> All it takes is one phone call and your cover is blown.
Not necessarily. When I was interviewing for the job I have now, they were trying really hard to weed out people like OP who claimed to have been at one place for a longer time than they had. They demanded HR contacts for my last _three_ jobs (which in my case stretches all the way back to 2002) so they could make sure that the start & end dates I put on my application matched up with what HR stated. Well, we ran in to an immediate problem with the second job ago - the company had gone out of business since I left, and there was nobody to contact. They shrugged their shoulders and moved on to the most recent job. Well, that was a startup, too - when I started working there, it was a contract-to-hire position, so I was actually an employee of "warm body providers corp" for the first six months. Then, when I was converted to perm at that job, it was bought by "megaglobalcorp" a year later. Then, about six months before I was let go, megaglobalcorp sold our entire office to "evilcorp, inc." who decided to shut down the office (which is why I was out of work in the first place). So when HR at the job I have now started making calls, I had had _four_ different employers in a three year period, even though I had been in the same office, sitting at the exact same desk, reporting to the exact same boss throughout the entire period. I think I may have explained this to the "currentjob" HR eight times before they finally gave up and decided to trust me when I said I had only had three different jobs in the past 16 years.
I am in a similar acquisition/merger type situation. Same department, same desk, four different legal entities. I'm just including the three main ones in the same entry for my resume.
It was a pain in the butt when I bought a house, though, and I needed to write a formal letter explaining all the changes and why it looks like I kept switching jobs according to my tax documents.
Yep, I'm not looking forward to filing taxes this year - I have W-2's from three different employers, just for me (not to mention a few months on unemployment, too).
Not necessarily. When I was interviewing for the job I have now, they were trying really hard to weed out people like OP who claimed to have been at one place for a longer time than they had. They demanded HR contacts for my last _three_ jobs (which in my case stretches all the way back to 2002) so they could make sure that the start & end dates I put on my application matched up with what HR stated. Well, we ran in to an immediate problem with the second job ago - the company had gone out of business since I left, and there was nobody to contact. They shrugged their shoulders and moved on to the most recent job. Well, that was a startup, too - when I started working there, it was a contract-to-hire position, so I was actually an employee of "warm body providers corp" for the first six months. Then, when I was converted to perm at that job, it was bought by "megaglobalcorp" a year later. Then, about six months before I was let go, megaglobalcorp sold our entire office to "evilcorp, inc." who decided to shut down the office (which is why I was out of work in the first place). So when HR at the job I have now started making calls, I had had _four_ different employers in a three year period, even though I had been in the same office, sitting at the exact same desk, reporting to the exact same boss throughout the entire period. I think I may have explained this to the "currentjob" HR eight times before they finally gave up and decided to trust me when I said I had only had three different jobs in the past 16 years.