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Should I Put Small Contract Jobs on Resume?

Started by AndreTheGiant Jun 2, 2009 at 8:27 AM 6 replies 4.2k views

Original Post

Jun 2, 2009 at 8:27 AM

I know there have been hundreds of resume threads but here's one more. A few months ago I was laid off from my full time job where I had worked for 4 years. Since then, Ive had several small contract jobs, some of them completed, some of them ongoing, some of them paid, some of them volunteer. Ive been introduced to a lot of technologies and languages that I havnt used in previous jobs, so I want to make sure to get all of this on my resume. My question is how to capture it. Is it silly to put a 3 week contract job on a resume? Let alone putting more than one of the contract jobs. And let alone the volunteer one. But like I said its new stuff so I want to make sure to get it on there. But does it deserve as much space as my 4 year job? The problem is I dont know how I can really use less space than that... And on top of that my resume is already 2 pages packed, with margins and fonts stretched to the limit to maximize space. Maybe I should put all my contract work under one single heading "Various Contract" or something? Im not sure. Ive seen a lot of sample resumes but I dont think Ive ever seen an example of what I'm looking for. Has anyone here got full time and contract work combined on a resume? How did you do it? Thanks!

zer0wolf

Jun 2, 2009 at 9:33 AM

I would just put a heading of "Contractor" and add bullets on some of the sorts of things you did contract work for.

AndreTheGiant

Jun 2, 2009 at 10:19 AM

Thanks, thats not a terrible idea.
You dont think I need to put employers?

zer0wolf

Jun 2, 2009 at 11:19 AM

If you are having trouble filling out your resume then go for it. Otherwise listing out x number of companies you worked for in x number of months isn't something I would see as being a particularly flattering thing.

AndreTheGiant

Jun 2, 2009 at 11:23 AM

Haha I see your point.
Although, its not like I'm getting fired from jobs left and right. It will be clear that they are short term contracts. If anything it will say that I have a lot of different experience in a lot of different environments, teams and bosses, and a lot of different technologies.
But yeah I guess it all comes down to how much space I have.
Thanks again.

More comments still welcome please!

blueEbola

Jun 3, 2009 at 9:30 PM

By all means yes. Just make it abundantly clear that it was contract work. The contract work I did in previous years is what got me the permanent job I have today. I listed one year long contract position, a 6 month contract position, and a smaller 2.5 month contract position on my resume.

I'd stick to putting the longer contracts on there, though. 3 weeks might be a wee bit too short.

programmermattc

Jun 4, 2009 at 8:31 AM

Just don't put things that are blatantly dumb. :p

My friend just made his resume (he's going to be in his 6th year of college), and he put "I like to play video games" on it (for non-game dev companies). It may be true, but it's not resume-material.

Monder

Jun 4, 2009 at 1:29 PM

I'd list anything that was particularly impressive or long (e.g. 6 months or so) specifically. For everything else you can just state in general terms what kind of responsibilities you were given, technology you worked with etc. Also make sure it's very clear that you haven't been sitting around doing nothing since you left full time work.

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