Breaking the taboo

Kalpesh, whose walkout from his job featured three issues ago, believes there can be worse things than a gap in the CV.

I wish Sarah (job logs, page 2) all the best in the future – it’s certainly a risk to nuke your career, and I unfortunately got slagged off by HR expert Zoe Mitchell in the last but one Prospects mag for doing the same thing and having committed a ‘CV no-no’! But as Sarah says, now is the time to take risks and I personally think it shows a greater level of commitment to realising your ambitions.

Undoubtedly there will be daunting times ahead, when Sarah may even look back favourably on her old job when her search for a new one is not going so well. But these thoughts will be short lived and ultimately the gamble will pay off simply because of Sarah’s dedication to it.

Beating depression

I would like to thank Katherine A (last issue) for her response to Zoe Mitchell's comments on my leaving my career with no alternative in place, or indeed a plan for the immediate future. To say that to combat depression in the workplace is as simple as deciding at the start of each day that you will either enjoy it or not is too simplistic a standpoint and frankly unhelpful.

However, I would also like to address the other half of Zoe's comment that I committed that most evil of taboo's - a gap in my CV. I agree that it is always a better option to have a plan or ideally a job lined up prior to leaving you're existing career. But again it’s not always this black and white. Being in a demoralising situation can sufficiently kill your motivation to the extent that you can only think of getting out of the mess you’re in and nothing else. Especially as in my case I had no strong bias as to what else I wanted to do with my life. I had the career that I thought I always wanted but sadly it didn’t work out.

Difficult decision

Just so readers know, my decision to leave my career was not taken lightly and in the end I very much saw it as the lesser of two evils and also the only available catalyst to start over.

I despair at the current attitude that requires people to be slaves to their CV and implies that a graduate position with a large corporate is the be all and end all - this isn’t right for everyone. There is room for some unorthodoxy.

I know that I will have to explain my ‘CV gap’ to any potential employer, and anyone taking a similar route should also acknowledge this, however I am happy to do so and have also been fortunate that an HR manager has never had the final say in whether I got the job or not.

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