mikefrei's picture

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Submitted by mikefrei on
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Career Management

Hello all,

I've looked through MT/CT guidance, but am stumped on this particular resume question...
How do I represent this situation?

From 2012 to present, I have been on the same team, doing the same job, for the same customer. This job is in support of a defense department contract. However, I have worked for three companies during that time.

I retired from the US Air Force in 2012, and the customer I have supported is the US Army.

Aug 2012-Feb 2012 – Hired by an IT Temp sub-contractor (Company A) supporting the primary contractor (Company B).
Feb 2012 – Sep 2014 – Hired directly by company B (after six-month contract to hire period expired).
Oct 2014 – Present – Contract was re-competed, and won by Company C, Hired (with my entire team) by Company C.
There were no gaps in these transitions, and I worked with the same team, in the same building, for the same customer for the entire period.

I have some good accomplishments with this team, but I think I have some really good, and more diverse accomplishments from 2012 and prior. Can I combine these somehow to reduce the amount of real-estate on my one page resume?

I understand that the standard is to list each company separately, but could this be an exception? If so, how should it look on the resume?

I’d really appreciate any feedback.

Thanks!

Mike F.

ashdenver's picture
Submitted by ashdenver on Monday June 29th, 2015 11:49 am

The Resume Workbook is pretty clear about this issue - subcontracting, consulting, temp agency employment - that you list each company which hires and pays you regardless of the client company. As tempting as it might be to list the totality of employment as having been for the US Air Force, it's not what is recommended. (The dates you listed didn't quite line up so I tweaked the first one back to 2011 even though it's probably not accurate.)

Not cool ...

  • Aug '11 - Present: IT Consultant, US Air Force

Most truthful:

  • Oct '14 - Present: IT Consultant, Company C
    • Responsible for delivering ____ to US Air Force; continuing project work with same team since Aug '11.
  • Feb '12 - Sep '14: IT Consultant, Company B
    • Responsible for delivering ____ to US Air Force.
  • Aug '11 - Feb '12: IT Consultant, Company A
    • Responsible for delivering ____ to US Air Force.

From a slightly different perspective, if I were to see the second format (the MT recommended format) I would think "cool - he's able to work for multiple types of companies, organization, managers in a high-pressure environment" rather than "well of course he's been with the US Air Force for so long; anyone who gets a government job is pretty much set for life and doesn't have to keep on top of anything in the marketplace." (These are both gross exaggerations of sentiments but I think you can see where it's going.) While listing out the Company A and B things takes a minimum of four additional lines, it's worthwhile.

mikefrei's picture
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Submitted by mikefrei on Monday June 29th, 2015 9:39 pm

ashdenver,
 
Thanks for the feedback!  I'm leaning the way you descibed.  
 
My thought was to list the companies sequentially on a single line, but I think that is probably more confusing than anything...also wouldn't want it to appear as if I'm hiding something.
 
I think I'll stay with the Resume Workbook guidance.
 
Thanks again,
 
Mike F.

jrb3's picture
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Submitted by jrb3 on Tuesday June 30th, 2015 7:34 am

Wow, this question brings me back some frustrating memories.

During the height of the 1990's boom at the epicenter of my field, my wife and I each brought a long-term contract to our respective employers-of-record.  Over the ensuing 30 months, she and her manager were the only common thread on her contract team;  I and three client co-workers were the nucleus of ours.  Client companies had internal gyrations as people got pulled on and off to "shinier" but unlaunchable projects.

And employers-of-record went through "industry consolidation" at a frightful pace.  I filed taxes with 14 W-2's across those three tax years, and we had an even dozen health-care providers.  (One quarter, with *three* providers, we had to divert billable hours into matching insurers to office visits covered.  We gave up on employers-of-record once the contracts finished, and went independent, purely to defend our time.)

For that period, our resumes cited like this:

199x-03 to 199x-09            end client: HugeCo
        employer-of-record A / EoR B / EoR C /
               EoR D / EoR E   (consolidation chain)
Brought 30-month contract to employers-of-record, to develop new HugeCo-branded yada-yada product.
* Launched new product at 9 months (3 months early), seven successful quarterly updates thereafter.  Product profitable by third update.

Those few interviewers who asked about the chain of consolidations got the (very) brief story on the churn.  Folks seemed far more interested that I'd delivered for HugeCo, than through what channels I got gratefully paid for value delivered.

Hope this proves useful to someone!