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I had my first job at a manufacturing company when I was fresh out of university, and worked there for 2 months. I then left due to health reasons and didn't look for work for another 3 months, as I was reviewing my engineering certification examination.

I started a second job in January of this year at a different manufacturing company. However, as I was desperate to land the role, I didn't declare my past experience when I applied, and told them that I never had experience before and was basically just a fresh graduate. Unfortunately, I was busted by an old colleague and the company found out, and as a result I was forced to resign in May.

I've been looking for another job since then but I am having a very hard time landing one. I am considering omitting one of these two jobs, more specifically the very first one, as I didn't receive any certificate of employment during my leave there and I was only there for two months.

My question is, is it possible to omit this on the job application form? Will this ever be found out under normal circumstances? (I believe the previous case is an outlier)?

I am also thinking of completely wiping out my work history and describe myself as fresh graduate again. I only have a total of 6 and a half months for these two roles. What's the best course of action to get back into work?

There are two things here:

1. Not listing an employment on the resume. As Twyx said, depending on the wording, this may not be an issue at all.


2. Saying on your application letter and in interviews that you have never had any experience after college. This is the big one, because this is an actual lie.

If you do choose to omit one or more employers, that's one thing. But you can't lie to your employer. If it should come up, tell them honestly that you did have a job but since you only stayed a couple of months you didn't feel that you gained enough experience for it to be worth mentioning.

Again, not mentioning a job on a resumé is not lying. But outright stating that you had never worked after college, when you actually had, that is a lie.

This depends on how the job application is worded. If it says Relevant experience or skills then you could potentially leave it out if you wish to have less working experience in your application.

If the application states something along the lines of "List all previous jobs", then you must list previous jobs just to avoid what happened in your second job. It's not worth lying then getting fired further down the line.

You should select those experiences that best demonstrate your capabilities on your resume - it's okay to leave some jobs or roles out.

However, be sure your employment history is continuous - employers want to see that you've been constantly employed or in school, with perhaps small (<3mo) breaks between jobs. Long stretches of (apparent) unemployment are a red flag and need to be explained.

As an alternative to omitting a job on your resume, you can:

1. 
   Lump several roles into one, even if at different companies. E.g., "Machinist, Company A, Company B, Company C, 2010-2015".


2. 
   Don't offer a reference for a past job that you don't want prospective employers to contact.


3. 
   Provide explanation in a cover letter. Your cover letter is for anything that you feel the recruiter and hiring manager should know about your application - it's the right place to describe why a job was very brief or you have a gap in employment.

Good luck with the job search!

IF you have done different works that are totally unrelated with the position one is seeking it's normal to omit them, especially if they were done for a short period.
If a software developer had to work in a McDonald for six months between software related work, or a cook had to work in a warehouse for three months, these aren't useful work experience for the main one.
I think recruiters aren't actually not interested to know all the experiences one has done, and if asked in an interview one could explain that had a short and unrelated work while waiting a better opportunity.