How Can I Prove My Work Experience Without Official Documents After Losing My Job?

Experience Challenges in a Proprietorship Company

I joined a proprietorship company as a fresher for a civil engineer position. The company's owner asked me to join immediately, and after joining, I was supposed to be provided with an appointment letter. Later, I came to know that they didn't provide any appointment letter, offer letter, or salary slip. At that time, I didn't have any other options but to continue with this job, as the market statistics are very unfavorable for fresh civil engineers.

Now, it's been nearly one year (I joined in March 2019), and recently I lost the job due to the pandemic situation. I asked for an experience certificate, but there's a very slim chance of obtaining it. Please help me with this situation because whenever I mention the work experience, the interviewer asks for an experience certificate, which I am unable to produce. What should I do now? Will my nearly one year of experience be totally wasted as I am unable to prove it on paper?

Legal Options for Proving Work Experience

Is there any legal way, like a self-declaration, to prove this?

Addressing Employment Verification Challenges for Freshers

This type of irregularity is common in many small and medium-sized enterprises, ultimately affecting the future of freshers in the early days of their careers. It's unfortunate to witness this plight of the youth. What can we do without documentary evidence?

Do you have entries of salary payments into your bank accounts? If there are entries in your bank passbook, they may help you convince prospective employers. However, many employers don't accept these at face value without payslips and experience letters corroborated with bank statements/passbooks.

Alternative Documentation for Employment Verification

What's possible is to trace interview call letters/emails, or any other documents supporting your job, such as worksheets, plan sections, drawings, etc., where you have signed or had your name imprinted during your tenure. Any ID proofs, visiting cards, logbooks of meetings with clients, photos at work, etc., can also be useful.

In the meantime, send registered letters requesting the issuance of your experience letters, which can be shown during your interviews. Although I don't have high hopes, it might be worth a try. Beyond this, there might not be much else to consider at this juncture.

I totally agree with Kumar S Ji. Try to collect more evidence; it'll surely help you out. If you're enrolled in EPF & ESIC by them, then it's enough to prove you're associated with your ex-employer. Make sure to have ESIC TIC, EPF passbook copy, along with bank statements, and other civil project-related documents.

Thanks,
Kailash Joshi
HR & IR (Haridwar, Uttarakhand)

Thank you, Kumar Sir and Kailash Sir. Yes, I have bank statements for every month's salary credit. For the purpose of evidence, I have one of the best sources: our office's WhatsApp group for daily tasks, client visits, and many more. Apart from that, I have some emails related to assigned work. Can they be useful?

One more thing, can one create any legal proof like a self-declaration on stamp paper? I don't have any idea, but I have heard that it can be done.

Hi MN, it's good that you have them/could retrieve. This will definitely be helpful in convincing. However, much would depend on how impressively you present your knowledge, experience, and worth to them. It's not always a 100% requirement that they would need an experience letter from your previous job. Many might relax this requirement if they are convinced that you are the person they are looking for. I hope you succeed in this quest.

Self-declaration on a stamp paper

For what purpose? The contents are important. You have to study the contents and implications rather than anything else. If they only want you to declare your past service in lieu of an experience letter/pay slip to relax the requirement, then it could be helpful.