I am in the unenviable position of looking for work. I am currently revamping my resume and have a few questions for the Teeming Millions.
(If it matters, my positions have all been somewhat clerical in nature.)
I have had a number of positions which were short-term, but for the same employer (mainly government jobs). How should I address these on my resume? I would like to make it clear that I CHOSE to switch jobs for either more hours, more job security, or more experience. I don’t want it to look like I was etting canned from one and moving on to another.
I have been in the workforce since I was 18, but have only had “grown-up” jobs since I was 23. I’m now 36. How far back should my resume go? Since I was 23 I’ve worked for 5 different companies (in 9 different positions).
Should I include my references on my resume? If the consensus is “no”, should I put a comment like “References available upon request” at the bottom of the last page or just assume that the employer will ask for references at an interview?
If you list the employer as a major heading, then the positions as sub-headings it will look perfectly acceptable. It shows you had stability with an employer, but a variety of roles over time. Both good things.
Just list the “grown-up” jobs. Listing the “Burger Flipper” or “Jr. Stock Clerk at the Dollar Store” when you have long ago moved on from that type of job makes it look like you don’t understand how this whole job search thing works. Everyone pertty much assumes we all had some sort of McJobs in our mis-spent youth.
Use “References available upon request”. If they ask for them at the interview, have the information on a separate sheet to hand over to them. In my experience, they will check references only when they are ready to make an offer (why waste everyone’s time, yah?).
I’m not sure what your question is about how to address these positions. You should list each one separately as though it was a new job, even though it was with the same employer. I don’t see why a potential interviewer would look at continuous employment with the same employer in varying positions as a bad thing necessarily, unless your level of responsibility or the difficulty of the job decreased. So long as you were moving forward or up, it shouldn’t affect you negatively.
I think the general rule of thumb I’ve heard is to go back 10 years or 5 positions. In your case, I’d go ahead and list everything you can fit onto one page.
Unless they specifically ask for references, don’t include them. In your cover letter, you should indicate that you can provide references if requested. Make sure you have them available though, so you don’t have to scramble to produce them if asked.
One thing I would add is that your resume generally ends up in a database where a recruiter will search by “key word” for the right candidate. I recommend that you think of someone using google to find someone with your skills for the job you really want. Now, do you have those words in your resume? If not, find a way to get them in there.
There’s the rub - I can’t fit everything onto one page. I am currently on two pages and can’t figure out how to narrow it down any further.
I am using a targeted format (where I outline my skills and experience, and then my work history below).
I have had SO many similar jobs that I found when I was doing a traditional chronological resume, it was incredibly repetitive to list the job and then the skills involved.
Oh gosh, that is too hightech for our little town! I am using this resume to apply for jobs that are listed in the paper or that I hear about through friends.
This is all probably going to be relatively subjective, but having sent out many, many resumes and revised my own countless times I’ve had opportunity to speak to people about it and ultimately get it relatively professional and decent-looking.
I generally do not put such information on my resume. I just put brief information about the company (name, address, phone, immediate supervisor(s)), a start/end date of employment, a bulleted list of my responsibilities and where relevant, any company improvements or projects I participated in or initiated. Questions about reasons for leaving tend to clutter things, and they can be fielded at the interview anyway, where you can choose to be more detailed than the scope of your resume will allow.
I put as many as will comfortably fit on two single-sided or one double-sided page. Any more than that and you’re making your resume too large.
I always do the “available on request” line. I’ve been asked a few times and always bring a references sheet with me to interviews, along with a copy of my resume.
Here’s my general approach to resumes:
A resume is really just a brochure selling a product: You. Like any brochure with any chance of hooking you in, it needs to provide the most essential and salient information up front so as to catch enough of your potential employer’s interest to make him want to read further. To that end I always put my personal information at the top, then an “impact” pargraph immediately below, which is really just some boilerplate cliff notes about who I am, what I can do, and how I can benefit the company in doing it. Then I go on with my work history and terminate it with the “references available on request” line.
I keep it at two pages and usually print it double-sided. I also print a two-page single-sided version for faxing.
