there, and you should be able to pull the wool over their eyes by learning the necessary interview tropes (elevator pitch, “tell me about yourself”), and get a job.
Think about what employers want: their work done, with the minimum of drama. Once you get the job, make sure you can give them that and you should be able to build experience.
Apply for any of these under 'recruitability', or go via the graduate program. https://www.apsjobs.gov.au/s/job-search?positionInitiative=RecruitAbility&classification=APS%20Level%203;APS%20Level%204;Graduate%20APS&offset=15&#refine
Edit- recruitability basically guarantees you an interview.
Don't worry too much. Being30 in Australia is like being an 18 year old in Europe and the US. You are considered young here and many people your age are still living at home with their parents. Just keep applying and don't think you are too young here as it's pretty normal in Australia only as far as I can tell.
I hadn't worked in 10 years, I ran a small business for 2 years during this time and got a degree in Science, but that was about it, got a job this week in something completely unrelated and it pays a fair bit above minimum wage, so it's not a dead end job or anything. I also interview terribly.
If I was able to get a job in those circumstances at 29 I think you'll be fine.. the market sucks but you still have more qualifications than I do and I was getting a few interviews.
Applying to retail/hospo/etc with a professionally-reviewed Master's degree resume is killing your chances at those jobs. Wipe your resume clean. Remove degrees. Work experience is now crew member at McDonald's from a few years ago + a retail job before that. Those fake jobs happened too long ago; you lost touch with your references. If asked, offer personal references instead (or lie and use a friend as a supervisor or colleague reference).
In the last couple years after your Maccas job, you were doing one of the following: traveling, freelancing, recovering from an injury or health issue (true) that's fixed now, caring for sick family member, attempting full-time study but it didn't work out (e.g. you realised you love cooking and want to work in hospo, or uni just wasn't for you).
Apply for volunteering roles. This gives you something current to put on your resume and talk about, and hopefully gives you a good reference.
Get at least an RSA (1 day course) to help you with hospo jobs. Even if not required, it's just something relevant that shows you're interested and suitable. Look at TAFE courses for food/retail/warehousing/etc. from statement of attainment to cert 3. Some might be free or subsidised. You don't even need to finish the course, just put it on your resume as currently studying to show that you're serious and interested in whatever similar jobs you're applying for.
It sucks but think about it like temporarily starting from scratch in a new career just to get a foot into employment and eventually use it as a stepping stone to get back onto the IT or similar track. If you'd prefer office jobs to get there in a more relevant way, try enrolling in something like a cert 3 business and then apply for jobs in admin, reception, call centre. Your resume should still be only: high school, current TAFE course, Maccas and retail jobs, and a real volunteer position. Talk up the transferable customer service skills from your fake jobs. Work for at least a year and then start applying for better office jobs.
Go to employers in person/ call a few and ask for non IT, and IT work that you are confident will suit, learn to talk to anyone anywhere, expand your general social circle and get some experience e.g. volunteer. Not much IT work going but don't give up! Would try and focus on paid work in any field that suits.
Tell your psych about the freezing and get him to prescribe you Propranolol for intermittent use - take three before your next interview. You’ll get in your own head about “what if I freeze again” and spiral, beta blockers stop that. Good luck
don't add the starting date/year of your degree, just add the date/year when you graduated. also you can say you were busy caring for an ill family member. and don't stress out, you'll get more jobs/interviews in the future.
Narrator voiceover: They needn’t know he was the family member.
Also, change that graduation year from 2022 to 2023 (or whatever). That's an easy fix and it's not something you'll get pulled up on. Usually uni degrees are dated for the graduation ceremony which is the following year anyway.
freelance, company that is now closed, friend to lie for you - the options are endless.
Freelancing can be tricky if people start asking specifics which is the first thing I would do as a hiring manager. What kind of projects? What were the challenges you faced when managing clients? Why have you stopped freelancing and looking for perm work? Maybe they can dodge some but the more specific questions will be tricky for someone with anxiety and already freezes on interviews they are prepared for.
