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I've been in the same position (same title, same company) for 12 years. How do I show how my job has changed over those years?

I'm an in-house web and database guy. When I started in this job, it was really a web-development job where I was specifically directed to stick to customer-facing work. Email marketing was added to that, then the "customer-facing-only" went away and I started working on internal web applications, data analysis, metrics development and tracking... a lot more than "just" the guy who works on the web site.

I used to say I'm a one-man team, but I'm really a one-man department these days. How do I describe this expansion in the relatively small space available for this job on a one-page resume?

 

donm's picture
Training Badge

Accomplishments.

What did you do? Here's an example:

When I started as a web developer in 2002 for XYZ company, we were programming in HTML using Dreamweaver 3. There was no such thing as CSS and scripting was done in AS1 in Flash. Fast forward to today, and we're using Ruby on Rails and AS3 for our animations and interactions.

Now, the above may not be your text or job, but you can see what it shows. You've kept up with probably the fastest moving part of the world if you're still updating websites using today's technology. So, tell them what you're doing, and what you did to update the site.

Note: I'm not an IT guy. I may be speaking gibberish above, but it's what you need to show. What were you doing 12 years ago? What are you doing now? Maybe you'll find someone with an 8 year old web site that needs to be brought up to today's standards. Who better than you to do that?

DonM

flexiblefine's picture

That's a fine example as part of an interview answer, but the resume isn't really the place for that story -- is it?

I've got accomplishments showing results from things I've done, but I'm not sure how to say that a bunch of them weren't in the original scope for the job.

flexiblefine
Houston, Texas, USA
DiSC: 1476

donm's picture
Training Badge

Possible bullets:

  • Evolved 12 year old site from text-editor based HTML to modern CSS-enabled HTML5 compliant site
  • Transformed multiple sites from spaghetti-code to ECMAscript-compliant OOP code
  • Optimized site load times typically by a factor of 50%

All of the verbs above are strong, and show transition and growth, in my opinion. Like I said, I don't know what you've done, but those are the types of gibberish IT blurbs that should work. You just change the following words to things you've done.

Other possible "growth" verbs: Modified, adapted, resolved, transfigured.

Kootenay_Mike's picture

 Ask for an employee. Then produce more work. Then take on new responsibilities. Then ask for another one...etc. I start with three in one town now I have nine in 9 towns.

 

 

Kevin1's picture

Since you can't break up the 12 years by role title, could you break it into 3 or 4 relatively obvious segments based on your major responsibilities.  Like so

2002-2004 web developer - customer facing

list accomplishments LOA during this period

2004- 2008 web developer -  email marketing 

LOA

2008-2012 web developer internal applications and data analytics

LOA

etc.

kind regards

kevin

Doris_O's picture

Flexfine - you'll use your cover letter to tell the story of the change of scope in your job. The accomplishments will support what you say in the cover letter.

It is natural and expected that job descriptions and scope of responsibilities evolve over time. If you held this position for 12 years and everything remained the same, then that would be cause for worry.

You should have a fairly long list of accomplishments after 12 years. List all of them. This version of your resume will be longer than 1 page (Mark calls this something else, I can't remember what at the moment). Then when you apply for a job, edit down the list to the accomplishments that are most relevant to that specific position. Include a few key accomplishments that show your growth over time. Continue to edit and refine until the resume is one page tailored specifically for that position.

Doris O

 

flexiblefine's picture

Thank you, Doris, for reminding me about putting that sort of information into my cover letter. That's a great place to supplement my resume and tell a little more of the story.

I do keep a "Career Management Document" with more details in it, so I can pick and choose the more appropriate items for any given resume. I worry that someone might read 12 years in one place and think I have ossified, or that I can "only do that one thing" even when the one thing has so many parts.

I think I have good bullets: "improved registrations X%", "eliminated travel costs", "saved X work hours on annual process", and so on.

flexiblefine
Houston, Texas, USA
DiSC: 1476

teaguek122's picture

 I have just been talking to someone who has had 20+ years of work within one company. 

It seems to me that you could break up the job accomplishments based on changes at your job.
For example, when the office has moved locations could give you more manageable accomplishment
bullets in a 3 to 4 year time frame.