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How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?
3

How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

(OP)
I'm in a bind because no one wants to hire me because my work history includes a bunch of contract jobs. Recruiters seem to love my skills and experience but the employers are another story.

I've got a resume where I actually dropped off four contract jobs of six months or less and rounded the rest of the dates to the year. This eliminated gaps between jobs and shortened the resume.

But employers inevitably require you to complete an application with a Work History section needing Mo/Yr of employment. When I complete the application I normally show ALL the contract jobs to eliminate gaps (they never allow you to just write "See Resume" in the Work History section). Then I've got the problem that the application doesn't match the resume and the employer then suspects I was trying to "pull a fast one."

I got into contract jobs reluctantly when I was laid off a few times from direct positions; they were the first jobs available at the time and a man has got to take the first thing that comes along unless he's got a spouse that can cover all expenses with her income alone.

TIA for any advice on how to handle this.



Tunalover

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

When I was in a position to hire people, a history of contract jobs wouldn't have dissuaded me from hiring someone. It may have caused me to ask why s/he had so many, but their skillset is what I'd look at first. Perhaps you should address your contract positions in your cover letter, with a short explanation as to why there have been so many positions. This may help the hiring manager to get past them and see you for your potential as a permanent employee.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWE
My Blog

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

Or change your resume to reflect one position in which you have been "...self-employed doing contract work for various clients; projects among which include:...". Might make it a bit more difficult for evaluators to discretize your work history without at least a phone interview or personal interview for clarification. Then at least you get the interview, occasionally anyway.

Personally, I think filling work gaps with contract work whenever you could is a good thing; certainly better than the alternative. I wouldn't drop a thing out of your resume unless you need to do so.

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

Seems odd to me that "chock full of contract jobs" would be a problem. "Sparsely" sprinkled with contract jobs and huge gaps in employment would seem to be a problem. The former says that you are sufficiently agile and in high demand, and that you are a go-getter that can land jobs quickly and often, as contrasted with the latter, where you might just be a lump on a log, passively waiting for jobs to find you.

As usual, you need to make lemonade, and you need to view and sell your contract history as a positive and not as a negative. Seems to me that you should showcase your history of finding and keeping contract jobs with satisfied customers who are also willing to rehire you for other contract jobs to show that you have self-initiative and can-do attitude, etc., blah, blah, blah. On time delivery, customer satisfaction, etc. are all POSITIVES.

TTFN
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Need help writing a question or understanding a reply? forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers

Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

(OP)
IRStuff,
I've been doing consulting work privately but the clients have been far and few between. I really haven't built much of a network over the years but I do have a decent string of satisfied customers. The fact remains that I haven't had steady work since May 2013! The feedback I've received from employers is that my work history is too long, filled with contract positions, includes what looks like job hopping early in my career, and, yes, has some gaps lasting more than a few months due to layoffs or contracts coming to an end with nowhere to go. It all adds up to poor marketability!

Tunalover

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

Maybe keep slugging away at contracts until one turns into direct work?

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

I see no reason why placing "Contract" in parentheses before or after the dates for each (or some other similar tactic, such as Snorgy's cover letter suggestion) would not allay the fears of any (sane/reasonable) hiring agent.

Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

If it's true, just say you're tired of contract work and want to be in the same place for at least a few years. Keeping people around is usually a top concern, right behind having the skills to do the job, and fitting in with the culture.

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

I think you may need to take some more risks in your interviews (since they don't pan out anyway). Have a frank discussion about the realities of the job market and what it takes to hustle for a living.

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

I think there is a tendancy nowadays for recruiter to look for the weak spot in a resume instead of the strengths. Probably it has always been the case but I beleive it is becoming more accute in this current economy. I dont know if it is due to some madness or simply because it is hard to find a recruiter who really thinks differently and by his own, i.e. look for the best interest of his company ; In fact they have an attitude made of stereotype which at the end leads to a culture of scarcity attitude.
The bad news here is that this is a given and there is no point complaining about it: you need to workaround it and move on.

So I think you need to pick up a contracting job and work hard through this one to excel until you revert it to a direct job;
In other words the quantum jump you build it through the contract job itself and NOT rely too much on doing it via massive interviewing;

Anyhow this is just my perspective;



"If you want to acquire a knowledge or skill, read a book and practice the skill".

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

(OP)
Each contract position has a job title of "Contract Engineer" and in the Duties/Responsibilities section I write something along the lines of "Assigned to ACME Co., Timbuktu, HI" so it's clear with each position that it is indeed a contract position and also indicates where I worked.

Tunalover

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

(OP)
I think every technical employee has the hurdle of HR who screen resumes without knowing how to read between the lines and reading everything in black and white. For example, anybody who does "design" inevitably does some kind of "analysis" even if only a tolerance stack. If your resume doesn't have the word "analysis" but has "design" all over it, the HR robots will round file your resume if told to look for the word "analysis".

