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Hello,

I have worked at company ABC (small <20 ppl) for 4 years now. It was my first job out of University.

For 12 months during my 2nd year at ABC I was contracted to company DEF (Large national) to work on their floor.

During my time at DEF, 90% of my work was completely unrelated to ABC and for all purposes aside from who signed my checks, I was a DEF staff member.

My responsibilities was also different (related to but not really "above" or "below" my work at ABC)

After I finished at DEF I returned to ABC and continued my position where it left off, aside from a couple of extra responsibilities.

My question is how would be the best way to represent this on my resume?

Currently I have (FYI I was full time studying until end of 2010):

  • Sep 10 - Current, Job Title, ABC Company
  • Sep 11 - Sep 12, Job Title DEF Company
  • Jun 08 - Sep 10, Job Title, GHI Casual Job

---etc...

Should I spilt up the ABC job even though the responsibilities are mostly the same and the change of job title was a formality? e.g.

  • Sep 12 - Current, New Job Title, ABC Company
  • Sep 11 - Sep 12, New Job Title DEF Company
  • Sep 10 - Sep 11, Former Job Title, ABC Company

Or Should I place DEF before ABC?

Or Should I just include DEF responsibilities/achievements into ABC? I feel like This would put to much focus on my employment during study since I had no other full time position before hand.

And secondly to fill out some extra space I'm including volunteer responsibilities I've had that are related/useful to my application. Should I include these among the paid positions or in a separate section or just not at all?

Many Thanks,

Dave

G3's picture

Thanks, Dave. Good questions. I could be wrong, it appears that you don't have a lot of job experience & are debating how to represent that on the page. Remember to be honest. Here are a few suggestions:

- Regarding how to list the jobs: Choose the efficient option (the one that takes up less space). You could expound in the interview. You want to save space for adding more about what you've done & how well you've done.

- Reference the MT/CT casts on resumes. I think they would have you leave off the volunteer roles, I don't recall...an alternative would be to include them in the same format as the jobs (responsibilities, accomplishments, etc.). Good luck! 

Remember, " Jobs are not rare diamonds. They are second hand cars. Be a smart consumer."

jrb3's picture
Licensee BadgeTraining Badge

I've done a lot of contract work in my career.  I cite "MNO" as my employer throughout, as they issued the paychecks.  For each contract it was a subsection under that headed "client: CDE1" and "client: CDE2" and "client: CDE3" with relevant bullets and text under each.  To not mention "MNO" nor "client: foo" would represent me as having been employed by CDE1 and CDE2 and CDE3, which is not my case.

Since the work for ABC and DEF differ, separate them.  Since DEF did not issue you paycheck directly, do *not* even imply DEF employed you;  note it was a contract position while at ABC.  Otherwise, reference checkers will ask DEF for employer reference, fail to get it because "he never was employed here", and withdraw the offer for lying/subterfuge on your resume.

  • Sep 2011 - current : Fookeeper, Barkeeper (contract), ABC
  • ... fookeeper text here ...
  • client: DEF ... barkeeper text here ...
  • Jun 2008 - Sep 2010 : Casual Jobist, GHI

You'll get asked about the Sep 2010 to Sep 2011 gap.  Reasonable brief explanation is enough ("went back for one-year master's degree, see education section, here's how I might apply that here for you").