I bring both a references sheet containig both personal and work references, and a double-sided copy of my resume with me to the interview. This came in quite handy with the job I currently have: My fax to them didn’t go through, and they only ended up getting my cover page (which really just consisted of a more personalized, verbose version of the “impact paragraph” mentioned above) plus about 5/8ths of the first page of my resume. This told me two things. First, it’s a good thing I had a full copy of my resume with me. And second – hey, at least the first 5/8ths of my resume was enough to get an interview!
This is key, because it involves a real ass kissing move. After the first interview, send them a followup fax addressed to the one who interviewed you basically saying that you appreciated the time they took to give you an interview, that you think you shared some important common goals, and that you’re looking forward to meeting with them to discuss the position further. This move turned “We’ll contact you in about a week after we’ve finished the interview process” into a phone call for a second interview the next business day.
A lot of what I was going to suggest has already been covered by others, so my one piece of advice is to write a kick-ass cover letter.
As far as making it clear that you chose to change jobs, I think this place to do it. I am a sucker for a well-written cover letter, and by well-written I mean not only free of errors but demonstrating that you’re applying for a particular position (none of this “Dear Employer” crap) and have given some thought to how you fit the job description. That’s your opportunity to talk about how you sought to develop new skills or seek more responsibility.
At a seminar at the Employment Commission in my state, the instructor said to not use the “references available…” because 1. it took up valuable room on your resume, and 2. it was assumed that, if you were requested, that you would be more than happy to provide references.
Didn’t help me, tho, so YMMV.
I work in HR and one of my job functions is recruiting.
In my experience, cover letters are rarely read with full attention. I might glance at a cover letter if I’m looking for salary requirements, etc but when you are wading through dozens of resumes a week for each position, we spend most of our time looking for key words on the actual resume itself. I might spend 1-2 minutes at most looking at each person’s resume.
Group all the jobs at the same company together, or use the same company name heading for each. In other words, emphasize that they were all at the same company – even if it means you list them under one heading and note that you progressed through multiple positions at that company. Don’t describe why you left or changed jobs on your resume; that’s for the interview.
List any positions that are relevant to the job you are trying to get. Otherwise, list only the “grown up” jobs. If you had any major gaps, you might want a line of explanation of what you were doing then.
No references on your resume. You don’t even need to mention it on the resume, you could mention it in the cover letter. It’s going to be assumed that you’ll be providing references. So, when you get an interview, make sure that you take their contact information along so you can fill out the forms that HR will be wanting completed.
I give the most detail either about my last position or the one most similar to what I’m sending the resume for. For 1 what I’d do and please notice that I’m not a HR person, I’d list it as something like “Employer, period, several positions” and then a second paragraph (next level in the bulleted list) explaining a bit; don’t take up more than 3 lines with the explanatory paragraph.
In Spain, people want your whole work history (more or less abbreviated) even if you’re 63. I once saw a cv for a consultant who detailed his summer jobs at Telepizza and really, that was pathetic! 7 paragraphs dedicated to summer pizza delivery jobs. He should just have dumped them all into a line saying something like “Several summer jobs starting in high school” - it would have shown that he’d been working since he was old enough to, but once you’ve got a BS and an MBA who gives a fig that you used to smell of Four Cheeses. In other countries it’s more normal to go back the last 10 years/5 jobs, but you may want to have one-liners for others that you think will be positive to list.
No references, put the “references available upon request” line either in the resume or the cover letter.
Another thing: when I’m job hunting, I have two or three different resumes; I keep in my computer a copy of every letter+resume I’ve sent, naming the files by where I got the information and which post it was for plus a position code if it had one in the ad (don’t need the date, since Windows will list it under Details). Of course when I get a call from someone to whom I wrote several months before, and who may even not have posted their company’s name in the ad, I won’t usually remember what the heck the post was or who this people are - but so long as they can kindly be bothered with giving me media and approximate time of posting, or the code for the position, I can find it.
Since unemployment time is “course time” for me, my resume can change pretty quickly as new courses get added to the bottom, so I need this tracking.
While a Chemist would see quite fast that someone that says “Chroma, inc. MS” is saying he’s done HPLC, LC, GC and GC/MS, a person whose background is in Human resources wouldn’t understand a thing - so if the HR person is looking for “GC” and it’s not listed, off you go.
Since your background is clerical this may not be so big of a problem, but for us techies it can be a real killer.