Tunalover

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

Easy, If the employer is soo dmded concerned a person will leave his company quickly after starting ask
why that is so.

Companies preoccupied with job hopping with regard to experienced professionals are admitting something seriously sucks about
working there.

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

Quote (tunalover)

Recruiters seem to love my skills and experience

Reformat your resume to a skills and experience based format rather than a chronological work history format.

Quote:

The feedback I've received from employers is that my work history is too long, filled with contract positions, includes what looks like job hopping

How do you reply when you get this feedback?

How about: "Why is it a problem that I have a long work history? That history has given me this experience that is directly relevant to the job I want to do for you now. I believe my skills and experience match your need. Please explain to me what skill I am lacking."

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

The problem Tunalover is hitting, is the employment form which asks you to list all of your jobs in chronological order.
Sometime you can get around that by attaching your resume to the form and putting " See attached Resume", at other times you will hit the Nazi type Hr., person who insists you fill out the entire form.
I worked as a Job shopper for about 10 years, however I always worked through the same agency, so when I ran into one of those idiots who wanted a string of dates, I would just put the agency's name and address down.
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

(OP)
@MintJulep-
Remember I'm usually dealing mostly with HR automatons who screen people out so I never get a chance to respond to their concerns. When I DO get to respond my response to them is along the lines of "it is what it is and I can't change it; you can focus on what I can bring to the table or you can focus on my job history." at which time the conversation shortly comes to an end. I even went into one 2nd interview where the VP made me go through every job from beginning to end to describe the duties of each job (going back 28yrs!) and explain why I left it. Since I had some early job hopping he was not satisfied with my reasons (i.e. one contract I left because it had a 1.25hr commute each way in heavy bumper-to-bumper traffic. I left to get an easier commute. He didn't like that reason.) I didn't get an offer.

At each interview and on each cover letter I state that I'm committed to stay until retirement and that I'm no longer interested in contract work. But it doesn't help. I've applied to more than 275 employers online since I started looking. I did get some interviews but inevitably found myself defending my work history.

Also, a functional resume was not recommended by any of the many resume experts I consulted.

BTW, contract jobs don't pay well anymore! The last contract I worked I made $7.50 an hour less than in my most recent direct position with full benefits.


Tunalover

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

Group the many contract jobs into manageable blocks of time:

2012-2014: Various Contract Engineering positions (ACME Engineering Services) involving Advanced Basket Weaving, Sheep Shearing, and Ditch Digging. Significant accomplishments included achievement of a 380-foot ditch in 12 hours, 4,000 sheep sheared, and being awarded the The Basket Award. Pertinent skills developed include high dexterity, calloused hands, and resistance to lanolin allergies.

...or something similar. Do this for as many blocks of time as necessary. Summarize into something readable. They might be rejecting you because they have to sort through 10,000 resumes and yours takes too much time. I doubt they want to know the extreme pedantic detail of every short-duration assignment. At least I wouldn't. I'd be more interested in knowing what skills you can bring to my party.

TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering
www.bluetechnik.com

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

(OP)
@tygerdawg-
Your suggestion about grouping the contract positions together might work but the first thing people want to see are start and stop dates so they can look for gaps. I tried showing time periods in just years but, again, people want to see Mo/Yr anyway when you fill out their job application. I have a summary at the beginning and a skills section at the end and each describe what I bring to the table (summary is kind of general, skills section is detailed).

Tunalover

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

(OP)
@IRStuff-
Here's some verbiage from my general cover letter, just to show you that I am trying to sell what these jobs have given me (and that's a potent set of skills and versatility that I can take anywhere):

"The contract positions I've held have allowed me the breadth and versatility of a diverse career and have taught me to easily adapt to new settings. At this stage in my life, however, the time has come to settle in with my next employer until retirement in 15-20yrs.

I’m excited to expand my search outside of the Timbuktu area for the right opportunity. I think you will agree, that my experience is broad yet in-depth and I have earned a skill set that will prove very useful for this position."


Tunalover

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

This may be off the mark, so - there, But....
I read "application" and "HR automaton" and you have all my sympathy.
How about an 'end around' getting your qualifications in front of the person who needs the work done and not the person who needs little boxes checked. How? LinkedIn did good things for me. I am not suggesting abandonment of your procedure, but just perhaps an additional alternative direction. Best of Success!

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

Functional resumes are a Red Flag to any HR automaton, whether carbon or silicon based. Don't bother.

Don't group short jobs into one. Put in month and date and some detail for every damn one.