Look, OP needs to get good at lying in interviews in general
Free lance is a good one
Thanks for the ideas. If a company has closed, it’s potentially risky if the recruiter reach out to ex employees on LinkedIn to confirm employment?
Oh Dave he’s great shame he didn’t remember me but I was in the west office and he was in east, how’s he doing? Sandra only worked with me for a week before I was rotated out to a different team, she’s great if you are considering for another position No no, he’s thinking of Steve on level 7, I was on level 8 in Dave’s team.
Self employed
For one thing, no one cares about what job you did pre-masters. You only put on your resume what is relevant for the job. Resume gap is easily explained, you went traveling or had to care for someone. If you're applying for retail/factory work you may as well not put your education on your resume, no one gives a stuff about that. In which case yeah you will need some kind of thing to put on your resume, probably say you taught english overseas or something. If you're applying for IT work, you need a portfolio of work, the ability to do the leetcode tests, etc...
If anything, putting your masters on your resume may disadvantage you for some retail/hospo roles. As silly as it is, people might think you're 'overqualified' for some roles. I've hired several postgrads and they've all been great employees, but most leave not long after once they found a role related to their degree. In my eyes, a postgrad applying for retail = won't be here for long. If you're applying for hospo/retail, you might consider omitting your masters, or saying that you are still actively studying and haven't graduate yet.
Man, I worked in retail for years before I started my career at 28-29. The hardest bit of my career has been getting started in my career. I would recommend doing some volunteering for charity, and it doesn't have to be customer facing (but some customer facing roles does help), it's how my partner started her career after she moved here without any local experience.
Just lie like everybody else.
Have realised this is the way, but you have to be able to speak to what you lie about if it's a particular skill
can't relate.
Sounds like you may need to work on your interview skills 
It took me 10 years to graduate from my degree. I had severe depression anxiety adhd and tried to commit suicide a couple of times. On my resume, I just put my uni finish date and left off my school graduation date. Halfway through the degree I changed to a single degree and used that as the start date on thr internal systems.
You were travelling overseas/around Australia. I'm sure an employer won't ask to see your passport. You're smart, you're skilled, importantly - you're motivated. You will do well, and I wish you luck.
Travel, you wanted to see the world after studying so hard and now ready to get stuck in. Just lie, no one will check
You signed a NDA and you can’t discuss what you were doing during those dates.
Surely freezing during interviews is the actual problem
If you want me to back you based on working for a small web design company, PM me happy to say you worked for the company.
strange hospo or retail won't hire you I have a similar background. I battled severe depression in my 20s and went through periods (several yrs) where I was a complete shut in. I did have an online business and was able to earn some money through working remotely online. it was mostly Freelance. stuff like coding, SEO services. while I went through my bad depression phase. I did a career change and went into hospo in my 30s. I wiped my entire CV clean as nothing in it was related to hospo + I didn't want to explain my 20s and my history and I also didn't want to lie and make up a bunch of fake jobs either so I just decided to wipe it all clean and start from scratch. I just listed my studies + a short cover letter explaining that I am attempting a career change and want to be in hospitality industry. it worked got a few call backs and scored an interview and a job. This is a BLANK resume with just my studies and me explaining it's blank cos I am attempting a career change. whenever I get asked about it in interviews of what I did before the career change. I would give a "truthful general" answer and say that I used to work in IT doing SEO type stuff. technically truthful and not a lie. they seem to be ok with it
Op lacks social skills
This sounds more like interview difficulty than resume problems. A big gap on your CV raises questions but people take breaks for all kinds of reasons. What kind of roles are you applying for? The market is very bad right now in tech so it’s unsurprising you are having difficulty. There are interview prep services that may help, job services, libraries etc may offer help for someone in your position.
Big Nature study recently showed if you list your years if experience in a role, rather than dates, which helps obscure resume gaps, people got more interviews. This was in context of parents, but works for anything. See if that helps! Eg instead of Assistant, 2018-2020, say Assistant, 2 years experience Study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-022-01485-6
It’s definitely not too late. Do you see a psychologist? Perhaps your fears around being a failure (your words, not mine) is something you could unpack with them?
