How to start your career with a 4 yrs of Gap

Hi All,

I am an engineering gradute (passed out in 2003). Because of some serious family problem , I have a 4 yrs of gap in my caeer. I started reshaping my career in 2006. I did some R & D & came to know that SAP is a good option for me. I did course in a private institution in SAP Functional module. I got placed in a leading MNC in 2007. I had to put fake experience to get a job as none of the company was ready to recruit a person with a four years of gap. After completing 2 yrs, one day HR forced me to resign on the ground of fake experience.
Now the scenario is I have a 4 yrs gap but 2 yrs real expeience of a leading company.
I am looking for a job but this time I do not want to put any fake experience as i hate to do this. When I am posting my resume recruiter asked me following question:

1. What have you done after passing your graduation?
2. How did you get into SAP functional in a leading MNC with a 4 yrs of career gap.

It's difficult to answer these two question.

But I observed in my company that My company was putting fresher in SAP project as a functional consultant.But they had advantage that they are fresher.

These days I am demorlised. I am loosing my confidence. I am in dilemma. When I selected a wrong path I was getting plenty of offers. Now When I want to go with my real resume recriters started screwing me.Somtimes I feel that why did I selected SAP. Sometimes I want to choose a different career track, But what to choose is again a difficult question.

Please advice me if you see any hope for me.

Regards
Suhani

Some inputs for your situation:

1. Why did you give a chance to let them know that you are on fake exp?
2. Didn't you manage your experience??
3. Even now, you can put 6+ experience as already you have 2+real experience, which again may end up in trouble if at all they callup to your previous orgn. They may tell termination of job happened because of fake expereince.
4. Coming to 4 years gap, if you are married and kids, you can show because of husband's onsite or some Inlaws problems or kids problem you took some gap.
5. Nobody has any right to question abour our gap, as long as you are confident about it. You can also say that you are into some different stream unrelated to IT.
6. You also tell them that you have been trying for Govt job like Civils or groups, but couldn't find that after struggling it. So came to IT.
7.Dont ever never discuss about your fake or gap with anybody inside company. Dont know an enemy can sit besides you.
8. Take some time and prepare your CV.

Priya_Mommy gave very good inputs.

Adding to that, never put claims in your resume that you cannot validate. If you say, you have experience in xyz domain, you should be able to answer atleast basic questions in that domain. Else it will be very obvious to the recruiter that you dont have relevant experience. The recruiters will be dealing with hundreds of people like us and they can filter such claims easily.

Coming to your career gap, there are many ways you can explain that without resorting to fake experience. For ex, my friend took a break of about 2 years due to inlaws troubles. When she rsigned her jo, her kid was a little older than 1 year. When she planned to restart her career, the only explanation she gave to the HR is maternity leave. No one quesitoned her further about the gap nor went into the details.

Hope this helps.

-Lakshmi

Thank you very much for your good advice.

Hi,

Now a days, almost all companies do a thorough backgroud check to verify your credentials. So, there is no way you can get through with a fake experience.
Given the current market scenario, finding a job may be a cumbersome task. Try pushing your resume through referal programs with the help of your contacts in your previous organisation, who are in different companies now.
And about the gap, think about a personal reason and be prepared to answer any question about that. You should be confident enough to convince your prospective employer that the gap was taken for a valid purpose and there is nothing fishy about it.
Prepare a good resume highlighting all positive points in your work with the previous organisation. Try doing some professional certifications as it may add value to your resume.

All the best for your job search and I wish you soon land up in a good job