I am preparing a resumé, for a teaching position.
I worked part time for Montgomery Wards for a couple of years. It was mainly over the holliday season, and I was a student at the time. I would usually not even mention it on a resumé, but this time I feel the need to put everything.
Montgomery Wards is now out of business. So should I put any contact information at all? I have no number for anyone there, and only the name of my supervisor. Should I just put the company name and my title? I am thinking I shouldn’t even bother with it, after all it doesn’t have much bearing on the position I am applying for. Yet, I also want to show that between semesters I got a temporary job, since what I am applying for is fairly competitive, and every bit helps. And having an accurate and honest resumé is a must, so those bits must be things I can vouch for.
Has anyone else had experiences where you included a defunct business on your resumé? Is there some sort of protocol? I am wondering if they will even be able to call and follow up on it, or whether they will even know I’ve worked there or not.
I have always been unsure of this myself. I worked for two businesses in a row that went out of business. The first, the owners went bankrupt and I have no idea where they are. The second, the owner just didn’t think he was making a profit fast enough (had it opened for 6 months) and sold it. I don’t know what happened to him either.
But I always put them down because they were management/director positions and they look good.
I have one now-defunct company on my resume. It reads just like any other entry. But on the employment application under “address” I write “now out of business” (but I’ll fill in the City and State). I have never looked at it as a big deal. Companies go out of business every day.
a) A company that went out of business by no fault of your own is a wonderful thing to put on the resume. No bad references there. But more importantly,
b) This ‘completeness’ idea isn’t a great one (in my opinion). Your resume doesn’t exist to give an accounting of your time for the last 10 years. It exists to sell a potential employer to hire you. In my opinion, listing MW on a resume for a teaching position is a distraction. It’ll dilute your core message, namely that you are an excellent teacher.
The truth may be that they went under because they paid me $5.15 an hour to tell fat guys; “That vest would look even better with our discounted Lee jeans”.
I mainly wanted to put it on my resume to show that I worked hollidays instead of taking time off. But I don’t know if they will care. Who knows…
Singing (to the tune of Young At Heart (?)):
Corps. can fall through
It could happen to you
It’s a pain in the ass!
No, I have nothing to add, except to say that the only time I might be worried about putting a position at a failed company on my resumé is if the position was owner and I was applying for upper managment.
(Gratuitous Stairway Moment)
And it makes them wonder…
(/GSM)
I was under the impression that you weren’t supposed to put contact info on your resume in the first place. You put “references available upon request” and brought a sheet of references with you if you actually got an interview.
On my resume, I have a “Relevant Employment” section. If my prior work is not relevant to the position under consideration, I omit it. If your out of business company is relevant, you should include it with the city and state. If they send you a form requiring work history, addresses, former supervisors, etc., then include Ward’s and whatever info. you have. If a job requires a security clearance, sometimes an investigator can locate former supervisors and coworkers with just their names. Employment records are supposed to be kept somewhere for a period of time for tax purposes. So you might not know where they are, but again, sometimes they can be located.
Spend that space detailing your “professional experience”-anything and everything you’ve done around kids and/or that included teaching in your education program (observations, practicums, tutoring programs). They honestly aren’t gonna care if you worked over Xmas at all–I mean seriously, is a person who came from a more affluent background and so who was able to spend two weeks at Xmas goofing off at home going to be any worse of a teacher? It won’t even matter.
However, you can bring it up in an interview: "All through college I worked holidays at Montgomery Wards, and I was amazed at how much customer servie taught me about teaching–I had to learn how answer the strangest questions quickly and effectively . . " or something like that.
First of all as pointed out you shoud not put contact info on a resume.
Second the people that worked for Wards didn’t disapear. If you know where any of supervisors landed you should contact them and get their permission to give out their phone numbers.
As a warning to others when this happens the best thing to do is have an employer write you a letter of recommendation before you leave.
In fact in any company where you part without another job ask for a letter. Most companies (unless you are leg go disiplinary reasons) won’t refuse. If they do refuse or site they don’t give out letters have them write that down. Should you need legal remedies against the company it comes in handy.
With the economy on the slide now is the best time to prepare a defense. Companies are actively looking for ways to let you go without paying unemployment.
It’s been my experience (not that my experience is universal) that mot companies will refuse, regardless of the reason you and it parted company. There have been a number of high-profile legal cases (most of which that I read about settled without going to court so no real cite on it, but one involved Diana Ross) where former employees sued over a bad reference. My feeling is that many/most companies will go no further than to verify dates of employment for fear of opening themselves to liability.
Employment records have to be somewhere. Even though Montgomery Ward is bankrupt, it must still have some sort of corporate offices somewhere. You’re legally entitled to copies of the contents of your employment file. You should be able to contact the company and request a copy, which would allow you to show prospective employers copies of your undoubtedly glowing employee evaluations.
I worked for several companys that either went under, or had lay offs. I had a CIO of a company tell me that He couldnt hire me, because I was cursed…Hed be out of business in a month. (he gave me the job anyway)
You don’t need to put the address of the company on your resume. Just leave it at city and state.
As others have said, don’t put any references on your resume.
Don’t write “References Upon Request” or any silly nonsense like that on your resume. It’s self-evident that that you’ll provide references on request, that is, if you want the job. Bring your references with you to an interview.
I’ve got a lot of military stuff from the old days on my resume. There’s no way to use an address and supervisor names and such, due to the fluid nature of the military.
Many employers actually do conduct background checks once they seriously consider you. They’ll check out your resume information if they deem it important.
