Is Omitting My First Job from My Resume a Risk for Future Job Offers?

Hi, I am facing a problem in keeping my first work experience. I was working in Company X for 10 months after my college. Then, I joined Company Y (with Company X experience). After working for over 3.5 years, I joined Company Z (with experience from X and Y) and have been working in Z for the last two years.

Since Company X is a small company, I genuinely worked and completed the exit process as per my resignation request. However, they do not maintain employee records properly, HR personnel change frequently, and both my manager and colleagues have left the company. As a result, I always faced problems with verification. I possess all the experience letters, relieving letters, and my bank account statements from Company X.

Due to the ongoing challenges in providing reference contacts, I have decided to omit the Company X experience from my resume and included only the experiences from Y and Z.

Will there be any issues if I have reduced my work experience by 11 months on my resume while accepting a new job offer?

I don't see any problem at all with this issue. You should not have removed those 11 months from your profile as you have other documents to prove your experience. I don't think companies will refer to the company where you started your career but will focus on the immediate two past employers. In case of any issues, you can explain the situation to the employer, as the lapse is not from your side. For most of us, the career journey commences from companies like X!  You seem to be very emotional in your approach—be bold and clear, my dear young man—the world is yours! All the best.

Regards,
Ganesh Ramachandran

Thank you for reaching out. I was very confused because of the problems I faced earlier in finding contacts and references while working in companies Y and Z. Company X does not have a proper HR system in place to support verification, and nobody was taking up the responsibility to provide references. Therefore, I have removed the 10 months of experience from my resume after 6 years. Instead of showing 6 years, I have displayed 5 years.

What Mr. Ramchandran has said is true. You can always show your documents with X company as proof. If you remove that experience, you will always have to face the question of what you did for those 11 months. I have experienced that even a strong reference from one employer is sufficient.

All the best!

Regards,
Vaishalee Parkhi