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bobsutterfield
Community Member

How to provide only years (not months) in Employment History?

Hello,

When I show my experience in my résumé and my profiles on LinkedIn and everywhere else, I list only start and end years, not months.

As I prepare my new Upwork profile for submission, the Employment History form won't let me Save unless the period start/end have both month and year.

How can I provide only years in my Upwork employment history?

5 REPLIES 5
prestonhunter
Community Member

Maybe you can't enter the dates without months.

 

If that is the case, then just enter the months to the best of your recollection.

I'm not concerned about getting the dates wrong.

I prefer to avoid drawing attention to long gaps even if they were years ago, because in my experience they distract interviewers and clients from the overall positive flow of my career history.

Leaving one job in 2008 and starting the next in 2009 is unremarkable; a gap from 02/2008 until 11/2009 leads invariably to a rabbit trail discussion that is unproductive and irrelevant to today's engagement.

 

I do provide months for some events in my history, but not for others.

Many other employment profile systems support my choice by making the month field optional.


Bob S wrote:

I'm not concerned about getting the dates wrong.

I prefer to avoid drawing attention to long gaps even if they were years ago, because in my experience they distract interviewers and clients from the overall positive flow of my career history.

Leaving one job in 2008 and starting the next in 2009 is unremarkable; a gap from 02/2008 until 11/2009 leads invariably to a rabbit trail discussion that is unproductive and irrelevant to today's engagement.

 

I do provide months for some events in my history, but not for others.

Many other employment profile systems support my choice by making the month field optional.


That's exactly why the "month" fields are required.

Hi Bob, 


Leaving the month field blank is not available at the moment, and I'm sorry if this will inconvenience you when setting up your profile.

When sending out proposals for jobs, clients will see your proposal first before seeing your proposal. This doesn't mean that your Employment History is not important. Some clients browse the marketplace for freelancers and invite freelancers to apply to their job post directly, so a strong and unique profile is a must. As long as you can tie your whole profile together by making sure that all information listed complement each other, and you are able to impress your clients, gaps in your Employment History should not be a big issue.


~ Avery
Upwork

Don't overestimate how closely potential clients will look at dates in your work history. I have hired over 100 freelancers on Upwork. I can't remember ever looking at that. I am busy. Don't have time for that.

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