So, I have a number of contract positions on my resume. I really liked working specific contract positions during school because I could plan difficult semesters around them, wouldn’t get locked in long-term, and got a good variety of experiences.
Meanwhile, they now kinda weigh my resume down at first glance. Anyone have a good tip of dealing with this issue? Should I just mention it in my cover letters? Or maybe something like:
Bob’s Monkey House
Monkey Wrangler- Contract Position
*Wrangled monkeys
- Cleaned poo
- Taste tested monkey chow
or
Bob’s Monkey House
Monkey Wrangler
- 1 year contract position
- Wrangled monkeys
- Cleaned poo
- Taste tested monkey chow
Anyone else have this issue? It is easy to resolve at the interview stage, but prior to that, I’m confuzzled.
I’m not sure what the issue is. REgardless whether they sent you a W-2 or a 1099 at the end of the year, you were still employed by them. I guess if you think there is some reason your prospective employer needs to know the difference (such as knowing to call your department manger directly because HR will have no rrecord of you existence), you could put “(Contract Position)” or “(Independent Contractor)” following the name of the company (I would put it on the same line as the employer name.)
My situation iis slightly different. I was a wholly owned body by a rent-a-coder firm for 20 years. I put their name down as my employer for those years, then fill in the various clients I worked for as “Client, Megacorp, 2001 - 2002” as if each client was a separate employer, indenting the client positions slightly.
The problem is that it makes me look like I might be job-hopping. For example, I worked as a teacher for summer school, a couple of specific 1 year contracts at a few clinics, and another summer at a facility specifically to clean up their medication administration debacle. But if you just see the dates of those things, it looks like I kept leaving jobs after a few months or a year. That’s what I’m trying to mitigate.
I used to be a contractor (in the computer industry) and here’s what I do: I put that between X and Y I was a contractor and worked for companies A, B, and C. Note where relevant that your contract was renewed.
I don’t see why short duration contract work is see as some sort of bugaboo. In the IT industry it’s just the way it goes. If I saw an IT resume where someone just held one position for several years, then I’d think they might not be up to speed on the latest skills or applications.
Dang, I forgot my answer. I worked for a nuclear power plant engineering firm for several years, here I worked at many different plants at many different positions. I listed the company I worked for, then bulletized each power plant I worked at and what I did.
It depends on whether you are applying for another position that involves wrangling monkeys, eating their food, and cleaning up their poo.