This happens a lot more than most people ever want to admit And it is really tricky…when you have taken a stop gap job and it dragged on longer than you ever intended…like six months or so. And you are now going to have to explain it to a hiring or interviewing authority. This is especially more difficult when you’ve had “too many jobs.” If you’ve had three jobs in three years and then have to explain a “stopgap” job whether it’s with Starbucks or any other type of hourly job for even a professional position that you take knowing that it won’t be for long period of time, it’s a lot harder for hiring authority to understand than you think it is.
You’d best explaine this carefully and with humility. A hiring authority is concerned that you would leave them in a relatively short period of time if you didn’t like one or two little things about the job and go back to the “stopgap” job.
Do not justify the job flipantly by saying something like, “hey, i had to do something to put bread on the table…can’t blame me…now the market has changed and i can do better…i’m ready to leave”
That tells an employer that you would do the same thing to them…when the market gets better.
The way you explain it is like this, “well, i never intended for this job to last so long…it was meant to be a stop gap to put food on the table…however, the people were great and very nice and it seemed to go on a longer time…”
“It really isn’t a career for me and it has dead ended pretty fast…i am not growing personally…they are aware of my situation and understand that i really need to get on with my career with a very challenging opportunity as this one..”
say it humbly..then drop it…and ask a new question To get the interviewing authority off to another subject.