DO make it clear that you worked for the entire agreed duration of the contract, completed all assigned tasks on time and in a satisfactory manner, and stuff like that.

If you didn't complete the contract, for whatever reason, say so, and explain.

If you were fired for cause, say so, and explain.

By 'explain', I mean make it clear what actually happened, >without defaming anyone<. That last is difficult, and is sometimes best done with a little sly humor. You want the reader to think, "Yeah, I had a job like that once, and I'm sure glad it's over."

Speaking of explaining, making my reason for leaving every job perfectly clear greatly improved the response rate.

Speaking of response rate, keep a spreadsheet with the contact info of every company you apply to, including which resume you sent. Yes, you may need a couple of different resumes, emphasizing one or another skillset.

... and yeah, you will probably have to send out enough resumes that you will be able to measure the response rate with statistical significance.

On the bright side, keeping track of the response rate by resume version allows you fine tune the resumes. Retain whatever changes helped, undo whatever changes didn't help.

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

Sorry, TL, seems like a lot of motherhood and apple pie. Specifics on how you solved other peoples' problems, plus how your work experience and skills can solve THEIR problems. This is not about you, but about them and their problems.

TTFN
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Need help writing a question or understanding a reply? forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers

Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

MikeHalloran:

I was curious to know the reasons that functional resumes are red flags to HR people.

Regarding resume services: my experience is that they don't have a clue about engineering work. They all want accomplishments rather than tasks. As a design engineer the accomplishment is completing the assigned tasks accurately and on time. And certainly as a member of a design "team" one didn't achieve an accomplishment by oneself. Sorry, just venting!

I had one service write a sentence that was incomprehensible and combined a sentence fragment and run on sentence all in one string of incoherent words. I ended their service right then and there and have avoided a non engineering specialist to review my resume ever since.

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

Ghartmann

Mainly because hiring managers are heavily hung up with the psychological aspects of the candidate, particularly the HR goons.

They believe job history can show them things about how you get along with people and maintain loyalty to companies.

It is a shortcut to doing the actual work of contacting the person and checking their fit directly for the position.

My personal pet peeve with the HR people is focusing so closely on particular 'trivial' aspects of the job. Like asking do you have
experience with German made voltage meters. To them it's a mysterious thing and you might ask in return have you ever used a Russian
made toaster??



RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

2
The functional resume specifically occludes periods of unemployment in your work history. HR weenies seem to be trained to filter out anyone who has been out of work for more than two weeks, lifetime total.

They also expect someone who has been working for five years to have had only one job, but also to have gained substantial experience in at least four different specialties, and to work for a clerk's wage.

One time I submitted a functional resume that must have had a few of the right buzzwords. An HR weenie spent two hours grilling me for dates, and did me the huge favor of producing a chronological resume on my behalf. The actual content was mangled into gobbledygook. Said HR weenie refused my offer to send in a chron resume of my own; the transmogrified monstrosity went to the Hiring Manager, who of course never contacted me.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

Why are they so concerned with unemployed periods. What does that really say about someone.

I bet said HR nitwit has had some gaps.

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

Were all of the positions with different clients? I have quite a few contract positions on my resume, but several were for extended periods or for multiple periods with the same client(s). When asked in an interviews about the seeming job hopping, I point out the multiple and extended positions. It helps that there were one or two direct positions earlier in my career that lasted more than 4-5 years.

"Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively."
-Dalai Lama XIV

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

I have seen quite a few profiles on LinkedIn with a long list of contract assignments especially for commissioning jobs.

I am usually impressed by these profiles (but then I am not HR)

I have used a functional resume because of a long career with one company. It has landed me my last 3 jobs and I have a few gaps also. It has also resulted in 2 - 3 recent telephone interviews.

The more I think about this I like Snorgy's idea of saying you were self employed and had the following clients/projects.

I wouldn't go out of may way to point out the contract aspects in a cover letter, but that is MHO. Its like being on the court testifying bench, don't disclose any unnecessary information.

If I were the OP I would try to connect on LinkedIn with every previous "manager" or colleague at the actual employer you were contracted to. Say something like: "Remember me? I helped design the spaceship to Neptune rocket propellant system for you. I am looking to return to similar challenging opportunities and wanted to know if you were aware of any relevant employment opportunities."

You will be surprised how helpful your engineering contacts will be. Most of us have a "red flag" somewhere. Our capabilities just need to outshine the red flags.

One last thing. At a recent networking meeting, the speaker (a recruiter) stated emphatically that advice concerning any resume or cover letter is only THEIR OPINION. He further emphasized taking ownership of ones own resume and job search.

Good luck to you

RE: How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs?

Quote (Sawyer Brown)

Some girls don't like guys like me, but some girls do!

True for any job search. All resumes and all employers are unique. Just need to chip away until something works.

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