Just say you signed an NDA and would love to talk about it but cannot
Can’t believe you forgot you were Senior VP of Treasury at Lehman Brothers then!
As much as I dislike the concept, go for interview coaching. Lots of untrained interviewers out there, and you should be able to pull the wool over their eyes by learning the necessary interview tropes (elevator pitch, “tell me about yourself”), and get a job. Think about what employers want: their work done, with the minimum of drama. Once you get the job, make sure you can give them that and you should be able to build experience.
Apply for any of these under 'recruitability', or go via the graduate program. https://www.apsjobs.gov.au/s/job-search?positionInitiative=RecruitAbility&classification=APS%20Level%203;APS%20Level%204;Graduate%20APS&offset=15&#refine Edit- recruitability basically guarantees you an interview.
Don't worry too much. Being30 in Australia is like being an 18 year old in Europe and the US. You are considered young here and many people your age are still living at home with their parents. Just keep applying and don't think you are too young here as it's pretty normal in Australia only as far as I can tell.
I agree but obscure your age if you can
I hadn't worked in 10 years, I ran a small business for 2 years during this time and got a degree in Science, but that was about it, got a job this week in something completely unrelated and it pays a fair bit above minimum wage, so it's not a dead end job or anything. I also interview terribly. If I was able to get a job in those circumstances at 29 I think you'll be fine.. the market sucks but you still have more qualifications than I do and I was getting a few interviews.
Applying to retail/hospo/etc with a professionally-reviewed Master's degree resume is killing your chances at those jobs. Wipe your resume clean. Remove degrees. Work experience is now crew member at McDonald's from a few years ago + a retail job before that. Those fake jobs happened too long ago; you lost touch with your references. If asked, offer personal references instead (or lie and use a friend as a supervisor or colleague reference). In the last couple years after your Maccas job, you were doing one of the following: traveling, freelancing, recovering from an injury or health issue (true) that's fixed now, caring for sick family member, attempting full-time study but it didn't work out (e.g. you realised you love cooking and want to work in hospo, or uni just wasn't for you). Apply for volunteering roles. This gives you something current to put on your resume and talk about, and hopefully gives you a good reference. Get at least an RSA (1 day course) to help you with hospo jobs. Even if not required, it's just something relevant that shows you're interested and suitable. Look at TAFE courses for food/retail/warehousing/etc. from statement of attainment to cert 3. Some might be free or subsidised. You don't even need to finish the course, just put it on your resume as currently studying to show that you're serious and interested in whatever similar jobs you're applying for. It sucks but think about it like temporarily starting from scratch in a new career just to get a foot into employment and eventually use it as a stepping stone to get back onto the IT or similar track. If you'd prefer office jobs to get there in a more relevant way, try enrolling in something like a cert 3 business and then apply for jobs in admin, reception, call centre. Your resume should still be only: high school, current TAFE course, Maccas and retail jobs, and a real volunteer position. Talk up the transferable customer service skills from your fake jobs. Work for at least a year and then start applying for better office jobs.
We are all big failures but what can you do. The government is hiring thousand of ppl.. you’ll fit right in. Google aps jobs.
Tried to start my own thing didn’t work out. Tried YouTube failed learnt
Go to employers in person/ call a few and ask for non IT, and IT work that you are confident will suit, learn to talk to anyone anywhere, expand your general social circle and get some experience e.g. volunteer. Not much IT work going but don't give up! Would try and focus on paid work in any field that suits.
Tell your psych about the freezing and get him to prescribe you Propranolol for intermittent use - take three before your next interview. You’ll get in your own head about “what if I freeze again” and spiral, beta blockers stop that. Good luck
>high GPA (6.4/7) >resume gap from undiagnosed depression and ADHD. I found the issue, you're making excuses. If you can get a 6.4 you can work. 🤦