Looking for some advice. Do I entirely leave out the irrelevant jobs from my CV?

HSapien

Hello! I'm a bit stuck here on what to do. I don't want to bore any of you with elaborate details, so I'll skip the fluff -- for a couple of years I worked in a couple jobs that are completely irrelevant to the jobs I'm now applying for.

(I'm in my mid-20s, finished a masters degree a couple of years ago, worked and saved all my life until that point. I took time off to travel, see the world, write, and not bury myself in work. I made a conscious choice not to launch into the working world too gung-ho until I got a bit older, and now is the time.)

If I chop out the irrelevant jobs from my CV that leaves some considerable gaps--2 years after my masters, and 1 year between jobs back in 2006. I've heard the advice many times to not clutter up your CV with irrelevant jobs.

How do I "explain" the gap, if I leave out the irrelevant jobs-- should I just leave in one line to explain what I did, or can that be left for the cover letter?

I have a feeling I'm asking a really stupid question, your patience is appreciated

I wouldn't leave a gap, just don't go into detail for those jobs. I think a gap looks worse.

Mr. Loverman

Yes. You just do something like this:

Position________________Date
Company

Whereas your normal jobs look like this:

Position________________Date
Company
* bullet point selling yourself 1
* bullet point selling yourself 2
* bullet point selling yourself 3
* bullet point selling yourself 4
* bullet point selling yourself 5

highlydebased

An effective option you could consider is dividing up your work experience section of your CV into "Relevant" and "Other", sorting each item as appropriate.

HSapien

All very sensible, logical replies, cheers!